The Queer Writer: February 2025

***FREE!*** Event Safety for Queer Authors

• Monday, February 3rd, 2025 from 6:00pm to 7:00pm ET
• Virtual via Zoom
• FREE!

With the ongoing attempts to suppress, silence, and intimidate queer authors and their work, many writers have become concerned about their safety when presenting at events. Whether it's in-person or virtual, a panel or a lecture, a bookstore or a university, there's plenty you can do to keep yourself safe while still promoting your art.

This talk will provide tips for bolstering your safety during events, as well as engaging in questions to help you weigh potential pros and cons of participating in a given event. This session is free and open to everyone with this concern on their minds. Unpublished writers, cishet writers, librarians, booksellers, and event coordinators are welcome to attend. It's never too early (or too late) to learn!

Registration is required. Please note that no recordings, photographs, or screenshots are allowed during this session. Attendees will receive a Zoom link via email ~15 minutes before the session begins.

***FREE!*** Why Bother?: Making Art During Troubled Times

• Friday, March 7th, 2025 from 6:00pm to 7:00pm ET
• Virtual via Zoom
• FREE!

Between elections, pandemics, police brutality, climate change, and a host of other difficult situations, I’ve received the question more and more: Why bother? What’s the point of being artistic during troubled times?

This session is free and open to everyone with this question on their minds. Budgeted for an hour, this talk will look at science-backed studies, logic-based stances, and provide time at the end to answer questions. (Group discussion may be available depending on the number of attendees.)

Registration is required, with opportunity to submit questions for consideration and tips to share with your fellow artists. Please note that no recordings, photographs, or screenshots are allowed during this session. Attendees will receive a Zoom link via email ~15 minutes before the session begins.

Writing Outside of Your Lane

• Friday, March 28th, 2025 from 7:00pm to 8:30pm ET (4:00pm to 5:30pm PT)
• Virtual via Zoom
• $25 (Supporting Tuition); $15 (Helping Hands); $5 (Helping Hands Extended)

As the call for diversity in stories grows stronger (thankfully), many writers without lived experience of marginalization may feel anxiety about how to approach these stories with care and authenticity. Questions like “How do I start?”, “What if I make mistakes?”, and “Am I even allowed to write this?” are common—and valid.

In this 90-minute lecture, Milo Todd offers mainstream writers a thoughtful, practical framework for writing characters outside your own lived experience. Through the pillars of Self-Reflection, Research, Craft, and Editing, you’ll gain tools to approach this process with care, empathy, and a deeper understanding of your responsibility as a writer.

This class welcomes writers of all identities and focuses on equipping you with the knowledge and confidence to write with integrity. Let’s work together to create stories that reflect the rich, diverse world we live in.

Disclosure: I'm an affiliate of Bookshop.org. Any purchase through my storefront supports local bookstores and earns me a commission. Win-win!

I Am Never Leaving Williamsburg by C.M. Green

I Am Never Leaving Williamsburg is a hybrid memoir about clawing through college while battling with Bipolar disorder and Catholicism. In poetry and flash essay, C.M. Green writes about their intertwined experience of mental illness and religious trauma.

Enemy Feminisms: Terfs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation by Sophie Lewis

In recent years, "white feminism" and girlboss feminism have taken a justified beating. We know that leaning in won't make our jobs any more tolerable and that white women have proven to be, at best, unreliable allies. But in a time of rising fascism, ceaseless attacks on reproductive justice, and violent transphobia, we need to reckon with what Western feminism has wrought if we have any hope of building the feminist world we need. Sophie Lewis offers an unflinching tour of enemy feminisms, from 19th century imperial feminists and police officers to 20th century KKK feminists and pornophobes to today's anti-abortion and TERF feminists. Enemy feminisms exist. Feminism is not an inherent political good. Only when we acknowledge that can we finally reckon with the ways these feminisms have pushed us toward counterproductive and even violent ends. And only then can we finally engage in feminist strategizing that is truly antifascist.

