The Queer Writer: June 2025
Happy Pride Month! It's been a whirlwind over here with THE LILAC PEOPLE recently hitting its 1-month anniversary, and I have some awesome updates to share with you.
First, I had the best debut launch ever! The 1920s-themed burlesque show was a huge hit and exactly what I hoped it'd be. Over 150 people in a room full of queer joy, laughter, and awe was something we all needed. It was well worth the 12+ months of planning and I'm incredibly grateful to the folks who helped make it happen. Here are some highlights of the show: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. (Note: There's no nudity, but the videos are still NSFW.)
A couple of hours before the show began, I was surprised to get a call from one of my closest loved ones, who is also my Amazon scout. It turned out THE LILAC PEOPLE debuted with multiple orange banners, including the #1 New Release in WWII & Holocaust Historical Fiction, the #2 Bestseller in LGBTQ+ Historical Fiction, and the #1 New Release in Transgender Fiction. (I announced at the start of the show that, if only for a moment, I was "the #1 Trans in America." I'm pretty sure that's how that works.)
And last but not least, THE LILAC PEOPLE hit the National Bestseller List for the American Booksellers Association! (It's far down the list, but it counts!) The obvious aside, this means a lot to me, as it's specifically based upon the amount of copies sold through all the independent bookstores across the United States. Independent booksellers (and librarians) mean the world to be, so this is an honor higher than I ever hoped to receive.
My sincere thanks to everyone who helped make all of this happen. I'm very grateful to all of you. Every step you took to support THE LILAC PEOPLE made a difference, from buying 20 copies to telling someone about the book. Not only am I so glad that this lost history is reaching so many people--my true goal for this book the entire time I worked on it--but this also makes it very likely that I can secure deals for my future (and past) works of trans history, both fiction and nonfiction. I'm exhausted right now and still on tour, but I'll get back to writing soon.
Lastly, for months--MONTHS--I've been working on a whole slide deck that digs deep into the similarities (and differences!) between Nazi Germany and the modern United States. I intend for the presentation to be a free recording online and I'll announce when it's ready, hopefully by the end of June. This book was never meant to be timely, but as I talked with readers during the ARC season (and now while on tour), I recognized the amount of anxiety folks have relating my book to the present, and I feel it's now part of my responsibility to provide what I know. It won't be fancy, but it'll be informative. (Just like me.) My intention is to provide some much-needed perspective and context that I haven't yet seen elsewhere.
I'd originally planned to release the presentation before my book launch, but it turned out to be a bigger project than I'd anticipated. I also work three jobs and am still promoting my book, so there's only so much I can do in a day.
Here's a sneak peek of what I'm covering:
Anyway, with it being Pride Month and all, we definitely have some excellent new books on the way, including a vicious takedown of the uber-wealthy during the end of the world, a woman who explores queerness while her husband is in a coma, an indie folk singer who faces her toxic relationship to artmaking, an international superspy who falls for her ex-girlfriend, a long-awaited reprint of a treasured cult classic, a love triangle that combines Big Swiss with The Devil Wears Prada, an influencer who rebrands as a queer icon to jumpstart an acting career, and more!
Is there an upcoming queer book you’re excited about? Know of a great opportunity for queer writers? Read an awesome article about the (marginalized) writing world? Let me know! And as always, please share this newsletter with people you think might be interested.
Upcoming Classes
Nothing here for now! I'm currently focused on my debut, THE LILAC PEOPLE, and nurturing my career as a published author, but I plan to return to teaching eventually. In the meantime, I'm working on some class alternatives. More on that soon!
Anticipated Books
Disclosure: I'm an affiliate of Bookshop.org. Any purchase through my storefront supports local bookstores and earns me a commission. Win-win!
