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Our Firsts is an anthology of autobiographical short stories, novel excerpts, memoirs, erotic essays, and poetry by women of color who share their experiences of their firsts—their first kiss, their first sexual experience with another women, their first lesbian relationship, their first heartbreak, their first lesbian awakening, and the list goes on.

For more info and submission guidelines–check out Our Firsts.

The Talk: Women of Color On Sex is an exploration of how self-identified women across the Diaspora came to learn about sex and what it meant to have a sexual relationship. Did your mom, aunty or tia sit you down? Were your homegirls or hermanas responsible for giving you the blow by blow? Was Cinemax After Dark, Youtube or a telenovela your sex ed instructor?

Super Hussy Media seeks fresh and daring writers who can coax the reader into an intimate understanding of not only how they learned about sex, but how that knowledge impacted their sexual exploration. We want submissions that are funny, sad, enraging, and transformational.

The Talk is ultimately about our testimonies regarding how we were taught or chose to learn about our sexuality. How we are continuing to learn, lessons we wish we could share with other women of Color, introspective activities of reflection. This is all about us.

Deadline: July 1, 2010

Visit Super Hussy Media for more information and complete submission guidelines.

BUTCH Voices is a national organization composed of social justice activists who share a commitment to building inclusive community for self-identified Butches, Studs, Tombois, Machas, Aggressives, our partners and allies.

This year we will be holding BUTCH Voices Regional Conferences in Dallas, New York, Los Angeles & Portland. We invite you to join us for workshops, panels, and performances intended to celebrate our diverse identities.

BUTCH Voices Dallas – June 5, 2010 – contact – bvdallas2010@gmail.com

BUTCH Voices NYC – September 25, 2010 – contact – bvnyc2010@gmail.com

BUTCH Voices Portland – October 2, 2010 – contact – bvportland2010@gmail.com

BUTCH Voices LA – October 9, 2010 – contact – bvla2010@gmail.com

These regional conferences will be an amazing opportunity to create local and regional community awareness, to share butch voices, and critical thinking about who we are. BUTCH Voices Regional Conferences are a place to: talk about why we identify in the ways we do, learn how to tell our stories, address femininity, masculinity, discuss areas of overlap and intersection that are none of the above. We will talk about sex, embodiment, community building, our physical and mental health, and issues that stand in the way of Butch-identified solidarity and justice. Most importantly, BUTCH Voices is the place where we can be ourselves with one another.

This is our Call for Submissions. We welcome workshop ideas of all kinds, films, performances, skill shares, especially on topics which speak to the cultural, sexual, emotional, physical, and psychological relationships that arise in the lives of Butches, Studs, Tombois, Aggressives, Machas, etc. We are open to all perspectives–queer, feminist, womanist, neither or beyond! We particularly encourage proposals by and for people-over sixty, under twenty-one, working-class, and people of color or persons with disabilities.

Deadline for Submissions for BUTCH Voices Dallas is May 15, 2010 and for the other three Regional Conferences is August 1, 2010. Please submit your proposal or abstract to the corresponding Regional Conference (email addresses listed above) in which you wish to present along with a short bio of yourself and any other presenter.

Please forward this widely to all who may be interested in participating.

All FTM Peoples of African Decent
LAST CALL for SUBMISSION
New DEADLINE: open until Midnight, April 30, 2010

Volume I
21st Century Kings: An Introduction to A New Brown-skinned Masculinity

We’ve extended and expanded our call and the call date. We are now getting requests and submissions from the African continent and have no choice but to change the call to include all Brown-skinned/Black – Male, ThirdGender, TransMen, FtM, Boi, Daddy, Tranny, Tranny Fag, Butch, G3 (gee cued –gender gifted guy,) ’masculine/masculinized’ women (butches, studs, aggressives, ballers, playas….,) Drag Kings, male illusionists, Transgenders, Transsexuals, gender-queers, stealth, boys like us and the likes** from around the globe.

Please submit your stories, poems and art work. Please also refer to all of the more detailed information below.

Thank you, Thank you to all of you who have submitted. We appreciate your patience. Some of you have asked if you can submit more than one item. Yes you can. And as stated below, it’s your property until we confirm you for the book. Thank you!

Below is a copy of the original call. Please send us your submissions today – new and previously published are welcome. Thank you!