No Offense: A Memoir in Essays by Jackie Domenus

When Jackie “came out” in 2014, right as the Trump era was revving up, she began paying closer attention to the inappropriate questions, uncomfortable reactions, and pointed assumptions about sexuality and gender she was witnessing and now experiencing firsthand. NO OFFENSE: A MEMOIR IN ESSAYS takes a magnifying glass to subtle moments that many people don’t recognize as homophobic or transphobic, exploring the impact of microaggressions on LGBTQ+ folks. Blending personal essay and cultural critique, the collection confronts society’s reactions to queerness at poignant moments in Jackie’s life, from wedding planning to OBGYN appointments to the Pulse Nightclub Massacre, and beyond. Revealing the complex and tender moments that sculpted their identity from a tomboy adolescence to gender exploration as an adult, NO OFFENSE analyzes the loaded conversations queer and trans folks face every day on topics like labels, haircuts, Halloween costumes, and more.

Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith

At the turn of the 20th century, Vivian Lesperance is determined to flee her origins in Utica, New York, and avoid repeating her parents' dull, limited life. When she meets Oscar Schmidt, a middle manager at a soap company, Vivian finds a partner she can guide to build the life she wants-not least because, more interested in men himself, Oscar will leave Vivian to tend to her own romances with women. But Vivian's plans require capital, so the two pair up with Squire Clancey, scion of an old American fortune. Together they found Clancey & Schmidt, a preeminent manufacturer of soap, perfume, and candles. When Oscar and Squire fall in love, the trio form a new kind of partnership. Vivian reaches the pinnacle of her power building Clancey & Schmidt into an empire of personal care products while operating behind the image of both men. But exposure threatens, and all three partners are made aware of how much they have to lose.

Loca by Alejandro Heredia

It's 1999, and best friends Sal and Charo are striving to hold on to their dreams in a New York determined to grind them down. Sal is a book-loving science nerd trying to grow beyond his dead-end job in a new city, but he's held back by tragic memories from his past in Santo Domingo. Free-spirited Charo is surprised to find herself a mother at twenty-five, partnered with a controlling man, working at the same supermarket for years, her world shrunk to the very domesticity she thought she'd escaped in her old country. When Sal finds love at a gay club one night, both his and Charo's worlds unexpectedly open up to a vibrant social circle that pushes them to reckon with what they owe to their own selves, pasts, futures, and, always, each other.

Bea Mullins Takes a Shot by Emily Deibert

After a lifetime of humiliating sports experiences, Bea Mullins knows the best way to survive middle school is to stick to the sidelines. When PE is suddenly canceled, though, Bea is forced to join an after-school activity...which is how she ends up as a member of the Glenwood Geese, her middle school's first all-girls hockey team. Bea would be happy sitting on the bench, but she doesn't want to let down her best friend, Celia. Plus, the more time Bea spends on the rinks, the more she comes to enjoy her teammates, especially the incredibly talented--and incredibly cool--co-captain Gabi. But when low funding puts the Geese in danger of never playing again, Bea realizes she may lose everything she didn't know she wanted. A hilarious and heartfelt middle-grade contemporary about first crushes and fierce friendships from debut author Emily Deibert.

But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo

The old keeper of the keys is dead, and the creature who ate her is the volatile Lady of the Capricious House⁠--Anatema, an enormous humanoid spider with a taste for laudanum and human brides. Dália, the old keeper's protégée, must take up her duties, locking and unlocking the little drawers in which Anatema keeps her memories. And if she can unravel the crime that led to her predecessor's execution, Dália might just be able to survive long enough to grow into her new role. But there's a gaping hole in Dália's plan that she refuses to see: Anatema cannot resist a beautiful woman, and she eventually devours every single bride that crosses her path.

Hungerstone by Kat Dunn

It's the height of the industrial revolution and ten years into Lenore's marriage to steel magnate Henry, their relationship has soured. When Henry's ambitions take them from London to the remote British moorlands to host a hunting party, a shocking carriage accident brings the mysterious Carmilla into their lives. Carmilla, who is weak and pale during the day but vibrant at night. Carmilla, who stirs up something deep within Lenore. And before long, girls from the local villages fall sick, consumed by a terrible hunger . . . As the day of the hunt draws closer, Lenore begins to unravel, questioning the role she has been playing all these years. Torn between regaining her husband's affection and the cravings Carmilla has awakened, soon Lenore will uncover a darkness in her household that will place her at terrible risk.

