Ode to Them open calls are designed to create meaningful opportunities for artists, writers and image-makers across disciplines. We review every submission with care and welcome experimental, emerging and established voices alike.

This week's writers' prompt explores Folktales.

We're interested in stories that draw from myth, oral tradition, superstition, local legends and family histories, as well as contemporary retellings of old narratives.

For inspiration, you might revisit writers such as Angela Carter, Ben Okri, Margaret Atwood, Helen Oyeyemi or Italo Calvino - but we're equally excited by work rooted in your own cultural traditions, memories and imagined worlds.

Selected works will be published on odetothem.com and considered for inclusion in our annual print zine.

Submission Fee: Free
Deadline: 7 July 2026

Ode to Them is not a singular brand.
It is a gathering.

A soft, shared space shaped by many minds, many rhythms, many ways of being.

We are a neurodivergent-led collective rooted in care - for craft, for people, for places. Drawn together by a love of the handmade, the thoughtful, the slow, we value sustainability, localism, and the quiet power of collaboration. Based in and around London, we are building both digital and physical spaces where creativity can unfold gently, and where connection feels real.

Throughout the year, we host gentle workshops and gatherings - spaces to share skills, stories, and ways of creating that don’t always fit elsewhere. You are warmly invited.