The Queer Writer: January 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 Unpublished writers, cishet writers, librarians, booksellers, and event coordinators are welcome to attend.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!

The Space Between Men by Mia S. Willis

These piercing, surprising poems look to familial history, rituals of faith, and the natural world to explore how the intersecting cultures of Blackness and queerness relate to each other. As the collection evolves, the reader is challenged and empowered to seek expansiveness in spaces that have not previously been excavated, reckon with the complexities of interpersonal relationships, and explore memory as a catalyst for self-determination. Mia S. Willis weaves together intergenerational knowledge and personal discovery--not only to define themselves but to articulate a communal identity that transcends language.

The Relationship Mechanic by Karmen Lee

Jessica Jae-un Miller came to Peach Blossom, Georgia, for a visit, not a breakdown. But when her rental car dies on the outskirts of town, mechanic Lavenia "Vini" Williams provides a tow--and a very welcome jump start to Jessica's heart. It's been a minute since Jessica's last fling--her relationship specialty--and Vini checks all the right boxes. If only the sexy car whisperer seemed interested...Vini knows herself and what she wants. She loves her job, her family, her hometown--but she'd love to fall in love. Jessica stirs up all the right feelings, but the city girl has no intention of staying in Peach Blossom. Why sign up for a broken heart? But the temptation is real as Vini goes out of her way to drive a carless Jessica around town. The pair can't seem to keep their distance--or their hands to themselves. With only six weeks to figure out where their red-hot chemistry might lead, Vini and Jessica will have to decide if home can be where the heart is when the heart only knows how to run.

Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto

Edie is done with crime. Eight years behind bars changes a person--costs them too much time with too many of the people who need them most. And it's all Angel's fault. She sold Edie out in what should have been the greatest moment of their lives. Instead, Edie was shipped off to the icy prison planet spinning far below the soaring skybridges and neon catacombs of Kepler space station--of home--to spend the best part of a decade alone. But then a chance for early parole appears out of nowhere and Edie steps into the pallid sunlight to find none other than Angel waiting--and she has an offer. One last job. One last deal. One last target. The trillionaire tech god they failed to bring down last time. There's just one thing Edie needs to do--trust Angel again--which also happens to be the last thing Edie wants to do. What could possibly go all hammajang about this plan?

Emerald Road by Orlando Ortega-Medina

Isaac Perez, a young dreamer caught in the crossfire of El Salvador's civil war, is forced to flee north after his life is torn apart by military brutality. His journey to the United States is fraught with peril, but he's not alone; by his side is Ahbhu, a loyal Australian Cattle Dog with whom he shares a mysterious, telepathic bond. Together, Isaac and Ahbhu brave treacherous landscapes and cross paths with unforgettable allies: Suchi, a fierce protector of LGBTQ migrants, and Diego, a young man whose kindness rekindles Isaac's hope for a future beyond survival. But as they journey through a world scarred by violence and betrayal, Isaac must confront the haunting shadows of his past--and discover whether he has the strength to build a new life in a land of promise.

Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett

At forty, Peter, an asylum lawyer in New York City, is overworked and isolated. He spends his days immersed in the struggles of immigrants only to return to an empty apartment and occasional hook-ups with a man who wants more than Peter can give. But when the asylum case of a young gay man pierces Peter's numbness, the event that he has avoided for twenty years returns to haunt him. Ann, his mother, who runs a women's retreat center she founded after leaving his father, is hurt by the estrangement from Peter but cherishes the world she has built. She long ago put behind her the decision that divided her from her son. But as Peter's case plunges him further into the fraught memory of his first love and the night of violence that changed his life, he and his mother must confront the secret that tore them apart.

I Think They Love You by Julian Winters

When Denzel "Denz" Carter's workaholic father and CEO of 24 Carter Gold unexpectedly announces his retirement, the competition is on for who will become his successor. To convince his family members that he's capable of commitment, Denz impulsively lies about being in a serious relationship. Now Denz needs to find a fake boyfriend to seal the deal on the CEO position. Denz is forced to turn to the last person he wants to be in a pretend (or any) relationship with: Braylon, the man who broke his heart. Braylon's sudden reappearance in Denz's life turns everything upside down. But, apparently, he needs Denz's connections to the mayor to win his own promotion. So, they strike a deal. It's all business until the funny texts and the confusing kisses leave Denz struggling to separate this temporary arrangement from the affairs of his heart.