Big Name Fan by Ruthie Knox and Annie Mare

Bexley Simon and Sam Farmer aren't detectives, but they play them on TV. Well, played, past tense. The iconic cult hit that was Craven's Daughter ended five years ago, and their friendship died along with it. Fans were disappointed that the pair's legendary chemistry went unfulfilled--and crushed that the actual spark between actresses Bex and Sam didn't pay off, either. The network never intended for two women to get romantic, in life or onscreen, despite the fans. But the bigger tragedy was the loss of their dear friend, makeup artist Jen Arnot, whose accidental death cast a pall over the series' last episodes. Now the network has decided on a reunion special, and Bex and Sam are thrust together once more as hosts of a rewatch podcast that will feature favorite episodes. Their first guest--a megawatt star who played a murder victim early on--drops a bombshell. Among the millions of pixels of fanfic written about the show online, one truly prolific author, known in the fiction world as the show's Big Name Fan, was an insider, almost certainly someone from the cast or crew. As the podcast moves along--and the spark between Bex and Sam threatens to burn down the studio--the pair realize they're faced with two actual mysteries: Who is their Big Name Fan? And was Jen's death an accident, or did someone want her dead? Sifting through clues as they question cast and crew, the duo will need to separate fact from fiction as they make their personal partnership into unmistakable canon . . .

A World Worth Saving by Kyle Lukoff

Covid lockdown is over, but A's world feels smaller than ever. Coming out as trans didn't exactly go well, and most days, he barely leaves his bedroom, let alone the house. But the low point of A's life isn't online school, missing his bar mitzvah, or the fact that his parents monitor his phone like hawks--it's the weekly Save Our Sons and Daughters meetings his parents all but drag him to. At SOSAD, A and his friends Sal and Yarrow sit by while their parents deadname them and wring their hands over a nonexistent "transgender craze." After all, sitting in suffocating silence has to be better than getting sent away for "advanced treatment," never to be heard from again. When Yarrow vanishes after a particularly confrontational meeting, A discovers that SOSAD doesn't just feel soul-sucking...it's run by an actual demon who feeds off the pain and misery of kids like him. And it's not just SOSAD--the entire world is beset by demons dining on what seems like an endless buffet of pain and bigotry. But how is one trans kid who hasn't even chosen a name supposed to save his friend, let alone the world? And is a world that seems hellbent on rejecting him even worth saving at all?

The Prince's Heart by Ben Chalfin

In the heart of Soeria, where royal bloodlines carve the paths of destiny, Prince Darien Garros, the kingdom's beloved second son, faces the age-old clash between duty and desire. For years, Darien has dodged the court's expectations to find a suitable match, yearning instead for a love that values the man behind the crown. His longing seems answered in Tag Leara, whose charm and genuine affection ignite a hope Darien dared not admit. Yet, fate is a fickle master. A sudden tragedy propels Darien into a role he never sought, challenging his deepest convictions. As the weight of legacy and the whispers of power threaten to suffocate him, Darien confronts the ultimate test. Torn between the call of his blood and the pull of his heart, he stands at a crossroads that could reshape the future of Soeria itself. With every choice comes a price, and Darien must decide: Will he follow the stringent demands of royalty, or will he choose the perilous path of love? In a world where allegiance and affection collide, Prince Darien's story is a testament to the enduring battle between the crowns we bear and the hearts we hold dear.

The Boyhood of Cain by Michael Amherst

In the shadow of an ancient abbey nestled between rivers, Daniel is growing up. He is highly intelligent but little understood by his parents, and a secret passion burns inside him for love and recognition. When his father loses his job as the headmaster of the local school, his family stumbles into a rural life for which they are ill-prepared. Daniel's sole solace is the arrival of Philip, a new boy at school, whom he worships with a confused intensity. Before long, both boys fall under the spell of a charismatic art teacher, setting Daniel on a perilous course that could lead to the betrayal of all he loves.

The Other March Sisters by Linda Epstein, Ally Malinenko, and Liz Parker

Four sisters, each as different as can be. Through the eyes and words of Jo, their characters and destinies became known to millions. Meg, pretty and conventional. Jo, stubborn, tomboyish, and ambitious. Beth, shy and good-natured, a mortal angel readily accepting her fate. And Amy, elegant, frivolous, and shallow. But Jo, for all her insight, could not always know what was in her sisters' thoughts, or in their hearts. With Jo away in New York to pursue her literary ambitions, Meg, Beth, and Amy follow their own paths. Meg, newly married with young twins, struggles to find the contentment that Marmee assured her would come with domesticity. Unhappy and unfulfilled, she turns to her garden, finding there not just a hobby but a calling that will allow her to help other women in turn. Beth knows her time is limited. Still, part of her longs to break out of her suffocating cocoon at home, however briefly. A new acquaintance turns into something more, offering unexpected, quiet joy. Amy, traveling in Europe while she pursues her goal of becoming an artist, is keenly aware of the expectation that she will save the family by marrying well. Through the course of her journey, she discovers how she can remain true to herself, true to her art, and true to the love that was always meant to be. Purposefully leaving Jo off the page, authors Liz Parker, Ally Malinenko, and Linda Epstein draw inspiration from Alcott's real-life sisters, giving the other March women room to reveal themselves through conversations, private correspondence, and intimate moments--coming alive in ways that might surprise even daring, unconventional Jo.

