FIRST PERSON QUEER:
Who We Are, Where We’ve Come From, Where We’re Going
edited by Richard Labonté and Lawrence Schimel
for publication in Fall 2007 by Arsenal Pulp Press
We’re looking for short (under 1500 words) first
person essays from across the spectrum of queer
experience that depict the diversity, the complexity,
and the excitement of contemporary GLBTQ life. We want
to be surprised, and to surprise our readers, with
intensely personal experiences from writers of diverse
genders, ages, races, and orientations, informing us
about unusual aspects of our lives. Comprehending
queer codes, exulting in nonconformity, expressing
gender deviance, confronting assimilation, having to
“pass”: write about the theory of your life. Discuss
sissyhood, parenting skills, sexual experiences (play
or work), urban pleasures, personal choices: write
about the practice of your life. We’ve all got a story
to tell. Share yours. Express your “I”.
Topic and tone—witty, reflective, satirical,
learned—are open to your imaginations, as long as the
writing is real. What’s going to make us sit up and
pay attention are essays that go beyond the
traditional tales of coming out, first love, breaking
up, the death of a lover, the acceptance—or not—of
parents. These are important stories, and intriguing
twists on them will be considered, but they’ve been
done; we’re unlikely to include more than one or two.
So: offer us something different, something less easy
to categorize. Give us a glimpse of an instructive
physical moment or a transcendent emotional passage
from your dyke, fag, tranny, bi, or otherwise queer
life. Prose or graphic/comix narratives, no poetry.
Submit your work by email, as an attachment in .doc
format, with author’s last name and story title in the
file name: Surname-Title.doc, to Richard Labonté at:
fpqueer@gmail.com
Please include contact details and bio in the .doc
file, not just in your email; submissions that are
considered will be separated from the emails.
Deadline: Feb. 28, 2007.
Payment: a small honorarium and one copy of the book
will be paid. (Please note that payment is in
Canadian funds.)
As an anthology for a Canadian publisher, preference
will be given to submissions from Canadian writers.
But the anthology is open to submissions from all
writers, and is actively interested in non-North
American writers.