Sacred and Subversive: Call for Submissions
Sacred and Subversive: Queer Voices on Faith and Spirituality is an anthology of personal essays, prose, and poetry of hope, resilience, rage, passion, and connection during a devastating moment for many of our communities.
The connection between queerness and religious or cultural heritages is not a niche topic. Many religious perspectives on sexual orientation and gender are tied to the spiritual, emotional, and physical trauma of 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals. More broadly, it’s the white and Christian supremacist values driving Western society that continue to marginalize 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals, as well as those who are Indigenous and the People of the Global Majority.
The queer experience is both sacred and subversive, and this anthology explores the intersection between queerness and faith. Using writing from 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals from different faith and cultural traditions, Sacred and Subversive paints a realistic picture of where we are in terms of creating inclusive and welcoming communities and vibrant spiritual and cultural identities. No topic is taboo or off-limits, and happy endings are not required.
This anthology centers diverse queer perspectives on religion and spirituality and is needed now more than ever. Governmental bodies across the so-called US, and globally, have launched multiple attacks on queer youth and adults to do everything from blocking gender affirming care and the right to public spaces like restrooms to criminalizing, arrest, and even murdering people for simply being queer.
The ACLU reported that in 2023 there were at least 510 anti-queer legislative bills introduced across the so-called US—three times the amount in 2022. There has also been a fascist rise of book bans across the so-called US that has included attempts to indict librarians with criminal charges for supplying supposed objectionable materials, such as books about and by 2SLGBTQIA+ people, to schools and public libraries. As there is no liberation for some without liberation for all, this anthology also acknowledges the on-going acts of colonization and genocide—many of which are rooted in white Christian supremacy—on Palestinians, Sudanese, Congolese, Uyghurs, Kurds, and so many more across the world. Sacred and Subversive will serve as source of documentation of queer lives for those alive today and for generations to come.
By telling their stories, the authors featured in this anthology chart a path toward liberating themselves and their communities from the white and Christian supremacy that has suppressed the spiritual and religious identities and human rights of queer people around the globe. Their work, written from an intersectional lens, includes the connected issues of ableism and disability justice, as well as the right to fully participate in one’s faith.
*2SLGBTQIA+ stands for Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, Plus. This acronym is not meant to replace any gender and sexual orientation identities beyond those listed here. All queer people are welcome.
WHAT SETS THIS BOOK APART
Sacred and Subversive: Queer Voices on Faith and Spirituality will be the first 2SLGBTQIA+ multi-faith English language anthology on the market. It includes pieces on multiple topics such as a disabled trans Muslim’s experience accessing Mosques that meets their gender identity and disability access needs; the story of an asexual person’s experience with the rigidity and heteronormativity of sex within Christianity; and poetry by a Jewish bisexual grappling with anti-Semitism, as well as misogyny and anti-queerness in the Jewish faith.
The audience of Sacred and Subversive includes queer readers who want to see their communities in struggle and triumph, as well as anyone interested in individual perspectives related to the connections between queerness, faiths, cultural heritage, systemic oppression, and intersectionality.
The diverse group of personal stories demonstrates how systematic forms of oppression bears down on all of us and are interconnected.
Sacred and Subversive will fill a hole as a 2SLGBTQIA+ multi-faith anthology that serves the general public by:
Actively seeking out essays from marginalized creators affected by current and upcoming legislation, court rulings, policies, wars, and genocide.
Actively affirm and support the place of queer individuals within religious or cultural traditions that have traditionally oppressed them.
Actively affirm and support queer individuals who have been or are actively oppressed by those of faiths not their own.
The current contributors come from a wide array of faith backgrounds, such as Buddhism, Indigenous spiritualities, Judaism, Islam, Paganism, and Christianity, including Seventh Day Adventist, Jehovah’s Witness, Unitarian Universalist, and more.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
This anthology aims to bring the voices of 2SLGBTQIA+ to the forefront to examine, discuss, and expose the complex realities of queerness and faith communities. Queer people across intentionally marginalized communities are prioritized. Some of the current contributors are finding their place within their faith, and some are rejecting it or were rejected by it. Some people are angry and some are full of joy.
Pitches are being accepted for personal essays and completed poems and poetic prose from writers, as well as artist portfolios for the book cover.
All pitches and submissions should include the following information:
Name
Location
Religion or faith community you come from and/or currently participate in
Queer and gender identity
Profession and any relevant titles
Personal essay pitches should also include 200 words about yourself, your story, why it’s unique and important.
Pitches from queer people from the following religious and faith communities are especially of interest:
Indigenous spiritualities, including
Conjure, Voodoo, Hoodoo, and Santeria
Hinduism
Shintoism
Sikhism
Jainism
Druze
Amish
Mennonite
Shaker
Pitches and completed poems and prose should be emailed to JenDeerinwater@gmail.com for consideration. Deadline to submit pitches is October 1, 2024, with accepted pieces completed by December 1, 2024.
Jen is also looking for a queer artist to design the book cover. If interested in being considered, email your 200-word bio, examples of your work, and links to your portfolio and website to JenDeerinwater@gmail.com.
Contributors will be paid $75 USD per accepted poem or poetic prose and $150 USD for accepted personal essays ranging 2,000-3,000 words. Poems should use MLA formatting guidelines and be no longer than 400 words. Poetic prose should be no longer than 800 words. Cover artwork rate negotiable with the publisher.
MEET THE EDITOR
Jen Deerinwater is a bisexual, Two-Spirit, multiply-disabled, citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and an award-winning journalist and organizer who covers the myriad of issues hir communities face with an intersectional lens. Jen is the founding executive director of Crushing Colonialism and a 2019 New Economies Reporting Project and a 2020 Disability Futures fellow.
Jen received a B.A. from the University of Southern California in Gender Studies and Political Science with an emphasis on American Federal Government, a Graduate Certificate in Women in Politics and Public Policy from the University of Massachusetts-Boston, and a M.S. in Communications Management from Simmons College.
Jen is a contributor to Truthout and hir work has been featured in a wide range of publications, including In These Times, Rewire.News, Eater, and New Now Next. Jen’s writing is included in the anthologies Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the Twenty First Century, We Organize to Change Everything: Fighting for Abortion Access and Reproductive Justice, Property Will Cost Us the Earth: Direct Action and the Future of the Global Climate Movement, and Crip Authorship: Disability as Method.
With twenty-five years of political organizing, arts, media, and non-profit experience, Jen often gives keynote addresses and serves on panels at events and universities around the world. Examples include Duke University, University of California Berkeley, BECAUSE conference, Toronto International Festival of Authors, Radical Book Fair (Edinburgh, Scotland), and the Investigative Reporters and Editor’s AccessFest. Jen also regularly consults with non-profits and grassroots groups in order to make their work more accessible to the community and to grow their media skills and communications.
Jen has been interviewed for numerous outlets on hir work, quoted in multiple books, and hir work has been taught in universities globally. The Advocate named Jen a 2019 Champion of Pride. In 2022 Jen was inducted into the Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame.
Jen is a current board member of the Disabled Journalists Association and a Senior Advisor for the Disability Culture Lab. Jen also served on the Ending HIV Epidemic among Urban Natives Community Advisory Board with Johns Hopkins University and Native American Lifelines.
While a nomad at heart and raised in rural areas of hir nation’s reservation in Oklahoma and in rural West Texas, Jen currently lives with hir two adorably demanding cats on occupied Piscataway land known as Washington, DC.