Submission call:
The Gren-Wode
This is a submission call for an anthology of stories based in the world and legends of Robin Hood. The stories do not have to feature Robin Hood, but should be firmly set within the world and time period of the legend, using any existing characters you like, or adding your own.
If you are only loosely aware of the Rob;position:relativkin Hood legends: no worries! The Robin Hood Wikipedia article has a lot of great information that can get you going. You don't have to be a historian, British cultural expert, or Robin Hood super-fan to participate. If you have an inclination to give a story or poem a whirl, we would love to hear from you!
Submissions are open from March 1st, 2026–September 30th, 2026. We intend to accept works along the way, and not wait until the end to send responses to authors. The final result will be published as an ebook in multiple formats (epub, kepub, azw3, and pdf) and distributed to various online retailers. There will be no charge for this ebook, either through us or retail partners.
At a Glance
Submissions for fiction (short story/novelette), poetry, and illustration are currently open.
We accept simultaneous submissions, and are open to translations into english of works currently in the public domain. If you are unsure about the copyright status of a given work and want to work on a translation, please reach out and we can help determine its copyright status.
We will not accept any work created—whole or in part—by AI, LLMs, or other generative software systems. Spell check is alright, as is assistive technology as needed for disability accomodation; reach out with any questions about this policy.
Please wait until we have responded to your submission before submitting another for a given submission type: feel free to send separate poetry and fiction submissions at the same time.
Stories will likely fall into the following genres: adventure, action, romance, historical fiction, cozy, fantasy; but if you can find a take on the setting that explores other territory, we are open to reading it so long as it fits the submission guidelines for your submission type below.
Fiction Submissions
This is the category of submission we expect to represent the bulk of both submissions and book content. We are largely treating this anthology as a shared world/setting. There are a number of “versions” of Robin Hood. In some, he is a nobleman. In others, he is a yeoman. In some, he is a supporter of King Richard; in others not so much. In most, if not all, he is a supporter of the peasantry. You need not include Robin Hood as a character in your work, so long as it is set in the general setting and area of Sherwood Forest, Nottingham(shire), or the various other locations in England that have a claim to the legend. In any case, we are absolutely open to you using any existing characters or writing your own. You may go against existing tales or include them as background. In short: so long as it feels vaguely like a traditional story from this set of legends, we would love to read it.
We are not interested in modern settings or reimagining this set of stories in wildly different settings from the traditional ones. There is nothing wrong with ideas of that sort, they just aren't what we are going for with this anthology.
We are interested in all kinds of stories: adventure, action, cozy, village and peasant stories, romance, or combinations of all of them. There is likely even space for a tale involving the crusades if someone feels like tackling that.
Retellings of traditional tales and new stories are both welcome. Take care in adapting stories, though, and make sure to use source material that is in the public domain. If you have any questions about that or need help verifying that a source is public domain: reach out and ask, we'd be happy to help.
This anthology is meant for adults. We may accept works that feel YA or middlegrade, but the general intention is for these to be stories for adults. As such: if you would like to include romance in your story (do it!) it can get steamy if you like, but maybe stop just shy of full-on erotica, as that is not really a goal of this anthology. While we are going for a traditional setting, we are happy to include more modern themes and concepts within that traditional time period and setting (for example, we would be very interested in gender-swapped/bent or queer tellings).
Stories from 2k–15k words are what we are looking for (so no flash, no novellas).
We are offering $50/story.
A note on magic and the Robin Hood setting: While this setting is not traditionally magical, there is room for fantasy writing within limits. I would not expect wizards shooting fireballs… but a soothsayer, fortune-teller, herbalist, hedge-witch, or other small magics could feel perfectly at home in this setting.
Poetry Submissions
We are accepting narrative poetry submissions for the anthology. Poets may submit up to three poems in a given submission, after that please wait until you hear back before sending more.
Any length is fine, so long as it tells a story that is on theme. We are not open to modern settings of the characters and want the traditional setting; aside from that all is mostly fair game: add new characters, use existing ones, base it on an existing (but public domain) story, write your own story, etc.
We are offering $10/poem
For more on themes, settings, etc. see the fiction section.
Illustration Submissions
We are not exactly taking illustration submissions. Instead, we are accepting portfolio submissions (a link is fine in this case) to see if we can find an artist to work on a few illustrations for the book as a whole.
We are looking for classic book illustration; black on white line drawing. Here are two examples (both from books intended for younger readers, but the style is more or less what we are going for, if not the subjectmatter): 1, 2.
We are offering $20/illustration, and are hoping to have a minimum of five illustrations for the book.
How to Submit
Please have your fiction or poetry in a .docx, .odt, .rtf, or .doc file. Illustration portfolio submissions should be a link in the e-mail body.
E-mail submissions to hearths-things-tories+legends@protonmail.com with the subject line Gren-Wode Submission: [Story Name] by [Author Name]. For example: Gren-Wode Submission: Robin and the Monk by Jane Doe. In the case of poetry, feel free to just put Poems as the story name in the subject line.
In the e-mail body, be sure to include:
- The submission type (fiction, poetry, illustration)
- A word count, for fiction, or a poem count, for poetry
- A short third person bio
Then attatch your file(s). We will not accept fiction or poetry pasted into the body of the e-mail, please put it in a file and attach it.
Please do not send/include a synopsis of the story or poem(s). We have found this to universally work against an author rather than for them.
What next?
Once we receive your submission:
- We e-mail you a form letter confirming our receipt of your submission
- We log your submission on a spreadsheet for reading
- When your turn comes up we read your work
- If we are considering the work in question we might hang on to it for a few weeks before making a final decision, if we intend to pass we will e-mail you at this time
- If we intend to publish the work we will e-mail you and check that you are still interested and send you the contract
- Once both parties sign the contract payment is sent
- Edit requests, usually spelling, grammar, and such, will be sent out at a later point
- If all has gone well we publish the anthology and everyone gets to enjoy your great work alongside the great work of others!