It's Not the End of the World by Jonathan Parks-Ramage
It's 2044 and life is bleak for many Americans, but not for Mason Daunt. Safe in his Los Angeles mansion, Mason can remain blissfully unaware of the relentless wildfires engulfing California, the proliferation of violent right-wing militias, and the rampant authoritarianism destroying American society. He's so rich, in fact, that he and his partner Yunho Kim are throwing a 100-person, $100,000 baby shower to celebrate their newborn-on-the-way. When a potentially apocalyptic event hits Los Angeles on the day of their celebration, though, the wealthy gay couple refuses to cancel their party. Surely it's not the end of the world? But as Mason runs a few last-minute errands, a staggering twist thrusts him into the mounting chaos, and threatens the lives of everyone he holds dear.
Sand Bodied Florida Boy by Grayson Thompson
Grayson's Sand Bodied Florida Boy is a love song to the first moment you felt believed in, when hope wasn't a question, but an answer in every breath you chose to take. It is a collection of poems about the flood breaking through the sandbags, and the person waving a flag on the other side, a lighthouse beacon of becoming, screaming your name. Hollering you home. This collection explores the reimagination of his boyhood, something he did not socially or biologically receive as a Black trans person, and how he grew to make sense of who he would become. It speaks to being an immigrant possibility dream for his Jamaican mother, who has never run from a hurricane but wonders every year about the sandbags, and how he began creating grace out of his name. Accepting that, sometimes, grace rhymes with grief and grief is a doorway word to the flood.
All This Can Be True by Jen Michalski
When Lacie Johnson's husband, Derek, suffers a stroke at forty-seven and falls into a coma, her plans come to a screeching halt--asking Derek for a divorce, going back to school to get her master's, and starting over as a single woman now that their children have grown up. But what begins as a disaster brings an unexpected blessing in the form of Quinn, a kind stranger whom Lacie meets in the halls of the hospital. This is just a stop-over for Quinn, who is traveling up to the British Columbia coast to live in a co-op of grief survivors on a remote island after the loss of her young daughter. She's also the former singer of a post-riot grrrl band who fled the group and the public eye more than fifteen years ago for reasons unknown. Lacie thinks she's discovered in Quinn the life and the person she's always wanted. But Quinn harbors a secret that connects her to Derek. And if Derek wakes up, Quinn must come clean and risk destroying her growing relationship with Lacie.
Girls Girls Girls by Shoshana von Blanckensee
It’s the summer of ’96 and best friends (and secret girlfriends) Hannah and Sam are driving across the country from Long Beach, New York, to the fabled queer paradise of San Francisco, free from the harsh gazes of their neighbors and the stifling demands of Hannah’s devout Orthodox Jewish mother. In San Francisco, they will finally be together as a real couple, out in the open, around other queer people . . . even if the move means leaving behind Hannah’s beloved Bubbe. When the financial strains of West Coast living push the girls to start stripping at The Chez Paree—yet another secret Hannah must keep from her family—Hannah feels trapped. Sam wants her at the club, but Hannah hates stripping nearly as much as she hates disappointing Sam. Then Hannah meets Chris, an older butch lesbian, who is immediately taken with her. Desperate to stay in San Francisco and away from the leering men at the club, Hannah proposes an escort arrangement. But as Hannah falls deeper into Chris’ world and Sam starts to meet new queer friends, a rift forms between them. Without Sam, who is Hannah? And what does San Francisco mean to Hannah alone—a space rich with queer possibility or an intimidating, unfamiliar place just as lonely as the one she’d left behind?
Songs of No Provenance by Lydi Conklin
Songs of No Provenance tells the story of Joan Vole, an indie folk singer forever teetering on the edge of fame, who flees New York after committing a shocking sexual act onstage that she fears will doom her career. Joan seeks refuge at a writing camp for teenagers in rural Virginia, where she's forced to question her own toxic relationship to artmaking—and her complicated history with a friend and mentee—while finding new hope in her students and a deepening intimacy with a nonbinary artist and fellow camp staff member.