All FTM Peoples of African Decent
LAST CALL for SUBMISSION
New DEADLINE: open until Midnight, April 30, 2010
Volume I:
21st Century Kings: An Introduction to A New Brown-skinned Masculinity

3 Kings are three Brown-skinned/Black – Male, ThirdGender and/or Masculine identified Trans persons who seek to give voice and page to the array of persons of color* who may have been born female and now live all or a significant portion of their lives as TransMen, FtM, Boi, Daddy, Tranny, Tranny Fag, Butch, G3 (gee cued –gender gifted guy,) ’masculine/masculinized’ women (butches, studs, aggressives, ballers, playas….,) Drag Kings, male illusionists, Transgenders, Transsexuals, gender-queers, stealth, boys like us and the likes**.

When considering works written over the past 25 years, there are a plethora of books addressing the ‘social construction of masculinity.’ About 90 books deal specifically with TransGendered identities. To my knowledge only four of the 90, specifically offer more than an obligatory glimpse of what is repeatedly understood as the ‘illusive FtM of color.’ Where are the voices, opinions, insight of all the black, brown, red and yellow ’masculine/masculinized’ women, FTMs and others?

Ours are the voices missing from the page and the voices the next generation needs!

For volume One we are requesting your unpublished stories, photographs, poems, essays, drawings. At this time and for this volume, we are specifically seeking submissions from the African Diaspora who identify as and/or live all or a significant portion of their lives as FtM, Transmen, TransGender, Fag, Boi, Tranny, Tranny Fag G3 (gee cubed –gender gifted guy,) Transsexuals, Stealth, boys like us, Trans-identified Butches and the likes.

All submissions, commentary and visual works will be fully considered. Each submission will receive a receipt of delivery via email. We are also seeking/accepting photos, sketches, drawings, digital imagery, cartoons and did we say poetry?!

Word Count/Page Limits:
- Personal Narratives: Up to 15 pages/5000 words Double Spaced
- Fiction: Up to 15 pages/3750 words – Double Spaced
- Critical Essays and Cultural Critiques: Up to 15 pages (including bibliography) 3750 words – Double Spaced
- Poetry/Rhymes: No more than 3 pages per poem/rhyme and 3 poems per poet/mc – Double Spaced
- Graphic Stories: No more than three pages per submission (number of panels up to you). Up to three pieces/stories per artist.
- Photographs/Paintings/Collage/Drawings: 3-5, scanned as B/W only. (No Originals, we are not returning ANYTHING).

New writers welcome!

Please copy and paste your text into your email. Please send images in jpeg format or paste into document. Mail to: 3kingsanthology@gmail.com

Here is our CURRENT FOCUS of WORKS being requested:
1. As Men: African American TransMen on their life, experience, and journey to ‘man’.
¨ Tell us your story. We want anything you want to share about your transition
2. Third Sex/Recognize Me For Me: Passing African American butches and non-transitioned/No Ho transgender folks on their life, experience and journey to be a true expression of themselves.
¨ Here we imagine receiving work from African American Male/Masculine identified folks who are not currently on hormones.
3. In Spirit We Trust (?): TransMen and Spirituality

Here are some ideas that may help spur your writing…
* Self/personal journey: Who supports you? Are you coupled? How do you see yourself? What kind of challenges / issues do you have to deal with being you? Do you see yourself as gay, straight, bi or…? Are you okay with being referred to as a Tranny? Trans? Transexual? Are you stealth? Who are your friends? Are you a parent? Co-parent? Adoptive parent? Foster parent? Guardian? A Primary Provider for someone younger than 18?
* On the job: Did you transition at work? What was that experience like? Did you keep your job? Do you feel safe?
* Your Spiritual Life: Is spirituality important to you? Has your relationship to spirituality, religion or your spiritual or religious community change after you began taking T?
* Have you transitioned? How so, in what ways? Are there differences in life as a woman of color to life as you live it now?
* What about relationships with your family, children, “males” in your life, friends, intimate ones, girlfriends, tricks, neighbors and random human contact?
* Health / wellness: Do you have safe places to go?

********************************************************************************************

Contact: 3kingsanthology AT gmail Dot com

Copy Rights: We will retain copy rights until publication. You have full rights after publication.

Please note that we respect your privacy, while we prefer you use a pseudonym, we will be accepting a limited number of anonymous works.
*We are aware this term may be offensive to some…if it offends you we apologize. Our goal is to be All Inclusive

**There are as many terms as there are communities. Please contact us if you feel you fit in this group even if you don’t identify with the terms.

( Scheduled for 2011 -Volume II: TransMen of The Americas: Native American, Latin, Chicano and more… Volume III For our Asian, South Asian, Pacific Islanders and more…)

Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action, the pioneering, highly regarded South African gay and lesbian archives, invites African writers to submit stories on a queer African theme for publishing in a ground-breaking anthology. Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action intends the anthology to query stereotypes, show that there are many ways of being queer in Africa, and encourage queer artistic expression and appreciation. Literary merit and an insightful response to the complexities of African queerness will guide the selection.