Murder in the Dressing Room by Holly Stars

By day, Joe is a hotel accountant, invisibly sitting behind their desk and playing by the rules. By night, donned in sequins, they take to the stage as Misty Divine, a star of the London drag scene. But when Misty's drag mother, Lady Lady, is found dead in her dressing room beside a poisoned box of chocolates, Misty and her fellow performers become the prime suspects. Heartbroken by the loss, and frustrated by the clear biases of the police, Misty must solve the crime before the culprit strikes again. Among the drop-dead gorgeous lurks a cutthroat killer, and Misty Divine won't rest until she finds out who it is.

The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King by Harry Trevaldwyn

Patch Simmons has decided that this is the year he will get a boyfriend, so it's goodbye to his French pen-pal Jean-Pierre and hello to the world! Unfortunately, the only other "out" boys in his school year are dating each other, so finding a boyfriend isn't going to be easy... Until fate finally intervenes and two new mysterious boys join drama club: Peter, who's just moved from New York (very chic) and his best friend, Sam. Patch is confident that one of them (although either of them will do!) will be his first boyfriend. So armed with his single mum's outdated self-help books, his over-supportive best friend Jean and an alarming level of self-confidence, Patch is confident that this mission will be a complete success. Whether or not they actually like boys or him is a problem for later.

Isaac's Song by Daniel Black

Isaac is at a crossroads in his young life. Growing up in Missouri, the son of a caustic, hard-driving father, he was conditioned to suppress his artistic pursuits and physical desires, notions that didn't align with a traditional view of masculinity. But now, in late '80s Chicago, Isaac has finally carved out a life of his own. He is sensitive and tenderhearted and has built up the courage to seek out a community. Yet just as he begins to embrace who he is, two social catalysts--the AIDS crisis and Rodney King's attack--collectively extinguish his hard-earned joy. At a therapist's encouragement, Isaac begins to write down his story. In the process, he taps into a creative energy that will send him on a journey back to his family, his ancestral home in Arkansas and the inherited trauma of the nation's dark past. But a surprise discovery will either unlock the truths he's seeking or threaten to derail the life he's fought so hard to claim.

Brewed with Love by Shelly Page

Plant witch Sage Bishop intends to run her family's apothecary one day. The doors just have to stay open until she can take over from her nana. That's why she spends all her time perfecting a tonic that'll put Bishop Brews on the map. She certainly doesn't need their latest hire--and her ex-best friend--Ximena Reyes causing any distractions. Alas, at the first sight of Ximena's cheeky smile, Sage flees the shop, allowing someone to break into Bishop Brews and steal the tonic she's been tinkering with. With Bishop Brews' reputation on the line, Sage reluctantly partners with Ximena to find the culprit. As the mystery deepens, so do pesky old feelings. Will she be able to resist Ximena's charm, or will she let it work its magic for a second chance at love?

The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill

If you had one chance to talk to your younger self...would you? What would you say? When Darby left Oak Falls for college in NYC, all he wanted was to get as far away as possible, find a community where he could start fresh--and finally forget about his childhood best friend Michael, and just how painfully their friendship ended. Now, about to turn thirty, Darby suddenly finds himself unemployed. With no better alternative, and questioning where he really belongs, he moves back to his hometown. But the changes in Oak Falls--the planned community with his mother's new town home, the trendy coffee shop--make him feel off balance. And Michael's still here, their relationship still distant and strained. Even though they've both changed. One thing is familiar: In Between Books, Darby's refuge growing up and eventual high school job. When he walks into the bookstore now, Darby feels an eerie sense of déjà vu--everything is exactly the same. Even the newspapers are dated 2009. And behind the register is a teen who looks a lot like Darby did at sixteen. . . who just might give Darby the opportunity to change his own present for the better--if he can figure out how before his connection to the past vanishes forever.

We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin

Sigrid hates working at the Dollar Pal but having always resisted the idea of growing up into the trappings of adulthood, she did not graduate high school, preferring to roam the streets of her small town with her best friend Greta, the only person in the world who ever understood her. Her older sister Margit is baffled and frustrated by Sigrid's inability to conform to the expectations of polite society. But Sigrid's detachment veils a deeper turmoil and sensitivity. She's haunted by the pains of her past--from pretending her parents were swamp monsters when they shook the floorboards with their violent arguments to grappling with losing Greta's friendship to the opioid epidemic ravaging their town. As Margit sets out to understand Sigrid and the secrets she has hidden, both sisters, in their own time and way, discover that reigniting their shared childhood imagination is the only way forward. What unfolds is an unforgettable story of two sisters finding their way back to each other, and a celebration of that transcendent, unshakable bond.

