Submissions

Further Light is a new magazine that seeks to explore the restored gospel through the medium of the human imagination. Our goal is to enjoy the fandoms we love, to experience new ones, and to expound on the eternal truths buried within them. We publish both fiction and nonfiction that helps readers connect to gospel principles through speculative fiction.

Further Light will publish online through Substack as well as in regular print issues, ebooks, and collected anthologies.

Quick Submissions Guide

Send us your work through this form.

• Fiction: 1000-5000 words; science fiction, fantasy, and related genres; should appeal to a Latter-day Saint audience; see extended guidelines and wishlist below

• Nonfiction: 3000-word target; creative nonfiction or literary analysis of speculative fiction with a Latter-day Saint connection; see extended guidelines and wishlist below

• Poetry: up to three poems at a time; should have both speculative and religious elements; see extended guidelines below

• Art: send portfolios to editor@furtherlightmag.com

• Simultaneous Submissions OK - let us know if your piece is accepted somewhere else; wait for us to respond to your current submission before sending another

• Reprints OK

• PG-13 rating or below

• No AI-generated work of any kind

• Formatting: Word doc preferred, PDF OK; Serif font, 12pt, double spacing preferred, but anything reasonably readable will be accepted; include the title in the file name

Questions? Email editor@furtherlightmag.com.

Deadlines

Further Light accepts submissions on a rolling basis, but here are the cut-off dates to be considered for each issue:

• Issue 1: Submit by September 30, 2025; Responses by October 31, 2025

• Issue 2: Submit by February 28, 2026; Responses by March 31, 2026

Payment & Rights

Further Light is pleased to offer a $25 honorarium to published fiction and nonfiction, and a $10 honorarium to published poetry. Currently, we pay through PayPal or Venmo.

Upon acceptance, authors give us the nonexclusive right to publish their work on our Substack, in a print issue, and in up to two future print anthologies. Authors will receive a free copy of each print issue and anthology in which their work appears. Authors remain free to republish their work in their own collections or anywhere else they choose. To help spread the word, we ask authors whose work is original to Further Light to include an acknowledgement of its first publication when the piece is published elsewhere.

Editorial Guidelines

No particular faith affiliation or confession is required to publish in Further Light. We accept writing from authors of all beliefs and none, so long as the work itself engages a Latter-day Saint audience and fits our content guidelines.

We are not interested in writing that is antagonistic to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, we're open-minded to speculative theologies and challenging ideas in our journey towards discipleship. For further explanation of the position we’re striving to take, see the Radical Orthodoxy manifesto.

All content should be at or below a PG-13 rating. We want our readers to be comfortable giving our stories to their nerdy teens or sharing our interpretations in a Relief Society lesson.

• On-screen kissing is generally fine. No explicit or overly-descriptive nudity, intimate relations, or sexual objectification.

• Violence should be kept to summer blockbuster levels. No detailed descriptions of gore, sexual violence, or torture. As in the scriptures, violence should be a sign of a fallen world, not glorified.

• In-world swearing (e.g. Battlestar Galactica’s “frack” or Mistborn’s “rust and ruin”) is acceptable, as are generic statements such as “he cursed.” Avoid real-world swearing or taking the name of God in vain.

At this time, we do not accept content generated by AI, whether in whole or in part. Submitting AI generated work may result in being blacklisted from future submissions.

Fiction Guidelines & Wishlist

Further Light publishes original and reprint fiction between 1000 and 5000 words, give or take. We are looking for stories that are engaging, exciting, and enlightening. In the balance between style and story, we tend to like fiction that leans more heavily on the side of story. Give us absorbing plots that also happen to be fantastically written with deep philosophical or theological implications.

We are specifically seeking work in the following subgenres:

• Speculative fiction about Mormons: We want to see Latter-day Saints interacting with the strange, the weird, and the fantastic in their own unique way. Your story might be set in a historical period, a contemporary setting, a far-future church on another planet, or even an alternate version of the history, but the characters, culture, and motivations are still recognizably Mormon-adjacent. Retellings of LDS folklore are on the table, so long as they are done well, as are magical realism, fairy tales, and horror.

