The theme for the Fall 2017 edition of Blood & Bourbon is a simple one: “Death.”

We are looking for interesting and original takes on the subject, hopefully from a lot of different angles. As always, we like stories that are a little gritty, a little raw, and offer an unpasteurized view of life. We’re open to creative non-fiction that explores the subject, as well as fiction, poetry or black and white photography. It could be satire, speculative fiction, horror or some angle we haven’t even thought of. Surprise us with your originality.

We probably feel more definitive about what we don’t want than what we do. We are not interested in excessive violence or gore, genre fiction about vampires or zombies, or anything that feels like it has been done many times before. “Gritty” or “raw” doesn’t mean that you should try to shock us with your content – shock us instead with your deft handling of interesting subject matter that makes us want to read more.

See the information listed under “Submissions” for our guidelines.