Can you feel it? The change in the air… the darkness as it creeps o’er the hills… things are getting positively, resolutely, undeniably SPOOKY out there. October is upon us; Halloween nears. Around these parts, the rise of Spooky Season means one particularly exciting thing: the return of Sprudge’s annual week of Halloween coffee fiction!
A horrifying and beloved annual tradition on Sprudge since 2016, the week before Halloween this very website publishes original, startling fiction writing with a spooky Halloween theme, proudly presented in partnership with Pacific Foods Barista Series. Today we’re opening up the pitching process, looking for writers who want to publish their own terrifying coffee horror fiction on Sprudge.
Submit your pitch by using the submission form below. This is a paid opportunity! A complete archive of past Sprudge Halloween fiction is available here. Here are some examples of some of our very favorite past spooky coffee fiction stories from the cursed doomscape of memory:
Just A Barista by Niki Tolch (Halloween Week 2020)
The Siren & The Worm by Lizzie Derksen (Halloween Week 2016)
The Panel by Michelle Johnson (Halloween Week 2018)
The Trade Secret by Levi Rogers (Halloween Week 2020)
Truly we are shrieking. Submissions are now open to pitch your very own original Halloween fiction to Sprudge, with entries accepted up until the stroke of midnight on Monday, October 11th. Stories will run the week before Halloween. No topic too terrifying, no specter too spooky. Pitches should be tangentially related to coffee but also express the terrible malaise and horror of the modern condition and/or the service industry, internet culture, and so forth. Feel free to veer frightfully into the realms of science fiction and fantasy as your twisted soul desires.
Send us your short pitch by filling out the form below. Please keep your pitches concise; a solid paragraph is what we’re looking for. Please do not pitch completed manuscripts or drafts. If you’d like to include an example of previous work or a link to your social media, but this is not required. First-time writers are very welcome. Pitch us!
Halloween Week on Sprudge is presented in partnership with Pacific Foods Barista Series.
