Ends on Sun, Nov 1, 2026 11:59 PM
OPEN TO HWA MEMBERS AT ALL LEVELS
Winter can be dark, lonely, and consuming. In some places, frost sets in, cloaking the land in ghostly white. Trees drop their leaves, branches and twigs extending like eerie, skeletal fingers and arms. Urban legends and wintertime ghost stories such as A Christmas Carol abound, along with terrifying holiday lore such as the demon Krampus, who punishes naughty children. Find your inspiration!
This series is open to current members of the HWA at any membership level. The HWA has a strict No AI policy. Please do not submit any work that was created with AI. That includes no AI on your photos, or video or audio.
Submission Deadline: November 1, 2026
Submit:
- A frightening poem about winter or any clearly winter-related topic. Your original horror or dark speculative fiction (dark fantasy, dystopic/apocalyptic science-fiction, etc) poem of 100 lines or fewer or prose poem of 300 words or less. The poem may be a new poem, or a reprint as long as you have reprint rights for it.
- A bio of 75 words or less. Your bio can include a link to your website and/or socials.
- An author photo
- (optional) A video or audio file of you reading the poem.
- Fun time! A writing prompt for our readers to use for their own poetry.
SUBMIT HERE TO SUBMITTABLE:
https://horrorwritersassociation.submittable.com/submit/8a6ca1e9-06c4-4cfc-ba0d-5621058c1272/speculative-poetry-month-chills-of-winter-poetry-blog-series
Meet Our Team
Sumiko Saulson is the BayCon/Westercon 2026 Poet Laureate, a Two-Time Bram Stoker Award® for Poetry for The Rat King (2022, Dooky Zines) and Melancholia (2024, Bludgeoned Girls Press). Four-Time Elgin Speculative Poetry Award nominee for these and Doodooality: Shots fired from Uranus (Dooky Zines), and novelist whose short stories, poetry and articles have appeared in over 50 publications, including Weird Tales, Locus Magazine, Strange Horizons, Nightmerica: Corruptions of an American Dream, and This Way Lies Madness. Winner of the Afrosurrealist Writers Award. Their latest novel, Somnalia: The Metamorphoses of Flynn Keahi (sequel to Happiness and Other Diseases) is available on Mocha Memoirs Press.
Stacie Herrington writes poetry, fiction, film reviews, and songs. She is the author of Dead Husband Energy: A Comedy-Horror Novelette, and the film columnist at Last Girls’ Club. Other recent work appears in the Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase XI and XII, the StokerCon 2025 Souvenir Anthology, and The Writing on the Wall: a Horror Tribute to Iron Maiden (Wicked Ouija Press). Stacie co-hosts a horror movie discussion show The Podcast Compels You, In her free time, she enjoys banjo strumming, theater buffing, and polyglotting.
Devin M. Anderson is a Southern California boy at heart, born and raised. Now he haunts a tiny little town nestled between the cornfields and sporadic forests of southern Illinois. An author, poet, devoted husband, and stay-at-home dad to two beautifully brilliant autistic kiddos, he travels the road to healing from Borderline Personality Disorder and CPTSD. His work has previously been featured in the anthologies: Hotel Macabre vol.1, Sleeve of Hearts, Piece by Piece: An Anti-Valentine’s Day Collection, Tales From The Lark Side, Horror En America And Beyond, The Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase XIII, and The Horror Zine Magazine’s Spring 2025 & Spring 2026 issues. As well as appearances in Morsus Vitae and Alien Buddha Zine. Member of the HWA & SFPA.