POKER FACE

An Anthology of Dark Fiction

Everyone has something to hide. Some are simply better at it than others.

A perfectly rehearsed smile. A convincing lie. A deadly bluff. A secret concealed behind an expression of complete innocence.

What's hiding behind your poker face?

Black Hare Press is seeking original, dark and imaginative stories for POKER FACE, an anthology exploring deception, hidden identities, emotional manipulation, dangerous secrets, calculated risks, and the terrifying consequences of revealing your true intentions.

We're looking for stories where appearances deceive, trust becomes a weapon, and the difference between survival and destruction might depend on keeping a straight face.

Your protagonist might be a master manipulator, a desperate liar, a supernatural creature concealing its identity, or an ordinary person forced to maintain an extraordinary deception. Perhaps they're playing a dangerous game, pretending to be someone they're not, or hiding a truth so terrible that revealing it would destroy everything.

And sometimes, the person with the perfect poker face isn't the one you'd expect.

Horror, psychological horror, dark fantasy, dark science fiction, supernatural fiction, bizarro, gothic horror and other dark speculative genres are all welcome.

Your story can take place anywhere, at any time, in any world. Valentine's Day, Halloween, Christmas and other holidays can provide wonderfully sinister settings, but seasonal stories are certainly not required.

The theme is deliberately broad. Poker Face doesn't have to involve gambling, playing cards or even a human face. What matters is the deception, concealment, manipulation or calculated risk at the heart of your story.

Looking for inspiration?

Here are some possibilities to get those dark creative juices flowing. These are starting points, not prescribed plots. Feel free to twist them, combine them, or take the theme somewhere entirely unexpected.

The Last Hand—Supernatural Horror

An invitation-only poker tournament offers an extraordinary prize: twenty additional years of life. Every losing hand, however, costs players a portion of their remaining lifespan. As competitors visibly age around the table, a desperate gambler realises the dealer has been manipulating the game. Winning now depends on convincing the dealer that he has nothing left to lose. But how do you bluff someone who's been playing the same game for centuries?

Smile for the Camera—Dystopian Science Fiction

In a future where emotional surveillance is compulsory, facial expressions are continuously analysed for signs of disloyalty, aggression and deception. A woman discovers how to manipulate the monitoring system by deliberately controlling her expressions. She begins helping political prisoners escape detection, until the authorities introduce technology capable of detecting emotional responses directly from the brain. Her carefully maintained poker face is suddenly worthless, and the people she's protecting are running out of time.

The Mask Beneath—Supernatural Horror

A shapeshifter has spent centuries stealing identities, assuming the appearances of people it murders. After taking the face of a young woman, it begins experiencing memories that aren't its own. At first, it believes they're remnants of its victim's life. Then the memories reveal something impossible: the woman knew exactly what the creature was and deliberately allowed herself to be killed. Whatever she was hiding is now trapped inside the shapeshifter, waiting to emerge.

The Birthday Surprise—Psychological Horror

A family gathers to celebrate their daughter's eighteenth birthday, exactly one year after she was murdered. She's sitting at the table, smiling, opening presents and behaving as though nothing happened. Everyone knows she's dead, but the thing wearing her face becomes violent whenever anyone acknowledges the truth. For twelve months, the family has survived by maintaining the pretence that she's their living daughter. Tonight, however, she's announced that she intends to leave home. The family must somehow persuade her to stay without revealing why they're so terrified of letting her go.

Deadpan—Bizarro Horror

A struggling comedian discovers that his jokes become reality, but only when delivered without the slightest hint of a smile. A joke about a man's head exploding produces horrifying results. A throwaway remark about raining cats and dogs causes chaos throughout the city. As his performances grow increasingly outrageous, he becomes famous for his remarkably convincing deadpan delivery. Then, during a live broadcast, an audience member challenges him to tell the funniest joke imaginable without laughing. The comedian has already thought of one. He's just never dared say it aloud.

The Ultimate Tell—Psychological Horror

A celebrated interrogator has built her career on detecting deception through subtle changes in expression and behaviour. When a suspected serial killer sits opposite her, he answers every question calmly, displaying no obvious signs of fear or guilt. She becomes obsessed with forcing him to reveal his true nature. What she doesn't realise is that he has spent months studying her methods. Every expression, hesitation and apparent slip is calculated. She's not interrogating him. He's manipulating her into revealing something she's concealed for twenty years.