Mountain Upside Down by Sara Ryan

Alex Eager lives in Faillin, OR with her grandmother, a retired librarian. Life should be great for Alex, since she finally worked up the courage to ask her best friend PJ if they could be more than friends and she said yes. But their new relationship will have to be long distance, because PJ is moving. On top of that, Alex is worried that something is wrong with her increasingly forgetful grandmother. And to make matters worse, Faillin is holding a referendum on library funding, and things aren't looking good. Will anything good for Alex ever last?

It's All or Nothing, Vale by Andrea Beatriz Arango

No one knows hard work and dedication like Valentina Camacho. And Vale's thing is fencing. She's the top athlete at her fencing gym. Or she was...until the accident. After months away, Vale is finally cleared to fence again, but it's much harder than before. Her body doesn't move the way it used to, and worst of all is the new number one: Myrka. When she sweeps Vale aside with her perfect form and easy smile, Vale just can't accept that. But the harder Vale fights to catch up, the more she realizes her injury isn't the only thing holding her back. If she can't leave her accident in the past, then what does she have to look forward to?

On Her Terms by Amy Spalding

Fresh off breaking up with her boyfriend and swerving away from the conventional, TikTok-ready married life she never wanted, Clementine is ready to explore the alternatives. Not that she wants to be single forever, much less die alone. But at thirty-six, it's time for her to experience new things--including in her love life. And though an invitation to a fake relationship to appease family sounds like a recipe for disaster, Clem finds herself saying yes to smart, spirited dog groomer Chloe Lee anyway . . . Chloe is long past her own baby gay era, but even before they've tackled Clem's parents' anniversary party and Chloe's friend's wedding, the two of them end up spending a lot of time together. As the attraction between them grows stronger, it all begins to feel pretty real to Clem. Chloe, however, is fine as just friends--plus she's convinced Clem is just eager for "someone" to take her off the singles list. How to persuade her otherwise? After all, Clem is starting to realize her life is wonderfully full and being "alone" doesn't scare her a bit. Still, being without the tiny powerhouse that is Chloe, specifically? That's a whole other story . . . Wise, witty, and full of heart, here is an uplifting love story with an ending worth waiting for.

Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us by Jennifer Finney Boylan

Jennifer Finney Boylan's She's Not There was the first bestselling work written by a transgender American. Since its publication twenty years ago, she has become the go-to person for insight into the impact of gender on our lives, from the food we eat to the dreams we dream, both for ourselves and for our children. But Cleavage is more than a deep dive into gender identity; it's also a look at the difference between coming out as trans in 2000--when many people reacted to Boylan's transition with love--and the present era of blowback and fear. How does gender affect our sense of self? Our body image? The passage of time? The friends we lose--and keep? Boylan considers her womanhood, reflects on the boys and men who shaped her, and reconceives of herself as a writer, activist, parent, and spouse. With heart-wrenching honesty, she illustrates the feeling of liminality that followed her to adulthood, but demonstrates the redemptive power of love through it all.

Want a previously published book showcased? Let me know! The given work must: 1) be written by a self-identified member of the LGBTQ+ community, 2) be published within the last five years, 3) has not yet appeared on the ICYMI list, and 4) wasn't included in the Anticipated Books section within the last three months. All genres and independently-published works welcome.

Disclosure: I'm an affiliate of Bookshop.org. Any purchase through my storefront supports local bookstores and earns me a commission. Win-win!

Trans Like Me: Conversations for All of Us by CN Lester

In Trans Like Me, CN Lester takes readers on a measured, thoughtful, intelligent yet approachable tour through the most important and high-profile narratives around the trans community, turning them inside out and examining where we really are in terms of progress. From the impact of the media's wording in covering trans people and issues, to the way parenting gender variant children is portrayed, Lester brings their charged personal narrative to every topic and expertly lays out the work left to be done. Trans Like Me explores the ways that we are all defined by ideas of gender -- whether we live as he, she, or they -- and how we can strive for authenticity in a world that forces limiting labels.