Single Player by Tara Tai

Cat Li cares about two things: video games and swoony romances. The former means there hasn't been much of the latter in her (real) life, but when she lands her dream job writing the love storylines for Compass Hollow--the next big thing in games--she knows it's all been worth it. Then she meets her boss: the infamous Andi Zhang, who's not only an arrogant hater of happily-ever-afters determined to keep Cat from doing her job but also impossibly, annoyingly hot. As Compass Hollow's narrative director, Andi couldn't care less about love--in-game or out. After getting doxxed by internet trolls three years ago, Andi's been trying to prove to the gaming world that they're a serious gamedev. Their plan includes writing the best game possible, with zero lovey-dovey stuff. That is, until the man funding the game's development insists Andi add romance in order to make the story "more appealing to female gamers." Forced to give Cat a chance, Andi begrudgingly realizes there's more to Cat than romantic idealism and, okay, a cute smile. But admitting that would mean giving up the single-player life that has kept their heart safe for years. And when Cat uncovers a behind-the-scenes plot to destroy Andi's career, the two will have to put their differences aside and find a way to work together before it's game over.

The Broposal by Sonora Reyes

It's about time roommates Alejandro and Kenny get married. Or at least, that's what all their close friends and family think when they announce their engagement. The kicker? The two are faking their whole relationship so Alejandro can get a green card. But if Han was going to marry anyone, it would be his ride or die since second grade. Han has never been able to put down roots, and the only one who truly breaks through his walls is Kenny. Sweet, sensitive Kenny is newly single, and what better distraction from his soul-sucking relationship than proposing marriage to Han? Kenny can't think of anything more fun than spending his life with his best friend, even if it's just for a piece of paper. But as Kenny keeps up the charade, he's soon struggling to resist their sizzling chemistry. The line between fact and fiction begins to blur the closer they get to their wedding date. With all eyes on Han and Kenny--including a meddling ex and immigration officers--will these two bros make it down the altar for real?

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!

The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports by Michael Waters

The story of the early trans athletes and Olympic bureaucrats who lit the flame for today's culture wars. In December 1935, Zdeněk Koubek, one of the most famous sprinters in European women's sports, declared he was now living as a man. Around the same time, the celebrated British field athlete Mark Weston, also assigned female at birth, announced that he, too, was a man. Periodicals and radio programs across the world carried the news; both became global celebrities. A few decades later, they were all but forgotten. And in the wake of their transitions, what could have been a push toward equality became instead, through a confluence of bureaucracy, war, and sheer happenstance, the exact opposite: the now all-too-familiar panic around trans, intersex, and gender nonconforming athletes. In The Other Olympians, Michael Waters uncovers, for the first time, the gripping true stories of Koubek, Weston, and other pioneering trans and intersex athletes from their era. With dogged research and cinematic flair, Waters also tracks how International Olympic Committee members ignored Nazi Germany's atrocities in order to pull off the Berlin Games, a partnership that ultimately influenced the IOC's nearly century-long obsession with surveilling and cataloging gender. Immersive and revelatory, The Other Olympians is a groundbreaking, hidden-in-the-archives marvel, an inspiring call for equality, and an essential contribution toward understanding the contemporary culture wars over gender in sports.

2o25 Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices *Deadline Extended!

• What: "Since 2007, the Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices has offered sophisticated instruction in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, young adult fiction, playwriting led by the most talented writers working today. In 2022, the Writers Retreat expanded to include instruction in screenwriting and speculative fiction, and in 2025, we will introduce the newest cohort serving writers working in both and between playwriting and screenwriting."
• Fee: $30 ("we are offering a number of application fee waivers for the QTBIPOC members of our community"); $1,625 tuition (fundraising opportunities available)
• Pay: 10-day virtual retreat
• Deadline: January 2nd, 2025

Othering & Belonging Institute 2025 Summer Fellowship Program

• What: "The Othering & Belonging Institute Summer Fellowship is a paid research experience for individuals seeking to develop their research skills by engaging with the Institute’s multidisciplinary research, analysis, policy, and strategic narrative work. The purpose of the fellowship is to build the capacity and network of the next generation of researchers and community leaders who are committed to social and racial justice by providing mentorship and hands-on experience with social science research. In addition to working directly with their staff supervisor on an individual research project, fellows engage as a cohort in weekly meetings or workshops on Institute frameworks, research methodologies, and contemporary social justice issues throughout the summer."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: $26-31/hr, ~20 hours a week
• Deadline: January 12th, 2025

Shatter the Sun: Queer Tales of Untold Adventure

• What: "We are looking primarily for fantasy stories on the gritty, un-epic side of things. We expect there will be a seam of the occult and cosmic horror running through the book. We’ll also probably include a couple sword and planet stories, but that won’t be the focus. We’re using the most inclusive definition of queer. Queer, trans, ace, undefinable. Throughout, we’re looking for rich, varied and nuanced understandings of gender, family and ethnicity."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: $0.08/word
• Deadline: January 15th, 2025