Trick or Treat—Halloween Horror

Every Halloween, residents of a secluded town attend a midnight masquerade. Masks are compulsory, and nobody is permitted to reveal their identity until sunrise. A newcomer assumes it's an elaborate local tradition, until she witnesses a masked guest murder someone without provoking the slightest reaction. The townspeople explain that the masquerade allows supernatural visitors to mingle safely with humans. Nobody knows who is human and who isn't, and removing a mask before sunrise means surrendering yourself to whichever creature recognises your face. The newcomer has one problem: she recognises the murderer.

All In—Dark Science Fiction

An alien civilisation offers humanity a chance to avoid extermination through a formal contest of strategy. Both species select representatives to compete in a game where opponents must predict one another's decisions. The aliens possess extraordinary intelligence and can calculate almost every possible outcome, but their civilisation has never developed deliberate deception. Humanity's representative begins winning through increasingly elaborate bluffs. Then she discovers the aliens have been studying human behaviour throughout the contest, and the final round requires her to wager something she cannot afford to lose.

The Wedding Vows—Romantic Horror

A bride discovers evidence that her fiancé has been poisoning her for months. Rather than confront him, she continues planning their wedding, determined to expose him during the ceremony. What she doesn't know is that he has already discovered her suspicions. Both arrive at the altar smiling, surrounded by unsuspecting friends and relatives, each convinced that the other has fallen for their deception. Neither knows that the celebrant has a secret of their own.

The Inheritance—Gothic Horror

Five estranged siblings gather for the reading of their father's will. Each has been instructed to bring an object representing their greatest secret. The solicitor announces that the inheritance will go to whichever sibling can convince the others that their object is meaningless. As the evening progresses, carefully maintained family lies begin to unravel. Then someone produces an object belonging to a child who disappeared from the estate thirty years earlier. Everyone recognises it. Nobody admits to knowing why.

The Final Smile—Psychological Horror

A woman is discovered brutally murdered, her body mutilated beyond recognition. Yet the expression frozen on her face is unmistakable: a faint, almost satisfied smile.

The police initially dismiss it as an involuntary muscular response, but the detective investigating her death becomes increasingly troubled by evidence suggesting the victim knew exactly what was coming.

As the story unfolds through her final weeks, a different picture emerges. She knew who intended to kill her. She knew when, where and how. Rather than flee, she carefully arranged her own murder, leaving behind a trail of evidence that would expose a killer who had escaped justice for years.

Every frightened glance, every apparent mistake, every desperate attempt to escape had been calculated to convince her murderer that she was helpless.

Only after the killer is arrested does the detective understand the smile.

She hadn't been afraid of dying. She'd been waiting to win.

What We're Looking For

We want stories that surprise us, disturb us and make us question everything we think we know about the characters.

Give us unreliable narrators, impossible bargains, dangerous relationships, terrifying secrets, and elaborate schemes. Give us characters who conceal fear, feign innocence, disguise their intentions or convince others to believe the impossible.

We welcome protagonists and antagonists of any gender, identity, species or persuasion. Human, alien, supernatural, artificial or something entirely unclassifiable—all are welcome.

We particularly enjoy stories where the reader becomes part of the deception, only realising the truth when the final pieces fall into place.

Your interpretation can be serious, tragic, terrifying, darkly humorous or utterly bizarre.

The only essential requirement is that the concept of a poker face is meaningful to your story.

Submission Guidelines

Anthology: POKER FACE

Publisher: Black Hare Press

Theme: Poker Face—deception, bluffing, concealed identities, manipulation, hidden emotions, dangerous secrets and calculated risks.

Genres: Horror, dark fantasy, dark science fiction, psychological horror, supernatural horror, gothic horror, bizarro and other dark fiction.

Word Count: 100–10,000 words.

Payment: Accepted stories of 1,000–4,999 words will receive $20 USD. Stories of 5,000–10,000 words will receive $40 USD.

All accepted contributors will also receive a complimentary digital copy of the published anthology, regardless of word count.

Submission Deadline: To be announced.

Publication Date: TBA 2027.

Simultaneous Submissions: Not allowed. Please do not submit your story to other publishers while it's under our consideration. As a small team, we focus our efforts on pieces with a genuine chance of publication, and we appreciate your respect for our time and process.

Multiple Submissions: Are allowed; one email per story, please.

We encourage fresh interpretations of the theme. You don't have to write about poker, casinos or gambling. A convincing smile can be every bit as dangerous as a royal flush.

We want clever stories, compelling characters, satisfying twists and darkness that lingers long after the final sentence.

Submit to : Short-Stories@BlackHarePress.com and don't forget to check out our Submission Guidelines.

Show us your best poker face.

Just remember: the house doesn't always win.