As we head into the crisp, fresh beginning of 2020 and a new decade, we want to hear about your queerest, wildest dreams. For our theme issue, In Another World, tell us what you still believe in and what continues to fill you with hope.
We’re looking for stories about people who are planting the seeds for a totally different future, who are actively pushing for changes in their communities, who are imagining who they would be in another time and place, if they didn’t have to define themselves against stereotypes, systematic injustice and a dominant culture that excludes and harms them. Show us these visions.
We want to explore the alternatives to a world that’s already disappointed us: queer parenting approaches to raising radical children; models for money lending or home ownership that go beyond one family and a bank; survival strategies that have historically served marginalized groups of people (and whether they’re still relevant today); technology that helps people support each other IRL; city and transportation planning that’s actually functional for all abilities; wealth redistribution and reparations plans; clothing and fashion that acknowledges the total fluidity of gender.
You’ve been in this world, you know what it’s like, give us a peek into a better version.
Some examples in the realm of this theme that we like:
- America Wasn’t a Democracy, Until Black Americans Made It One by Nikole Hannah-Jones for The New York Times
- The Rumors Were Enough: Josephine Baker, Frida Kahlo, Their Romance and Me by Carmen Phillips for Autostraddle
- These Five Black LGBTQ+ Activists Are Literally Saving The Planet by Neesha Powell for Autostraddle
- Tracing Harriet Tubman’s Steps by Jehan Roberson for Zora
- Octavia Butler: The Brutalities of the Past Are All Around This by Gabrielle Bellot for LitHub
- The “Raising Baby T-Rex” series by KaeLyn Rich for Autostraddle. Specifically “Raising Baby T-Rex: My Mom Says We’re Exactly The Same” & “Raising Baby T. Rex: Dinos Resist! A Guide to Raising a Little Activist”
- Queer Utopia in this Lifetime by Phoenix Danger for Mask Magazine
- We Can Choose to Consume Each Other, Or We Can Choose Love by Kai Cheng Thom for Daily Xtra
- Survival Guides by Rachel Giese for Real Life Magazine
- What Was Gay? by J Bryan Lowder for Slate
- I’m Going To Homeschool These Damn Babies by Kim Milan for Autostraddle
- Lending Circles Help Latinas Pay Bills And Invest by Shereen Marisol Miraji for NPR’s Code Switch
- The Radical Transformations of a Battered Women’s Shelter by Larissa MacFarquhar in The New Yorker
- These Activists-in-Training Are Scouting for Social Justice by Azucena Rasilla for Zora
- From Black Cowboys to Queer Dreamscapes: the Afrofuturist Vision of Solange’s Film ‘When I Get Home’ by Kadish Morris for Frieze
- Why Afrofuturism Matters by Elizabeth Reich for Los Angeles Review of Books
- The Utopian in the Everyday (A Tribute to Jose Munoz) by Gayatri Gopinath for Social Text
- Thank You Jeanne Córdova, Love Autostraddle Dot Com by Riese Bernard for Autostraddle
- ‘They Were Abusing Us the Whole Way’: A Tough Path for Gay and Trans Migrants by Jose A. Del Real for The New York Times
- The Pioneer of Ruin by Sarah Gilman for High Country
- Is Prison Necessary? Ruth Gilmore Wilson Might Change Your Mind by Rachel Kushner for NYT
- Built for Eternity by Elmo Keep for Motherboard
- You Wanted Same-Sex Marriage? Now You Have Pete Buttigieg by Shannon Keating for Buzzfeed
- Jolene: The First Ever Trans-Inclusive Strip Night In America by Alexandra Kacha for Salty
- adrienne maree brown – Interview by Tara Aquino for ILY Magazine
Payment:
We are an independent publication currently hanging on for dear life! So our rates aren’t the best out there, but relative to our budget they’re quite good. Depending on the piece (length, edits required, reporting involved if relevant), payment is between $50 – $300.
We are, as always, especially interested in submissions from trans women and people of color. We also accept multiple submissions from the same author.
The deadline for submissions is January 31, but we will be accepting things on a rolling basis, and will respond to you either way by February 7.
