07 June 2012

Deadline June 15 | Transgender Writers Welcomed: The 2012 Gatewood Prize for a Collection of Poems by a Woman

Deadline: 15 June 2012

The Gatewood Prize is Switchback Books' annual competition for a first or second full-length (48-80 pp.) collection of poems by a woman writing in the English language. It is named after Emma Gatewood, the first woman to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail.

2012 JUDGE: BRENDA SHAUGHNESSY

Brenda Shaughnessy is a poet and editor. Her most recent book, Human Dark with Sugar (Copper Canyon, 2008), won the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her first book, Interior with Sudden Joy (FSG, 1999) was a finalist for the Lambda Award, Norma Farber Award, and the PEN/Joyce C. Osterweil Award. She is the poetry editor of Tin House Magazine, has been a Radcliffe Institute Fellow and a Japan-US Friendship Commission fellow. She teaches at Princeton, NYU, The New School and other institutions and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and son.

GENERAL TERMS:
  • Poet must be a woman; our definition of "woman" is broad and includes transsexual, transgender, genderqueer, and female-identified individuals.
  • Multiple submissions are acceptable, but each manuscript must be entered under separate cover and fee.
  • You must let us know immediately if your manuscript is accepted by another publisher while under our consideration.
  • No revisions to submitted manuscripts will be considered; the winning manuscript may be revised before publication.
  • Translations ineligible.
  • Manuscripts by close friends and former students of the judge are ineligible. If the judge would recognize your manuscript for any reason, please wait until next year to enter the contest.
  • Co-written collections are eligible provided both poets meet all eligibility requirements.
  • Submissions will be read by Switchback editors and staff members. We will select ten manuscripts to send on to the judge, who will choose the final winner.
  • Manuscripts remain anonymous until a winner is selected. Please remove any identifying references from your manuscript (including those in the body of the manuscript).
  • Only include cover letters in the appropriate box in the online form; do not upload a cover letter as the first page of your manuscript.
  • Entries that do not meet these terms may be disqualified.

MANUSCRIPT REQUIREMENTS:
  • Manuscripts should be between 48 and 80 pages, paginated.
  • Please include a cover page with ONLY the title of the manuscript.
  • Table of contents recommended.
  • No acknowledgments page.

NOTIFICATION:

You will be notified of your submission status via email. Winners and finalists will be announced on our blog and website in early October.

ENTRY FEE:
  • Option 1: $18 for reading fee only
  • Option 2: $28 for reading fee and a book of your choice from our catalog (excluding limited edition FOUR). Please specify which book you would like to receive in the cover letter on the Submittable form; if you do not specify, we will send you a copy of the contest winning book. To ensure a timely delivery, be sure that your mailing address is up-to-date in the Submittable system.
  • All payments will be accepted via Submittable. We do not accept cash, checks, or money orders.

DEADLINE:

Manuscripts will be accepted through 11:59 p.m. on June 15, 2012.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For inquiries: email editors at switchbackbooks dot com with any questions

For submissions: visit their page at Submittable to submit your manuscript

Website: http://www.switchbackbooks.com/
Read more +

Deadline June 15 | Call for Submissions - Love Unexpected: Alternative MM and FF Anthology (Evernight Publishing)

Deadline: 15 June 2012

Evernight wants your stories about friends turned lovers. There's nothing quite the same as two friends discovering there is more to their relationship than they realized. We want quality stories with strong plots and memorable characters. Push your imagination to the limit as you help friends find their unexpected happily ever after with each other. This anthology is edited by Marie Medina.
  • Word Count: 5-10K
  • MM and FF Only
  • Must have a HEA
  • All sub-genres of er0tic r0mance
  • Heat Level 2+
  • Limited Space

Send submissions to: evernightsubmissions@gmail.com along with a blurb. Please put "Alternative Antho" in the Subject Line and mention whether your story is for the Manlove Edition (MM) or Sappho Edition (FF).