Bi Women Quarterly Spring 2025: Pieces of the Puzzle

• What: "This issue focuses on formative elements from your youth or early bi+ journey. Consider toys, books, movies, media, or other influences/creative works that helped you realize you were bi+. Was there a specific influence that made you feel less alone while you were figuring things out? Reflect upon the beginning of your queer journey and write about the things that stand out to you."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: N/A
• Deadline: February 1st, 2025

CantoMundo 2025 Retreat

• What: "CantoMundo is dedicated to serving Latinx poets and poetry across regional, aesthetic, ethnic, racial (e.g. Afro-Latinx/Caribbean/Indigenous) linguistic, generational, and LGBTQIA+ spectrums. Our work is motivated by the understanding that Latinx voices, despite historic silencing, have always resounded within the chorus of American poetry."
• Fee: N/A
• Pay: N/A
• Deadline: February 15th, 2025

QueerAF: Pitch for Trans+ History Week

• What: "Trans+ History Week is a week-long reflective period to learn and celebrate the momentous and millennia-old history of transgender, non-binary, gender-diverse and Intersex people. There are paid commissions available for: 7 writers and journalists, 7 illustrators and artists, 6 audio and podcast producers. All of these opportunities are to create content - but it's not just about capturing history. Successful pitches will detail what lessons we can learn from history."
• Fee: N/A
• Pay: Writers: £170, Illustrators: £250, Audio Producers: £500
• Deadline: February 16th, 2025

Sinister Wisdom: Body of Land

• What: "This issue aims to highlight works that consider the interplay between cultural and lesbian/queer identities and how this informs notions of belonging. How are bodies treated differently in different geographies? What are the physical limitations that are imposed on racialised queer bodies? What are the emotional landscapes that accompany the restrictions and/or freedoms of movement? How do histories of lesbian/queer migration, exile, displacement shape dis/connection to land, self, community and place? How are queer communities created and navigated within diaspora/s? How are ideas of ‘kinship’ asserted, expanded and/or complicated across geography and time?"
• Fee: $0
• Pay: N/A
• Deadline: February 28th, 2025

The Rumpus Prize for Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction

• What: "Announcing the inaugural Rumpus Prize for Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction! The Rumpus has a long history of championing emerging and established poets, fiction writers, and essayists, and we’re pleased to announce a new way the magazine will bring attention to great writing. All submissions will be read by The Rumpus‘s editorial team, and our final judges will be Kaveh Akbar (Poetry), Rachel Khong (Fiction), and Megan Stielstra (Creative Nonfiction)."
• Fee: $20
• Pay: $1,000 first-place prize and publication in three genres: poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Honorable mentions receive $200 and publication in each of the three genres.
• Deadline: March 2nd, 2025

Prismatica: LGBTQ Speculative Fiction Magazine

• What: "Prismatica Magazine is an LGBTQ fantasy and science-fiction magazine that publishes short stories, poetry, reviews, interviews, and articles. We publish on a quarterly schedule. All of our fiction is published on our website for free. At this time, we are unable to pay but this will hopefully change in the future."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: $0
• Deadline: March 15th, 2025

2024 Lambda Literary Awards

• What: "Lambda Literary Awards celebrate the outstanding LGBTQ+ storytelling from a given year. Lambda uses 'LGBTQ+' as a catch-all term, meaning that works reflecting identities beyond lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/queer or questioning are also welcome, to include two-spirit, intersex, pansexual, aro/ace, and other emerging identities."
• Fee: $65-$115 per title
• Pay: $0
• Deadline: March 24th, 2025

Sinister Wisdom: SWANA Dykes

• What: "The SWANA Dykes issue of Sinister Wisdom will highlight poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, oral histories, visual art, and genre-bending work from Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) dyke, lesbian, queer, transgender, and gender non-conforming artists. Submissions from Black transgender and gender non-conforming artists will be prioritized. The SWANA region is often referred to as 'The Middle East.' This terminology is Eurocentric and homogenizes a vast region that consists of people of diverse histories, ethnicities, cultures, religions, and languages. SWANA serves as a regional signifier rather than a political or racial one. Artists from the SWANA region as well as various SWANA diasporas are welcome to submit."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: N/A
• Deadline: March 30th, 2025

Bi Women Quarterly Summer 2025: Finding Community

• What: "How do bi+ people find community? Write about your experience navigating the world as a bi+ person and trying to find your own community, whether that be a friend group, chosen family, knitting circle, or so on. Did you join a club or organization that led to you making some of your closest queer friends? Did you meet your best friend on a dating app? Did you start a group or meetup? Explain how you successfully overcame the struggles society forces upon us as LGBTQ+ individuals and how, through it all, you found your own community."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: N/A
• Deadline: May 1st, 2025

Sinister Wisdom: Jewish Dykes Unite!

