Call for Submissions

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LUNARPUNK: THE ANTHOLOGY

Edited by Justine Norton-Kertson
Publisher: Android Press

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The Basics

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• 10 cents per word + contributor copy

• Word Count: 1,500-10,000 words​

• Submissions Open: November 1, 2026

• Submissions Close: December 31, 2026

• Original, unpublished short stories only

• Simultaneous submissions allowed (please notify us if accepted elsewhere)

• Expected Publication: Autumn 2027

 

Android Press is seeking submissions for BENEATH THE SURFACE: A LUNARPUNK ANTHOLOGY, our second anthology exploring the emerging speculative movement known as lunarpunk. The first, BIOLUMINESCENT, explored the genre's aesthetics. Our goal with LUNARPUNK is to go a step further and create a landmark anthology that helps define one of the most intriguing emerging branches of speculative fiction.

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Edited by Justine Norton-Kertson, founder and co-editor-in-chief of Android Press and Solarpunk Magazine, and editor of BIOLUMINESCENT, this anthology will combine short fiction and essays to help define the philosophy, aesthetics, and storytelling possibilities of lunarpunk.

 

What Is Lunarpunk Is Not​

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Despite its name, lunarpunk isn't about the moon. A particular lunarpunk story might take place on the moon, or any other planet, for that matter. But, categorically speaking, the moon as a setting does not constitute lunarpunk.

 

Given its close relationship to solarpunk, many people think of lunarpunk as "Solarpunk at night," or solarpunk with a dark and glowing aesthetic. That's how our first lunarpunk anthology, BIOUMINWSCENT, was framed. But while solarpunk and lunarpunk are radically hopeful speculative climate fiction, lunarpunk is much more than just solarpunk with a different aesthetic.

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What Is Lunarpunk?​

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Like solarpunk, lunarpunk is a genre about hopeful, sustainable futures, and humanity's relationship to both nature and technology. And in many ways, lunarpunk is the polar, binary partner of solarpunk.

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Aesthetically:

Solarpunk is to Lunarpunk as the sun/day is to the moon/night.
Solarpunk is to Lunarpunk as solar panels are to bioluminescence.

Solarpunk is to Lunarpunk as flowers are to fungi.

Solarpunk is to Lunarpunk as orange, red, green, and yellow are to black, silver, purple, and blue.

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Thematically:

Solarpunk is to Lunarpunk as science and technology are to occult and spirituality.

Solarpunk is to transparency as Lunarpunk is to the hidden and mysterious.

Solarpunk is to Lunarpunk as community is to the individual.

Solarpunk is Lunarpunk as collaboration is to introspection and contemplation.

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Note that none of the above are mutually exclusive. For example, science, technology, solar panels, and community collaboration can certainly exist in lunarpunk worlds and stories, even if the focus of a given lunarpunk story leans more toward spirituality, hidden systems, and/or individual introspection.

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Lunarpunk is speculative storytelling set in hopeful futures that explores hidden systems of ecological, cultural, and spiritual transformation. Where solarpunk imagines bright futures built through visible systems—solar energy, green cities, social justice, community collaboration, and cooperative infrastructure—lunarpunk explores the dark, introspective, intuitive, hidden networks through which transformation begins. 

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Lunarpunk is concerned with the unseen: ecological systems beneath the soil, cultural shifts beneath institutions, quiet revolutions unfolding in unexpected places. The future will not be shaped only by visible systems. It will also grow through hidden networks of imagination, care, culture, and ecological understanding.

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According to fandom.com's lunarpunk wiki:

"Thematically, Lunarpunk shifts the focus from the large-scale, societal solutions of Solarpunk to the personal and individual journey. It champions a more sustainable sense of self, emphasizing spirituality, magic, and the occult over the hard science and technology often seen in Solarpunk. While Solarpunk often depicts bustling, collaborative communities, Lunarpunk is more suited for introverts, loners, and those who find meaning in quiet, cryptic, or mysterious ways. This includes an embrace of anarchism and a focus on small, self-reliant groups or individuals operating on the fringes of society."

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Generally speaking, common themes in lunarpunk may include, but aren't necessarily limited to:

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• bioluminescent ecosystems

• underground or hidden communities

• secret gardens and reclaimed spaces

• dreamlike or ecological technologies

• ritual and mythic relationships with nature

• networks of mutual aid and quiet resistance

• ecological intelligence and symbiotic futures

• cultural transformation and interior change

 

Lunarpunk stories often inhabit the night side of the future—the mysterious, subtle, and unseen forces that shape how cultures and societies evolve. This doesn’t mean stories must be dark, dystopian, or political. Like Solarpunk, Lunarpunk is generally hopeful. But lunarpunk can also be strange, poetic, mystical, cultural, ecological, and experimental.

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For more information on lunarpunk, you can read the following sources:

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https://justinenortonkertson.medium.com/what-is-lunarpunk-17a8f7bfeeb6

https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Lunarpunk

 

What We’re Looking For

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Short Fiction

Word count: 1,500–10,000 words

10 cents per word

 

Possible directions include, but aren't necessarily limited to:

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• moonlit or nocturnal ecosystems

• hidden ecological restoration efforts

• underground communities reshaping society

• dreamlike technologies interacting with nature

• fungal or biological communication networks

• mystical or mythic connections to the land

• subtle cultural transformations

 

Above all, we are interested in stories that explore how transformation begins beneath the surface.

 

As long stories take place in futures where humanity is building a better, sustainable world and striving toward a harmonious relationship with nature and technology, then we welcome work across speculative traditions, or that blends genres, including:

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• climate fiction

• science fiction

• fantasy

• magical realism

• weird fiction

• speculative ecology

• mystery

• literary fiction

 

Surprise us!

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What We’re Not Looking For

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We're not looking for:

• dark fantasy

• horror

• sword and sorcery

• erotica

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How to Submit

 

Submission Window: November 1 - December 31, 2026

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• Use Shunn's Modern Manuscript Format to format your manuscript document.

      But don't stress over perfect formatting. We aren't sticklers.

• Submissions will only be accepted via our Moksha submissions manager. Any stories submitted via email, our other Moksha submission portals, or outside the submission window will be deleted without consideration.

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Include:

• A brief cover letter

• A short bio (50–100 words)

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About the Editor

 

Justine Norton-Kertson is an author, publisher, musician, and community organizer. They are the Editor-in-Chief of Android Press, and the co-Editor-in-Chief of Solarpunk Magazine, and she has a story forthcoming in Utopia Science Fiction Magazine. They live on a river in rural Oregon with their partner, puppies, cats, goats, and bees. If they aren’t writing or editing, then they’re probably in their garden, kayaking, recording their next album, reading, or watching Star Trek. They can be found on Twitter at jankwrites.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​