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For inquiries/ submissions: evernightsubmissions@gmail.com

Website: http://www.evernightpublishing.com/
Read more +

Deadline June 15 | Call for Submissions: Coming Out Stories (Publisher: Loose ID)

Deadline: 15 June 2012

Loose Id is a leading publisher of er0tic r0mance. The California-based company is an acknowledged industry leader with seven years in business, operating in the black since the end of our second quarter back in 2004. It publishes between 16 and 24 titles per month by more than 200 talented authors worldwide, unleashing readers' fantasi3s with a full panoply of er0tic r0mance subgenres, including exceptional traditional favorites, contemporary and historical.

COMING OUT STORIES

Coming out refers to the expression "coming out of the closet" meaning to tell others about your s3xual orientation.

Loose Id wants Coming Out stories - Thoughtful, authentic ero0ic romances featuring men and women who come out. The coming out theme must be integral to the story. All stories must follow Loose Id submission guidelines. Final deadline for full submissions will be June 15, 2012 but the earlier, the better. Those accepted may be included for release in conjunction with Coming Out Day.

Note: Coming Out Day is observed in many countries, usually on October 11. In the UK it is celebrated on October 12.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For inquiries/ submissions: submissions@loose-id.com

Website: http://www.loose-id.com
Read more +

Call for Essays - 50 Shades and Beyond: New Approaches to Er0tic R0mance

Deadline: 1 February 2013

Since the 1970s, both the content and the institutional practices surrounding er0tic romance fiction have been transformed. The remarkable popularity of E. L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy has brought a number those transformations to light, not just in terms of the novels’ BDSM-inflected sexual content (old news in the romance world) but also in their publishing history, moving from online Twilight fan-fiction to e-book format to paperback bestsellers.

Yet the world of er0tic romance fiction extends far beyond Fifty Shades—not just historically and aesthetically, but geographically, racially, and in the range of sexual identities and practices made visible by these texts. The range of critical and scholarly approaches to these texts ought to be equally various, whether looking back to foundational essays like Ann Barr Snitow’s “Mass-Market Romance: Pornography for Women is Different” or drawing on the latest in queer theory and cultural studies.

To that end, the Journal of Popular Romance Studies is looking for essays, interviews, and pedagogical materials on the subject of er0tic popular romance fiction, now and in the past. Essays on individual authors and texts are encouraged, along with work on the business side of the genre—its publishers, its marketing, etc.—and explorations of its reception, including fandom, cens0rship, and the public debates surrounding er0tic romance. All theoretical approaches are welcome. Submissions are due by February 1, 2013, and this special issue of JPRS will be published in December, 2013.

Published by the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR), the peer-reviewed Journal of Popular Romance Studies is the first academic journal to focus exclusively on representations of romantic love across national and disciplinary boundaries. Our editorial board includes representatives from English, Comparative Literature, Ethnomusicology, History, Religious Studies, African Diaspora Studies, and other fields. JPRS is available without subscription at http://jprstudies.org.

Please submit scholarly papers of no more than 10,000 words to An Goris, Managing Editor managing.editor@jprstudies.org. Longer manuscripts of particular interest will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Submissions should be Microsoft Word documents, with citations in MLA format; please remove all identifying material (i.e., running heads with the author’s name) so that submissions can easily be sent out for anonymous peer review. Suggestions for appropriate peer reviewers are welcome.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: managing.editor@jprstudies.org

Website: http://jprstudies.org
Read more +

Lesbian Fiction Open Call for 2013 Release: Riptide Publishing

Deadline: 20 December 2012

Lesbian fiction is coming to Riptide in 2013, and we're looking for a selection of the very best F/F stories with which to launch our list!

We'll leave the time and place up to you, but the focus of your story should be the romantic love between two women, whether it’s a developing affair or an established relationship.

Why not fill in the unwritten chapters of history and show us medieval maidens, Regency belles, Victorians, or wartime women seeking comfort in each other’s arms?

What does the future look like for women who love women? Are they out in space, living on other planets or colonies, human or otherwise? Or still on earth, enslaved or emancipated by new technology, governments, and events?

Or set your story in a world of your own creation, where myths come alive or the supernatural is standard fare. Send your heroines on quests and adventures to prove or discover their love.

