Nat 1 Publishing has opened a reading period for 'Pale & Tragic,' a Gothic-themed collection that welcomes work across the full spectrum of the mode—classical, American, Southern, horror, and psychological. The call is deliberately capacious in its literary range while remaining exacting in its ethical and editorial standards: no glorification of sexism, racism, ageism, ableism, or other forms of prejudice; no fan fiction; no AI-generated or AI-assisted text. The press states an explicit commitment to LGBTQ+ and POC communities, and submissions that attack any community are rejected outright. This is a venue that understands the Gothic as a tradition of pressure and exposure, not merely atmosphere. The submission structure is precise and worth noting. Writers may submit one to three short stories of fifty words or more, and/or one to five poems, but prose and poetry must be entered separately—one entry of prose, another of poetry. There is no submission fee. Work must be previously unpublished, though appearances on personal blogs, websites, Patreon, or Reddit do not disqualify a piece. Simultaneous submissions are permitted, provided the press is notified promptly if the work is accepted elsewhere. The reading period closes December 31, 2026, with decisions made in January 2027, except for expedited submissions. What the press offers is publication within a focused thematic volume, selected through a blind reading process. That blindness is not incidental: it signals a curatorial interest in the work itself, stripped of biography and credential. For writers working in the Gothic—particularly those engaging queer and marginalized perspectives that the genre has long housed—this is a call that rewards formal control, tonal discipline, and a clear understanding of the mode's darker inheritances.