Call for submissions

On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Crime Fiction Anthology

Our world is changing dramatically before our eyes. Greenhouse gas emissions have increased average temperatures, wreaking havoc on ecosystems, economies, and people’s lives. In some parts of the world, neighborhoods are destroyed by fires or by water. In other parts of the world, livelihoods once dependent upon the land are no longer sustainable due to droughts and floods. Storms and heat waves are more dangerous. Resources have become more scarce. People are more anxious, depressed, and afraid. People already desperate are now more so. 

At the same time, some politicians, pundits, and corporate oligarchs continue to deny reality while others refuse to take necessary action to mitigate damage and adapt our societies for a new future. 

And those who did the least to cause this crisis will suffer the most from its consequences. 

Rock and a Hard Place Press publishes crime and dark fiction focused on desperate people forced to make difficult choices, which is why we believe it is fitting to publish an anthology of crime fiction about climate change, a new reality increasing desperation around the world. From March 1st to March 25 we will open submissions for short stories between 2,000 and 5,000 words for the tentatively titled On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Crime Fiction Anthology.

We want stories about the current reality or the very near future, as we believe there is enough urgency in the current moment. We are therefore not interested in speculative fiction for this anthology, or anything that takes place more than five years past our current time. Stories can be focused on people suffering the consequences of climate change or on people stalling positive change or making our current reality worse. We want stories about people forced to squat illegally because they’ve lost their homes, herders forced to trespass because their cattle have nowhere else to graze, but also about billionaires funding pseudo-scientific studies to undercut legitimate climate science. Give us the desperate, the decent, and the nefarious. Be creative. Give us something we don’t expect. Just keep climate change central to the story. Having a robbery committed during a heatwave is not enough.

Feel free to reach out with any questions via email to RockandaHardPlaceSubmissions@gmail.com.

Tentative publication: September 2025

Guest Editor: Curtis Ippolito