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Taking Submissions: Nothing Without Us

December 31, 2018

Deadline: December 31st, 2018
Payment: 3 cents per word, minimum

Do you write words? Specifically, do you write English words that band together to form short fiction? Are you disabled, identify with disability, manage disability, or use some other way to describe how you relate to your disability or condition? If so, this call for submissions might be for you:

Not like your ableist patriarchal publishing monocultures,
with standard narratives that narrowly define
Here at the beginnings of our anthology we exist:
two mighty women with ideas that cannot be contained.
“Keep, traditional publishers and editors, your inspiration,
Your stories that objectify and demean,” we cry.
“Bring us your fabulous stories,
With diverse characters.
Bring us your Deaf heroes, your disabled, your neurodiverse,
Your characters breaking free from the shackles of normativity
Those who are not refuse, but fabulous
Send these your homeless stories, tempest-tossed to us,
We lift them up and celebrate them, at the gate of our anthology.

We are seeking short fiction for the Nothing Without Us anthology. All works must be fiction—fiction based on lived experiences is welcome. The lead character must be disabled, blind, Deaf, Autistic, neurodiverse, and/or live with mental illness. We do not expect all of these in one character, although we’re sure that character would be amazing. We are accepting fiction in all genres with the exception of hard-core erotica. We are also only interested in previously unpublished works. (Sorry, we’re not accepting poetry for this anthology.)

What we are not seeking

Inspiration content. There’s already enough of it out there. Examples include but are not limited to: The Autistic person who overcomes their autism, presents as a quirky neurotypical, gets the girl, and lives happily ever after. The person who is in an accident, feels life is over, then overcomes it through work, a new love, and so on. The person blind from birth who overcomes their disability to be a success in mainstream culture “in spite of” being blind. These types of stories objectify the person and make their story all about their disability. We seek stories that show how we are people with complex and awesome lives.

We also do not want stories about the fetishization of disabled people, a person being in a relationship out of pity for the disabled person, or a character who solely exists for the benefit of the person without a disability.

Who can submit

We welcome writers across the disability, mental illness, developmental disabilities, neurodiversity, blind, and Deaf spectrums. We welcome those who manage invisible and visible disabilities and/or chronic conditions. We welcome those who count spoons! We’re just looking to have an entire work where we elevate the stories written by the folks in our community.

We welcome the communities that intersect with the disabled, neurodiverse, mentally ill, blind, and Deaf communities, such as the LGBTQIA2 communities.

We welcome POC and indigenous voices.

How to submit

Submission window: September 30 to midnight (EST UTC-5) December 31, 2018

This is the part that you likely jumped to without reading the other sections, especially those of us with attention-deficit fabulousness. If you did skip the first parts, please read them at some point before submitting, because following the guidelines will factor in how we chose stories for this anthology.

  • Word length: 1,000 to 3,500 words
  • A cover letter including:
    • Title and word count in the first sentence, followed by where you live.
    • A brief description of the work (one paragraph).
    • Why you feel you and your writing would be a good fit for this anthology.
    • One paragraph biography of yourself.
  • William Shunn manuscript format with Times New Roman typeface at 12pt. Please, note, this, is, not, to, be, confused with, the William Shatner, format, that, requires, commas, after, every, word.
  • Submit your manuscript to [email protected] as a .doc, .docx, or RTF file type. The subject line should be in the following format—Submission: (Title of your story)
  • Please do not send by carrier pigeon.

Renaissance (our amazing publisher) currently offers 3 cents per word, but we will be launching a Kickstarter to try to raise the amount that authors will be paid for submissions. Rights purchased: First English-Language Rights & Non-exclusive Anthology Rights (print and e-book).

Canadian citizens (living in Canada and/or paying taxes in Canada) and permanent residents of Canada will receive preferred status.

No multiple submissions. If you received a rejection before the deadline, you may submit a new work. Once again, we are looking for original fiction only. No reprints, please.

We can’t wait to discover what kind of stories you’ll send us!

Via: Nothing Without Us.

Details

Date:
December 31, 2018