Neon & Smoke is a home for bold, voice-driven fiction with emotional weight and narrative fire.
We publish stories that don’t sit quietly—tales where the plot might thrill, chill, or make you laugh, but always reveals something deeper. We crave characters who leap off the page, language that crackles, and stories that blur the line between genre and literary not for the sake of novelty, but it’s the most honest way to tell the truth.  

We believe in the power of contradiction: softness and grit, humor and horror, beauty
and decay. Our name is a nod to contrast—to the glow and the haze, the seen and the
obscured. If your story doesn’t fit neatly into one box… good. It probably belongs here.
 

We're looking for:

• Literary stories wearing genre coats

• Genre stories with literary hearts

• Stories that say something without preaching

• Characters who won’t shut up in your head

• Fiction that feels like a punch, a prayer, or a party—sometimes all three

 

We don’t shy away from difficult topics—but we look for depth, not edge. We’re drawn to
emotionally resonant stories, vivid voices, and characters that feel real in all their flawed
glory.

We are readers, writers, artists, misfits, and meaning-makers. If your fiction blurs
boundaries, breathes fire into forgotten places, or makes the familiar strange, we want
to read it.