Open Call Submissions Gargantua We are seeking stories for an anthology to be titled Gargantua which will collect stories of massive engineering megastructures that reshape stellar systems. To be published in the spring of 2023 by the Air and Nothingness Press. All stories to be exactly 1000 words. Theme: Shellworlds, Alderson disks, Dyson spheres and swarms, O'Neill cylinders, Matrioshka brains, wormhole networks - these megastructures reshape stellar systems, are evidence of the engineering prowess of advanced civilizations, and are just darn cool concepts. While these ideas usually fall under Hard SF, we are looking for authors to provide stories in any genre they choose. Tell us the tales of advanced civilizations, personal stories of the people who live in these spaces, the mythology that is created as these projects are born, to the time they crumble to stellar dust. All stories are requested to be EXACTLY 1000 words in length. Authors may explore any genre with their stories and we encourage a wide variety of ideas and interpretations. Submission Dates Submissions are closed Reading/Review begins: February 1, 2023 Reading/Review ends: April 1, 2023 All authors will be contacted by: May 15, 2023 Download the complete OC submission PDF here. General Submission Information We like to seek out new authors and book ideas ourselves rather than be contacted directly because we are a small, self-funded press, and only publish 4-5 books a year. We usually offer open call submissions on anthologies we decide to do, or we contact authors directly if we have particular needs. We pay $0.08/word for the stories we publish. Most of our books are limited editions of between 100 and 125 copies and we prefer to print physical books over creating ebooks. The Air and Nothingness Press is interested only in publishing works created by the individual, creative efforts of human authors. We are not completely opposed to the use of AI as a tool to develop art or writing, rather we are opposed to the use of it in place of art or writing. If you "wrote" a story by supplying an AI with a prompt, we are not interested. Stories by authors who have employed any AI text-generation software, apps, services, or any other computer-assisted service or program in the writing of their submissions, including plot generators, human-machine "collaboration," titling, outlining, or any other form of computer driven influence on their creative process other than spelling and grammar checking will not be considered. All potential book slots are currently filled for 2023.