Women who love women in fiction rarely get more than an ambivalent ending, so let’s change that. Whatever they have to go through to get there, make sure your characters get their happy ending.
  • Length: 10,000 to 100,000
  • Genres: Romance in the following subgenres: well-researched historicals, adventure, fantasy, PNM, magical realism, SF. Other genres may be considered, but please query first.
  • Heat Levels: Any
  • Ending: HEA or HFN
  • Orientation: Lesbian
  • Submissions Due: Thursday, December 20, 2012
  • Acceptance Letters Sent By: 6 to 12 weeks after submission
  • Anticipated Release Date: 2013

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

All manuscripts should be complete, and edited and polished to the best of your ability. Please send the following submission package to submissions@riptidepublishing.com:
  • A query letter containing the title, genre(s), word count, and orientation of your story; a one- to two-paragraph "sales pitch" (like the blurbs you see on the back cover of a book); and a brief history of your publication, if any.
  • A two- to three-page synopsis of your story from start to finish. Do not leave out the ending!
  • Your completed manuscript.

Please paste the query letter directly into your email, and attach the synopsis and manuscript as .rtf files. We have no specific formatting requirements, but please be sensible and remember that if the editor has a hard time reading your submission, he or she simply won't.

You'll receive an automated email confirming our receipt of your submission. Due to the large volume of submissions anticipated, we regret to say rejections cannot be personalized. If your story is rejected, please do not write the editor asking why; such emails will not be answered.

Link: FAQs

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: submissions@riptidepublishing.com

Website: http://www.riptidepublishing.com
Read more +

Actively Seeking Gay Er0tic R0mance Novels: Ampersand Editions

Ampersand Editions is always interested in hearing from writers who want to make their work available to the world. We pride ourselves on having a personal relationship with our authors. Your opinion and input really do matter to us and we will consult you on all matters involving your work -- from edits to cover design. We are also proud to say that we offer some of the highest royalties in the business.

There is currently a need for novels, novellas and “thrillogies” – a set of three short stories centered on the same subject and/or same character(s). We also publish Ampersand Serials, based on the release of one episode per month.

We are especially interested in genre fiction such as mystery, fantasy, erotica, sci-fi and paranormal, but we welcome submissions of all kinds, from contemporary fiction to poetry.

If you would like more information, submission guidelines, or to send us a query letter, please email us at submissions@ampersandeditions.com.

We are open to all submissions, but are actively seeking the following:

M/M Erotic Romance Novels

Novels should be between 50,000 and 80,000 words and require an HEA or HFN ending. The most important requirement is quality writing; (almost) everything else is negotiable - we are open in regard to theme, subgenre, and so on. We want characters that jump off the page - your MCs should be believable and engaging.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: submissions@ampersandeditions.com

Website: http://ampersandeditions.com
Read more +

05 June 2012

Stories with GLBTQ Themes Welcomed - American Athenaeum: A Museum of Words (worldwide)

Submissions for American Athenaeum are now open and rolling. We are a print journal, committed to publishing four times a year. The first issue, Colossus, is scheduled for July. The following is the type of work we're seeking. Our finished collections are submitted to literary agents, Best American, PEN American, and the Pushcart Prize.

We are currently seeking fiction, non-fiction, and poetry in the following categories:
  • Stories that pay tribute to Japan or other places in the world that have suffered extensive calamities.
  • Stories with African-American or Native American, GLBTQ, themes welcome.

Please see the submission guidelines for other categories.

MORE INFORMATION ON SUBMITTING
  • We accept fiction from authors worldwide. We accept reprints (the world is a big place and we want to help spread your name.) In your query, go ahead and tell us a little about yourself, why the piece is important to you.
  • Grant of Rights: Author grants first or reprint rights to American Atheneum to publish in "Issue Name" and only that issue, in print and electronically, worldwide.

At this time, our editors work on a volunteer basis, and our acceptance of publication does not include payment. If you would like to make a donation that will go toward paying authors, please do so below. Even the smallest amount can go a long way. Poetry, flash fiction, overseas authors receive an electronic copy of the completed issue. Fiction authors receive one copy of issue. All authors are given self-promo time in their written bio, and are more than welcome to submit an author review of their own books. Artists/photographers receive a full page of self-promo.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For submissions: via submishmash

Website: http://www.swordandsagapress.com
Read more +