This is also a project by Roxanne Gay; it is an anthology call for writers ages 15-21. “In 2014, I published an essay, “Not Here to Make Friends” where I wrote about the importance and delight of unlikeable female protagonists. Likeability, I said, was a very elaborate lie, a performance, a code of conduct dictating the proper way to be, a trap, constraining women to very narrow ideas about how they should be. In fiction, characters who don't follow this code are labeled as unlikable, as problems, as less worthy of taking up space on the page. I wrote the essay because of my own conflicted experiences with likability but also because I have spent a lot of time over the years thinking about unlikeable characters and how unfairly they are maligned. 
As I also noted in my essay, unlikable are characters I’m frequently drawn to. I want interesting characters to do bad things and get away with their misdeeds. I want characters to think ugly thoughts and make messy decisions. I want characters to make mistakes and put themselves first without apologizing for it. I want authenticity and to read stories about real people who aren’t always picture perfect. 
Because I remain fascinated by unlikable characters, I’m putting together Acquired Tastes, an anthology celebrating unlikeable characters: how we create them, how we understand them, how we love them and how they enrage us, and why they are so necessary to our stories.
This call is for young adult writers, whose work I’d like to include in this anthology alongside some more familiar names.
I’m looking for short fiction or essays, from young adults, ages 15-21.” They pay $1,000 for works up to 5,000 words. The submission deadline is 2nd February 2026. See the relevant category here.

Deadline: February 2nd, 2026