Call for Submissions

Co-editors Jen Deerinwater and Jera Brown are seeking nonfiction pieces for book-length anthology. Sacred and Subversive will be published in print and ebook formats.

We are seeking personal reflections from 2LGBTQIA+ individuals on the intersections of sexuality, gender, and spirituality. These reflections can take the form of essays, poetry, graphics, or other nonfiction forms.

This anthology seeks to explore how an individual’s queerness changes their relationship to their faith or spiritual tradition (the sacred), and how embracing queer people changes faith communities (the subversive). We hope that the works in the anthology will show that faith communities can and are growing in unexpected ways by becoming truly queer-inclusive. But it will also depict how both faith and queer communities continue to fail 2LGBTQIA+ folks and need to be called out and challenged.

We’re also seeking contributions from individuals who no longer identify with a faith tradition but have a private spiritual identity that’s informed by their gender identity or sexual orientation.

No topic is taboo or off-limits. Happy endings are not required.

Through this anthology, the co-editors are committed to providing:

• • A significant number (preferably a majority) of essays from people of color
  • Essays spanning the broad spectrum of queer identities
  • Essays from people within marginalized faith groups, such as indigenous spiritual traditions
  • Essays from queer people with other marginalized and stigmatized identity components, such as physical disabilities and mental health issues

Submission Information:

Submissions will continue to be reviewed until the anthology is full.

Submissions should include NEW, never before published materials. If you’ve written about similar topics, feel free to expand on blog posts if the essays contain at least 40% new material.

All submissions should be typed and emailed as Microsoft Word or Google Docs to sacredandsubversive@gmail.com.

Submissions that cannot be placed within the anthology will still be considered for the blog.

Rights Information

Sacred and Subversive is seeking First English Anthology Rights, First World Anthology Rights, as well as Non-Exclusive Excerpt Rights (for the purposes of promoting the anthology on the website). The rights sought might change depending on the publisher and will be verified with writers accepted into the anthology.

Compensation

Because we are prioritizing queer writers of color and writers with marginalized faith identities, we are committed paying all writers $75 out of pocket for submissions accepted to the anthology and $50 for all submissions posted on the blog.

If you would like to help sponsor either the blog or the anthology, please reach out to sacredandsubversive@gmail.com.