• What: "Sinister Wisdom is seeking poetry, fiction, nonfiction, art, and genre-bending works from Jewish dykes of all kinds — and we mean all. Jews of all origins, converts, Jews with tattoos, patrilineal Jews, Jews who have never stepped foot in a synagogue before, etc. No matter how religious you are or how much you may feel like a “fake Jew,” submit to us! We want your Jewish lesbian joy and your Jewish lesbian pain. We want your yearning, your gossip, your fashion tips, your love stories, your too-good-to-keep-to-yourself lesbian sexcapades and fantasies. Tell us about your grief, your confusion, your dating horror stories, your anxiety, your heartbreak, your intergenerational trauma."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: N/A
• Deadline: June 20th, 2025

NeuroQueer Books: Spoon Knife 10: Polarities

• What: "Our NeuroQueer Books imprint is for fiction, memoir, and other literary work, with a focus on themes of queerness and neurodivergence. The theme for Spoon Knife 10 will be Polarities. Polarities: pairs of opposite forces or qualities or tendencies. Good and evil. Love and hate. Life and death. Heroism and villainy. Feminine and masculine. Night and day. Vice and virtue. Old and new. Order and chaos. The public persona and the hidden shadow self. The mundane everyday world and that which lies beyond. What polarity lies at the heart of your story? In what ways does it manifest? What happens when the two sides of the polarity come into contact or conflict, or when one transforms into the other?"
• Fee: $0
• Pay: "$30 plus 1 cent per word"
• Deadline: July 31st, 2025

Wayfarer Books Radical Authenticity Prize for Trans & Non-binary Writers

• What: "This prize is open to those who identify within the Transgender, Non-binary, and Gender non-conforming spectrum. This prize is open to works of poetry, creative nonfiction, memoirs, and essay collections. (No fiction, please.) While we welcome all themes—especially those that highlight the experiences of marginalized communities—the material/themes of your entry do not need to be about the transgender/non-binary experience to be eligible."
• Fee: $20
• Pay: "We pay authors anywhere from 8-12% of the list price on print; 25% on eBook; 25% on Audiobook."
• Deadline: February 1st, 2026

Sinister Wisdom: Barbie: the Movie

• What: "In this special issue, Sinister Wisdom will explore lesbians' reactions to Barbie: The Movie. How do we voice the joy and gratitude of this cultural moment where lesbian lives and lesbian culture is expressed in the movie with a major musical plotline from the Indigo Girls and two out dykes with major roles in this movie, now the highest grossing movie in Warner Brothers' history? What else do we think and feel about this cultural moment? Were you expecting to feel deeply personally touched by Barbie? What was a special scene that reflects your dyke life? Were you surprised or shocked by your reaction to the film? How do we understand Barbie's continuing life and its relationship to lesbians and lesbian culture?"
• Fee: $0
• Pay: N/A
• Deadline: TBD

ALOCASIA

• What: "ALOCASIA accepts creative writing of all genres from queer writers on a rolling basis with no reading fee. We appreciate both traditional work, as well as the weird, erotic, explicit, anti-colonial, and whatever you can come up with. This is a journal about plants, gardens, gardening, parks, and indoor horticulture. Please don’t send us work that isn’t about plants."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: N/A
• Deadline: rolling

Rough Cut Press

• What: "We seek work of all genres by writers from the LGBTQIA community. We do not define or gatekeep what it means to be a queer writer: if you think your work belongs here, then it belongs here. To get a sense of what we publish please read some of our former issues. We don’t know what we like until we see it. Each month we announce a different theme, but don’t worry if the work you submit doesn’t quite fit: we often build issues and themes around work that takes us by surprise."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: $25
• Deadline: rolling

