The Capitol Horror Presents

Home Bodies: An Anthology of Domestic Horror

The most terrifying places are the ones we call home.

The Capitol Horror is accepting submissions for our debut standalone anthology, a collection devoted entirely to domestic horror.
We are looking for fiction that finds the monster in the mundane, the dread at
the dinner table, the rot in the foundation. The house that should protect us.
The routines that should comfort us. We want the stories that make those promises feel like lies.

We are not interested in hauntings that announce themselves. We want the horror that has always been there, hiding in plain sight, wearing the face of something familiar.

What We're Looking For

We love fiction that is character-driven, voice-forward, and willing to take risks. Your work should feel inevitable in retrospect and
deeply unsettling in the moment. Domestic horror lives in specificity. Give us real rooms, real objects, real relationships corroding from the inside.

Strong fits include: psychological horror, folk horror with a domestic bent, body horror rooted in intimacy, the violence of caregiving, the terror of parenthood, oblivion and old age, marriages as haunted spaces,
and the horror of staying.

We are drawn to work that treats its characters as fully human even as it dismantles them. In other words, character and relationships first…horror second.

What We're Not Looking For

Straightforward home invasion. Jump scare structures on the page. Shock for its own sake. Evil children played purely for effect. Horror that uses domestic spaces as backdrop rather than subject. Misogyny dressed up as darkness. We want works that go deeper, that tickle our own memories of home and then turn the upside-down.

Submission Guidelines

Open to: Short fiction Maximum length: 6,000 words (no
minimum) Reading fee: $15. Simultaneous submissions: Permitted. Notify us
immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. Multiple submissions: Not permitted.
Previously published work: Not accepted. AI-generated content: Not accepted, in
whole or in part. Format: MSWord, Shunn Classic Manuscript Format Cover letter:
Required. Include a brief bio.

Response time: Please allow 30 days before querying.

Submit at the following link: SUBMIT

 Questions: submissions@capitalhorror.com

If we include your piece in this anthology, you will receive one free paperback copy of the book.

Capitol Horror publishes work that takes the genre seriously. We are based in Washington, DC, and we believe horror literature is doing some of the most important imaginative work being written today.