Deadline: September 30th, 2022
Payment: 0.08CAD per word and a contributor’s copy
Theme: Storytellers who have experienced—or are experiencing—homelessness.

IN SHORT

What: A pro-rate anthology of short fiction pieces on the theme of “home” (500-3500 words) on the theme of HOME

Who: Storytellers who have experienced—or are experiencing—homelessness.

When: Submissions are open from July 1, 2022, to September 30, 2022. Publication is scheduled for fall of 2023.

Where: While we will prioritize Canadian submissions, submissions are open to writers throughout the world.

How: Scroll below to see our guidelines!

ABOUT THE ANTHOLOGY

There’s No Place will be a collection where storytellers who are experiencing/have experienced homelessness can tell the tales that live inside them.

The theme of the collection is, simply, HOME. This is not limited to physical spaces; home can be a person, an item, a memory, a sensation. The theme can be interpreted broadly, but home should be at the heart of your story.

This collection will be limited to short stories—we are seeking fiction only. While lived experience will inform the stories told, our hope is to share tales of home imagined into being.

ABOUT THE SUBMISSIONS

WHO CAN SUBMIT

Only people with lived experience of homelessness can submit. For this anthology, we are defining homelessness as:

• Unsheltered (you have lived in a place not designated for human habitation, outdoors, in public spaces, etc.)
• Emergency Sheltered (you have used an overnight shelter, a transitional shelter, a space for those impacted by violence, displacement, crisis, etc.)
• Provisionally Accommodated (you have couch-surfed, lived in temporary accommodations, lived in a foster or group home, etc.)

This is not an exhaustive list. Homelessness takes different shapes. We also understand that people may have moved through multiple types of homelessness. If you are unsure if your experience meets the parameters of this call, please reach out to the editor at [email protected]. Often, we are required to undersell our experiences to make them more palatable or more survivable. Don’t self-reject.

There are people who are disproportionately overrepresented in experiencing homelessness, poverty, and marginalization. Often these same voices are underrepresented in publishing. As publishers of diverse Canadian voices, Renaissance Press prioritizes stories by and about marginalized people, specifically people of colour (especially Black and Indigenous people of colour), members of the LGBTQIA2P+ community, and disabled people (including chronically ill and mentally ill people). If you are a member of a marginalized group, we encourage you to self-identify in your submissions.

Because we may receive support from the Canada Council for the Arts, we will be publishing 70% content by creators whom the Council defines as Canadian: Canadian citizens, landed immigrants, permanent residents, and Indigenous people whose place on Turtle Island falls within the colonial geographic boundaries which settlers call Canada.

WHEN TO SUBMIT

Submissions will be open from July 1, 2022 to September 30, 2022.

WHAT TO SUBMIT

Genre:

There’s No Place is open to fiction flash and short stories about home told in any genre. If your story is in a galaxy far, far away, if it’s about true love, if it’s set in a fantasy locale, if it is eerie or scary, you are welcome to submit. We will not automatically reject a story based on genre.

Word Count:

500-3500 words

Multiple Submissions:
Please submit one story only, unless you are invited to re-submit.

Simultaneous Submissions

We accept simultaneous submissions under the following provisions: you must tell us whether your submission is exclusive when you send it, and should you be accepted somewhere else, we ask to be notified immediately.

Previously published work

Previously published works (including self-published works) will not be considered.

Please Note:

If your story includes a homeless character, know that we are seeking to avoid overused and stereotypical tropes. Feel free challenge these tropes, to ignore them, or to flip them on their heads.

We will automatically reject stories which encourage and glorify child abuse, racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and rape culture. Please include content warnings on your submissions so that all readings can be informed readings.

FORMATTING

Please use an approximation of the Shunn Modern Manuscript Format found at https://www.shunn.net/format/ to format your manuscript. Errors in formatting will not mean an automatic rejection, as formatting can take time and access to resources that not all writers have.

A summary of the most important parts of the Shunn Modern Manuscript Format:

-Times New Roman, 12 point font

-Double spaced

-1 inch margins

HOW TO SUBMIT

There are two ways to submit: we strongly prefer receiving all your information via Google form, including your manuscript, but doing so requires you to have a Google or Gmail account. If you have or can obtain a Google/Gmail account, please simply fill out this Google form.

You will notice that, along with your bio and other contact information, our form asks you about Canadian citizenship; this is because this anthology may be partially funded by a Canada Council grant, which means we need to publish a majority of Canadian stories. Please do not self-reject if you are not Canadian, as we accept stories from around the world!

If you don’t have a Google/Gmail account

You will need to do this in two steps: first, fill this Google Form (not the other one!) with your submitting information. Along with filling the form, please send your manuscript to [email protected]. Please put “There’s No Place Submission” along with the title of your story and the word count in the subject line.

In the body of your email, please confirm whether you have filled out the form.

COMPENSATION
Stories accepted for the collection will be paid 0.08CAD per word. Contributors will also receive a copy of the anthology.

ACCESSIBILITY AND CHALLENGES IN SUBMITTING

Please reach out to the editor at [email protected] if you are experiencing any challenges in submitting. We have a deep commitment to accessibility and it is our goal to make this submission call accessible to any person who has experienced homelessness and who has a story they’d like to tell.

Thank you for sharing your stories, especially ones centered around so important an idea as home, with us. We will read them with care and respect.

Via: Renaissance Press.