  • Examples: Mathilda Zeller’s “The Haunted,” Liz Busby’s “The 37th Ward Relief Society Leftovers Exchange,” Eric James Stone’s “That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made,” Nate Givens’s “Remember the Blood”

• Speculative fiction with Mormon themes: These types of stories can be set in secondary worlds but deal with themes and ideas that are targeted at a Latter-day Saint audience. Just as The Lord of the Rings breathes Catholic metaphysics and Narnia tells of an alternate incarnation of Christ, we want to see your other world bringing Latter-day Saint theology to life. Give us stories that focus on agency, theophany, building a Zion community, covenantal living, and other interesting Restorationist questions. While some clear parallels are okay, we want you to move beyond simply writing a parable or allegory. Make your story come to life with captivating characters and an absorbing plot.

  • Examples: D.C. Wynters’s “The Archaemaji,” Orson Scott Card’s “Homeless in Hell,” Ben Spendlove’s “The Forest”

• Scriptural retellings: It’s a difficult genre, but when done well, we absolutely love it. We’re looking for work that takes a basic scriptural story and brings it to life with deep characterization (and maybe a little magic). Avoid a trite or didactic retelling by giving us real people to root for and pulling off a new plot wrinkle when we already know the ending. Think midrash. Given that biblical fiction has plenty of available outlets, extra weight will be given to retellings from the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, or LDS church history.

  • Examples: Marcelo Bighetti’s “The Intelligences,” Claudio Oliveira’s “The Five Angels of Eden,” W.O. Hemsath’s “The Double-Snatcher,” Annaliese Lemmon’s “Curelom Riders”

• Tempting the Saints: It has come to our attention that letters from certain fallen angels have begun mysteriously falling into the hands of various writers. Like those of their predecessor Screwtape, these missives describe the special trials and techniques of those demonic figures who have been assigned to tempt the Latter-day Saints. The insights contained therein are valuable as counter-intelligence; should you come across such a letter, please forward it to Further Light immediately for processing.

Nonfiction Guidelines & Wishlist

Further Light publishes original and reprint nonfiction written with broad appeal for an intelligent, interested lay audience. Think something that might fit on a well-polished blog or magazine, not something that would be published in a scholarly journal. You might bring in a particularly relevant literary theory or lens, but this isn’t the place for a literature review. Please also bring your personal experiences to the table. Our target length for nonfiction is 3000 words, but we can work with more or less for the right piece.

We are looking for essays in the following categories:

• Latter-day Saint interpretations of the work of the Inklings, construed broadly as C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and their contemporaries and influences, including Dorothy Sayers, George MacDonald, etc.

• Interpretations of speculative fiction work by Mormon authors, including well-known writers like Orson Scott Card, Brandon Sanderson, and Stephanie Meyer, but also less-examined works like those of Allie Condie, Dan Wells, Larry Correia, Zenna Henderson, etc.

• Latter-day Saint-influenced readings of speculative fiction in all genres, including film, video games, comics, etc.

• Apologetics in the vein of Mere Christianity, with a focus on seeing the central truths of the gospel through the lens of literature, myth, and storytelling. Successful essays will emulate C.S. Lewis’s model of using well-developed metaphors and analogies to bring true principles to light. Well-written church talks that include a central metaphor from speculative fiction also fit this category.

• Personal essays: While these essays might also fit in any of the above categories, we want to emphasize our interest in seeing how fantastical fiction interacts with everyday life to bring people closer to Christ and help build a Zion community. Tell us about the stories that “baptized your imagination” and made you a better disciple.

We are also interested in interviews or profiles of LDS creatives in the speculative fiction space. For these, please send a short proposal (250-500 words) rather than sending a completed piece.

Poetry Guidelines

Further Light publishes original and reprint poetry that has both speculative and religious elements. Poetry should be accessible to an average reader rather than a literary elite. In the spirit of Tolkien and Lewis, we are open to older poetic forms such as the epic and alliterative traditions, though the work should still have broad appeal to modern speculative fiction readers. Lyric poetry should have a strongly developed metaphor or image and appeal to a faithful Latter-day Saint audience. We are also interested in hymns (with or without music) with well-developed metaphors, images, or stories.

• Examples: J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Mythopoeia,” Daniel Cooper’s “Talking to Dante in the Spirit World,” Isaac James Richards’s “Daily Initiations,” Darlene Young’s “A Plan of Salvation”

Art Guidelines

Further Light is seeking both cover art and interior illustrations. We would love to feature your work in our print and digital publications. Please write to editor@furtherlightmag.com with a link to your portfolio. At this time, we offer a small honorarium for cover art and featured images.