We are seeking short fiction for inclusion in Yesterday’s Gone: Real and imagined stories from the past, a Red Penguin Collection anthology.
Theme: Stories connected to the 1950s, 1960s, and/or 1970s
Genres accepted: Literary fiction, historical fiction, romance, mystery, coming-of-age, humor, drama, speculative fiction, and genre-blending work
Suggested length: 1,500–7,500 words
Tone: Personal, memorable, emotionally grounded, and era-inspired
Previously unpublished work preferred, though strong reprints may be considered if disclosed
Submissions should evoke the chosen time period with care and specificity while remaining focused on story, character, and emotional truth. Historical accuracy is encouraged, but the heart of the piece should be the people living through the moment.
Please send your story, a brief author bio, and any relevant publication history according to Red Penguin Collection submission instructions. Also, please write a two or three sentence insight into the where, when, and how this story came about/what in their past inspired it.
Come tell us what yesterday left behind.
Submission deadline November 1, 2026
The past is never really gone.
Yesterday’s Gone is seeking short story submissions inspired by the memories, mysteries, turning points, and private lives of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. We are looking for fiction that captures not only the look of the past, but the feeling of it: the song playing from the radio, the photograph tucked inside a drawer, the motel sign glowing at dusk, the letter that was never sent, the summer night someone has never quite forgotten.
This anthology will feature real and imagined stories from the past — stories rooted in memory, history, nostalgia, family lore, cultural change, and emotional truth. Submissions may be directly set in the ’50s, ’60s, or ’70s, or they may follow characters looking back on a moment from those decades that still shapes their lives today.
We welcome stories that are nostalgic, romantic, mysterious, humorous, heartbreaking, rebellious, unsettling, tender, or bittersweet. We are especially interested in work that goes beyond surface-level retro imagery and explores the people behind the familiar symbols of another time: the drive-ins, record shops, rotary phones, road trips, kitchen tables, neighborhood bars, protest signs, family cars, dance halls, and fading photographs.
Writers are encouraged to explore family, friendship, first love, lost love, childhood, aging, secrets, regret, reinvention, social change, small-town life, city life, music, identity, and remembrance. The past was never one simple story, and this anthology hopes to reflect a wide range of voices, experiences, communities, and perspectives.
Whether your story is drawn from lived experience, inherited memory, historical imagination, or something in between, we want work that feels personal, vivid, and alive.
Yesterday’s Gone is for the stories we carry, the moments we question, and all the things we never want to forget.