From the Chicago Reader website:

This December the Reader will publish its 11th annual Pure Fiction issue—a collection of short stories from mostly local fiction writers paired with illustrations by mostly local artists.

You may wish to browse our fiction issue archive, which includes fantastic contributions both from out of the blue and from some names you might recognize.

We’ll be considering submissions from now until November 3. Please send them to fiction@chicagoreader.com. We prefer text pasted into e-mail rather than attachments. It’s hard to find room these days for pieces over 10,000 words, but to a degree we’re flexible on length. We pay for those we publish.