Anodyne Magazine Vol. 5

• What: "We publish work by FLINTA* people on the topic of our health. We are a magazine focused on personal health experiences, including (but not limited to) physical health, doctor visits, mental health, chronic illness, and more. We accept submissions from anyone identifying as part of the FLINTA* community worldwide."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: "Each contributor will receive a dividend of sales from the issue in which they are published for as long as sales come in."
• Deadline: January 15th, 2025

Queer-Writer Fellowships for MVICM Summer Writers' Conference

• What: "Established in 2019, these fellowships assist with our commitment to increasing philanthropic support for LGBTQIA+ writers and expanding the American literary canon. Application for these fellowships is open to all queer-identified writers, ages 18 and older. Two Full Fellowship Winners (one prose and one poetry) will receive the Full Attendance Package to the MVICW Summer Writers' Conference which includes registration, lodging, and a manuscript session."
• Fee: $20
• Pay: Full attendance package to the MVICW Summer Writers' Conference
• Deadline: January 19th, 2025

The Charles S. Longcope Jr. Writers and Artists Grant

• What: "The Gay & Lesbian Review / Worldwide, with the generous support of James Lynn Williams in honor of his late husband, Charles S. Longcope Jr. (previously funded by the Leonard-Litz Foundation), has created a writers and artists grant program to cultivate a diverse pool of writers for The G&LR to bring new perspectives, ideas, and voices to the magazine and to encourage and support emerging and unpublished LGBTQ+ writers, thinkers, scholars, and artists. We are currently accepting proposals from graduate students across disciplines and fields that make a contribution to LGBTQ+ scholarship or the arts."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: Up to $7,500
• Deadline: January 31st, 2025

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

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

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

How To Explain Book Bans to Those Who Want to Understand

by Kelly Jensen

Book bans aren’t new. That’s true both for the current wave, as well as in a broad, general sense. But the fact of the matter is every single day new people begin to learn about what’s happening, either because they have not been tuned in before, because they didn’t believe it was as bad as presented, or because they’re simply not engaged with the types of media covering the issue. Although there is a basic primer on how to fight book bans and censorship in 2024, distilled into easy-to-do, vital tasks following nearly four years of nonstop coverage of book bans, that kind of guide does not provide clear talking points for engaging in conversations about book banning with those who are unaware or completely new to the discussion.

This is that 101 guide. You can use it in conjunction with this more robust and detailed guide to the myths about book banning that keep being repeated.

Here are several talking points you can and should use with the people in your life who may otherwise not understand the complexity and seriousness of book bans happening in school and public libraries. It will not include everything, nor can it. Instead, this is meant to be for people who are eager to listen and learn but may be overwhelmed with where to even begin.

The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books

by Rose Horowitch

Nicholas Dames has taught Literature Humanities, Columbia University’s required great-books course, since 1998. He loves the job, but it has changed. Over the past decade, students have become overwhelmed by the reading. College kids have never read everything they’re assigned, of course, but this feels different. Dames’s students now seem bewildered by the thought of finishing multiple books a semester. His colleagues have noticed the same problem. Many students no longer arrive at college—even at highly selective, elite colleges—prepared to read books.

This development puzzled Dames until one day during the fall 2022 semester, when a first-year student came to his office hours to share how challenging she had found the early assignments. Lit Hum often requires students to read a book, sometimes a very long and dense one, in just a week or two. But the student told Dames that, at her public high school, she had never been required to read an entire book. She had been assigned excerpts, poetry, and news articles, but not a single book cover to cover.

“My jaw dropped,” Dames told me. The anecdote helped explain the change he was seeing in his students: It’s not that they don’t want to do the reading. It’s that they don’t know how. Middle and high schools have stopped asking them to.

… The economic survival of the publishing industry requires an audience willing and able to spend time with an extended piece of writing. But as readers of a literary magazine will surely appreciate, more than a venerable industry is at stake. Books can cultivate a sophisticated form of empathy, transporting a reader into the mind of someone who lived hundreds of years ago, or a person who lives in a radically different context from the reader’s own. “A lot of contemporary ideas of empathy are built on identification, identity politics,” Kahn, the Berkeley professor, said. “Reading is more complicated than that, so it enlarges your sympathies.”

Yet such benefits require staying with a character through their journey; they cannot be approximated by reading a five- or even 30-page excerpt. According to the neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf, so-called deep reading—sustained immersion in a text—stimulates a number of valuable mental habits, including critical thinking and self-reflection, in ways that skimming or reading in short bursts does not.