Screen Door Review

• What: "Screen Door Review is a triannual literary magazine that publishes poetry and flash fiction authored by individuals belonging to the southern queer (lgbtq) community of the United States. The purpose of the magazine is to provide a platform of expression to those whose identities—at least in part—derive from the complicated relationship between queer person and place. Specifically, queer person and the South. Through publication, we aim to not only express, but also validate and give value to these voices, which are oftentimes overlooked, undermined, condemned, or silenced."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: N/A
• Deadline: rolling

AC|DC: A Journal for the Bent

• What: "AC|DC currently publishes new short fiction or creative nonfiction by LGBTQIA+ authors on Tuesdays. AC|DC is always open for submissions. Take a look at what’s on the site to decide if your work might be a good fit. We have a preference for the dark and raw but are open to all."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: $0
• Deadline: rolling

The Bitchin' Kitsch

• What: "The B’K is a quarterly art and lit, online and printed magazine prioritizing traditionally marginalized creators, but open to all."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: $10
• Deadline: rolling

Bella Books Call for Submissions

• What: "At Bella Books, we believe stories about women-loving-women are essential to our lives—and so do our readers. We are interested in acquiring manuscripts that tell captivating and unique stories across all genres—including romance, mystery, thriller, paranormal, etc. We want our books to reflect and celebrate the diversity of our lesbian, sapphic, queer, bisexual, and gender non-conforming community—in all our glorious shapes, sizes and colors. Our desire to publish diverse voices is perennial. We don’t want to tell your stories for you—we want to amplify your voices....We publish romance, mystery, action/thriller, science-fiction, fantasy, erotica and general fiction. At this time, we are particularly interested in acquiring romance manuscripts."
• Fee: N/A
• Pay: N/A
• Deadline: rolling

Baest Journal

• What: Baest Journal, "a journal of queer forms and affects," seeks to publish work by queer writers and artists.
• Fee: $0
• Pay: $0
• Deadline: rolling

Are men’s reading habits truly a national crisis?

by Constance Grady

The question has been hurtling through think pieces, op-eds, and ominous headlines over the past few years: Have American men stopped reading? Specifically, have they stopped reading fiction? And is that why the world is so bad now?

…Reading fiction has assumed the same role as therapy in public discourse: something good for one’s mental and emotional health that we should all do in order to be better citizens, and something that men — particularly straight men — are simply choosing not to do, to the detriment of society. Essayists and critics have been hitting this note for several years, but it has acquired a new darkness since the 2024 election, when men seemed to break decisively for Trump. If men had been willing to read novels, the idea is, perhaps Kamala Harris would be preparing her inaugural address right now.

These observers are pointing at something real. Men did appear to favor Trump by a significant margin in November, although we’re still waiting on data more concrete than exit polls to tell us how far that trend really goes. Many men do seem to have found themselves isolated in a media silo full of toxic visions of masculinity, one that probably helped radicalize them toward Trump and his acolytes this past election season. They also seem to read fewer books in general than women do, and they probably read less fiction than women as well.

Yet the idea of men who need new stories but refuse to read them is also exaggerated and hyperbolic. It has become its own kind of story. It’s a legend, one that’s been repeated for years, haunted by zombie statistics and dubious facts. Its continued flourishing says a lot about what our culture worries about and all the things we hope will heal us.

How Tennessee quietly made it harder for prisoners to access books

by Char Daston

The Appalachian Prison Book Project operates out of an old stone house in Morgantown, West Virginia, sending free books to prisoners in six nearby states.

State prison systems have strict standards about who can mail books to incarcerated people. So books-to-prisons nonprofits work with each state to get on the list of trusted book vendors. The Appalachian Prison Book Project (APBP) has been on Tennessee’s list for years.

“We get about 200 letters a week from people incarcerated asking for books that they’d like to read,” says Lydia Welker, the group’s spokesperson. “They might ask us for a certain author or a genre or a specific title. We have our volunteers read (the letters), and then look through our shelves of donated books to try to find the best possible match.”

Sometimes a book will be rejected and returned for violating prison rules.

“Books with nudity in them,” Welker gives as an example, “even art statues like Michelangelo’s David.”

But Welker said that one day last April, something unusual started happening to the books going to Tennessee.

“We got four tote bags worth of books returned from state prisons in Tennessee that same day.”

APBP soon figured out why: The Tennessee Department of Correction, or TDOC, had taken it off the list of approved vendors. And the same thing happened to all the other books-to-prisons programs that serve the state.

The change has impacted those nonprofits and the people within Tennessee prisons, and it mirrors similar moves in other states.