Submit your unpublished short fiction of between 1,000 and 5,000 words to queerafricanfiction@gmail.com by 30 June 2010. Provide a covering page with the title of the story, your first name and surname, your email address and a contact telephone number, and a bio of not more than 100 words. All submissions will be acknowledged.

The selection will be made by 30 September 2010, and writers will work with an editor to refine their stories for publishing in June 2011. The anthology will be launched at the 2011 Cape Town Book Fair and will be distributed locally, in Africa and internationally. With writers’ permissions, all submissions will be archived by Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action and will be accessible to the archives’ many local and international users.

For more information visit the Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action website at www.gala.co.za, or email queerafricanfiction@gmail.com.

Our Firsts is an anthology of autobiographical short stories, novel excerpts, memoirs, erotic essays, and poetry by women of color who share their experiences of their firsts—their first kiss, their first sexual experience with another women, their first lesbian relationship, their first heartbreak, their first lesbian awakening, and the list goes on.

For more info and submission guidelines–check out Our Firsts.

Would you like to be part of the best Lesbian Anthology ever?

Lesbian Memoirs.com is now putting together a collection of lesbian stories and would like to include YOU!

Submissions are open from December 1, 2009 thru January 31, 2010. All entries must be submitted by January 31, 2010 to be considered for publication.
Prize: Publication in a Lesbian Memoirs Anthology April 2010 (title to be announced) and (1) copy of the anthology.
Genre: LGBT Fiction/ Non Fiction
Subject: Any subject will be considered: Drama, Mystery, Love, Horror, Romance, Erotica, Life…
__________________________

This is just a note to wish you a Happy/Merry whatever-it-is you celebrate and hope you approach 2010 with a sense of adventure.

Also, as a reminder–if you are out getting gifts for others, please also consider a gift to the lgbt community in the form of a donation to a local program/nonprofit that services us. Donations are usually tax deductible and, in these times where everyone is cutting back, nonprofits are being hit hard.

Don’t know of any lgbt nonprofits in your area? Here are some suggestions…

If you are a writer or reader of black lgbt literature, you may send a coin or two to Fire & Ink.
If you want to add volume to our national voice, there’s the National Black Justice Coalition and the Zuna Institute.
If you are concerned about the plight of our youth, check out The Ruth Ellis Center, Fierce, and Smyal.

Let’s see, there’s also: The Audre Lorde Project, your local black pride, The Astraea Foundation….

If there is a lgbt nonprofit that you want to suggest, please feel free to shout it out in the comments section (with a link to the site).

We hope you and your families enjoy the holidays–and everyday. And know that the greatest gift you can give is your love.

-Tawanna & Martina

When Women Gather

Editor: Claudia Moss

Publisher: Logical-Lust Press

Deadline: December 31, 2009

Payment: $50/story and 1 copy of the book upon publication

Everyone—whether female or male—has stood, at some point in his life, in the presence of women and known authentic power and healing energy and the beauty of the erotic, and as a result of this experience, has been transformed, in some way, into a greater vision of self.  The forthcoming anthology, When Women Gather, will depict what this phenomenon feels like, tastes like and looks like, through a range of unique short stories, essays, personal accounts and poetry.

I am seeking well-written, literary submissions from women and men, young and old, from every corner of the globe, from the published and unpublished.  Although submissions can be erotic, sensual, romantic, political, spiritual or humorous, they must be true.  Ponder writing about refugee women and girls banning together in a strange land, a street of women who come together to rid the neighborhood of a crack house, women who pray together in drumming or humming circles to excise the world of negative energy, women who embrace the erotic in the taboo of loving one another, women who camp under the stars in North Georgia mountains at women’s festivals or female family and friends who meet in a nursing home to honor a matriarch.  I’m flexible but not taboo friendly, so please no incest, underage characters, or bestiality.

Stories should be unpublished, between 1,500 and 4,000 words, and submitted as a Word attachment.  Two (2) submissions are allowed per writer.  Please include a cover letter with a paragraph bio and full contact info (mailing address, phone number, and real name/pseudonym) when you send your submissions.  All submissions that fail to adhere to these directives will be deleted unread.

Payment will be $50/story and 1 copy of the book upon publication.  Contributors retain the rights to their stories.  The publisher has the final approval over the manuscript.

Send your submissions as a Word document to whenwomengatherbook@gmail.com.

If you have any questions about When Women Gather, please query whenwomengatherbook@gmail.com.

Deadline: December 31, 2009

Manuscripts will be accepted on a rolling basis, so writers are encouraged to submit early.  Email: whenwomengatherbook@gmail.com