OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS

CALIFORNIA: CHRONICLES ALONG THE COAST

A RED PENGUIN COLLECTION ANTHOLOGY

Submission Deadline: September 15, 2026

Paddle out.

The Red Penguin Collection is seeking poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, memoir, hybrid work, and experimental writing inspired by California: its coastlines, cities, deserts, forests, histories, cultures, contradictions, and constantly shifting dreams.

Send us work that moves through surf towns, redwood trails, wildfire country, desert highways, crowded freeways, studio lots, farm fields, tech campuses, beach motels, or the quiet places tourists never see.

We’re interested in pieces about:

• A final wave before a storm
• A road trip unraveling along the coast
• A family displaced by fire, rent, or reinvention
• A dreamer chasing Hollywood, Silicon Valley, or something less easy to name
• A beach town after the crowds leave
• A desert encounter that may be mystical, strange, or heat-induced
• A poem built from tide charts, freeway signs, casting calls, or weather warnings
• A personal essay about arriving, leaving, returning, or realizing the California dream was never what it promised

Your work may be glamorous or gritty, funny or furious, nostalgic or forward-looking, realistic or surreal.

California should be more than a scenic backdrop. Let its weather, geography, culture, ambition, inequality, beauty, and mythology shape the people and stories on the page.

As with every Red Penguin Collection anthology, we welcome emerging and established writers alike. We are looking for distinct voices, specific perspectives, creative risks, and work that feels lived-in rather than postcard-perfect.

Give us the California beneath the image.

The city before sunrise.
The beach after everyone leaves.
The smoke over the hills.
The long drive home.
The wave before it breaks.

Submission Deadline: September 15, 2026

The set is rolling in.

Catch yours.

Click here to submit!