Call for Submissions: American Gestapo
Masked men with guns prowl our neighborhoods, demanding papers and absolute compliance. Citizens are pulled into unmarked vans and taken to black sites, where they’re beaten until they “confess”. From the pulpit and on podcasts, Right-Wing Christian men demand subservience, then threaten death and hell to anyone who would disagree. Hate crimes continue to rise. Women with means are forced to flee to other states or countries to make their own medical decisions, while those without die from sepsis. Billionaires target trans kids with the exponential reach of their own platforms and government power. The government funds genocide and threatens war over mineral rights on rocky islands in the arctic. Our rights have been unravelled and continue to erode, and if you’re one of the lucky ones who thinks, “my rights haven’t been affected”, you know there’s an awful addendum waiting in the wings: “Yet”.
Fascism isn’t coming. Fascism is here. And it is growing.
But we’ve got the antidote.
Beginning February 15th, 2026, Rock and a Hard Place Press, the celebrated crime fiction press, is seeking stories for our next themed anthology, AMERICAN GESTAPO.
Specifically, we’re looking for dark crime stories about the United States or Americans, American fascism, those who enable it or promote it, those who fight against it, those who have become a tool for it, and those caught under its boot. We’re looking for stories of human resilience in dark times against impossible odds, and we’re looking for stories where the protagonist is crushed by the weight of the state. We’re looking for stories about propagandists propping up power, and punks razing the systems of that power in their own communities. We’re looking for stories about the unquestioning cop committing brutal crimes against his fellow citizens, and the “illegals”, either because of where they were born or what they believe, caught in the cops’ web, and finding a way out. We’re looking for explorations of the technological manipulation that enables political power, and the grassroots community gardens where grandmothers grow the resistance.
To be considered, please submit your 2-7k word story by March 15th, 2026 here. A crime should be included somewhere in your story, but, for this call, the concept of a crime is relative, and can be either a crime against common human rights, or a “crime” invented by the State or those who serve it. Submissions should, even if exploring these concepts from the perspective of those backed by the fascistic state, be anti-fascist in theme and attitude, however we are not looking for hagiography or political rants, nor are we looking for obvious calls to violence or mainstream appeals at voting for a political party.
AMERICAN GESTAPO will be published by Rock and a Hard Place Press in the Fall of 2026.
As the Dead Kennedys said, “Nazi punks, fuck off”.