If I Told You, I'd Have to Kiss You by Mae Marvel
Yardley Whitmer, code name “the Unicorn,” can do no wrong. She’s honed her spycraft and become an instant legend in the field. If only breaking up with her girlfriend were as easy as rappelling off the Eiffel Tower. Living a full-time cover story has slowly eroded her relationship until there’s nothing left but lies. KC “Tabasco” Nolan, hacker extraordinaire, can crack any code—except the one that would tell her the right moment to confess her secret job to Yardley. Now it’s too late, and she’s in danger of losing the best chance at love she’s ever had. When an undercover shakedown goes wrong, Yardley and KC discover the unbelievable truth—that they’ve both been working at the agency for years. To salvage the mission, they partner up and fly across oceans, race through winding European streets, and give in to inconvenient passion while hiding in an ambassador’s linen closet. But can they throw away their rules and fight through their secrets to fall in love with each other’s true selves?
My Love is Water by Rob Macaisa Colgate
At a house party with as many antipsychotics as party drugs, Danilo—bakla, schizophrenic, and heartbroken—is tracing the disintegration of a recent relationship. Dancing and stumbling with his Filipina nurse friends, Danilo traverses a Chicago apartment filled with gay ghosts and broken Tagalog. Outside the window, the lake is too big and crashing. In a hybrid of drama and poetry, Rob Macaisa Colgate writes in rigorous and experimental verse to upend our understandings of desire, race, disability, and care: “That’s so like me, to treat my body / like a gun: either he doesn’t want / to touch it or uses it to make me / stay. I knew he would run.”
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab
1532. Santo Domingo de la Calzada. A young girl grows up wild and wily—her beauty is only outmatched by her dreams of escape. But María knows she can only ever be a prize, or a pawn, in the games played by men. When an alluring stranger offers an alternate path, María makes a desperate choice. She vows to have no regrets. 1827. London. A young woman lives an idyllic but cloistered life on her family’s estate, until a moment of forbidden intimacy sees her shipped off to London. Charlotte’s tender heart and seemingly impossible wishes are swept away by an invitation from a beautiful widow—but the price of freedom is higher than she could have imagined. 2019. Boston. College was supposed to be her chance to be someone new. That’s why Alice moved halfway across the world, leaving her old life behind. But after an out-of-character one-night stand leaves her questioning her past, her present, and her future, Alice throws herself into the hunt for answers . . . and revenge.
Tramps Like Us by Joe Westmoreland
Abused by his father and stifled by closeted life as a teenager in Kansas City, Joe, the wide-eyed narrator of Tramps Like Us, graduates from high school in 1974 and hits the road hitchhiking. But it isn’t until he reunites with Ali, his hometown’s other queer outcast, that Joe finds a partner in crime. When the two of them finally wash up in New Orleans, they discover a hedonistic paradise of sex, drugs, and music, a world that only expands when they move to San Francisco in 1979. Told with openhearted frankness, Joe Westmoreland’s Tramps Like Us is an exuberantly soulful adventure of self-discovery and belonging, set across a consequential American decade. In New Orleans and San Francisco, and on the roads in between, Joe and Ali find communities of misfits to call their own. The days and nights blur, a blend of LSD and heroin, new wave and disco, orgies and friends, and the thrilling spontaneity of youth—all of which is threatened the moment Joe, Ali, and seemingly everyone around them are diagnosed with HIV. But miraculously, the stories survive. As Eileen Myles writes, “I love this book most of all because it is so mortal.” Back in print after two decades and with an introduction by Myles and an afterword by the author, Tramps Like Us is an ode to a nearly lost generation, an autofictional chronicle of America between gay liberation and the AIDS crisis, and an evergreen testament to the force of friendship.
A Family Matter by Claire Lynch
1982. Dawn is a young mother, still adjusting to life with her husband, when Hazel lights up her world like a torch in the dark. Theirs is the kind of connection that’s impossible to resist, and suddenly life is more complicated, and more joyful, than Dawn ever expected. But she has responsibilities and commitments. She has a daughter. 2022. Heron has just received news from his doctor that turns everything upside down. He’s an older man, stuck in the habits of a quiet existence. Telling Maggie, his only child—the person around whom his life has revolved—seems impossible. Heron can’t tell her about his diagnosis, just as he can’t reveal all the other secrets he’s been keeping from her for so many years.
Jane Grabowski hauls herself to her nine to five office job at New York City’s most acclaimed newspaper to sit in stale air under severe florescent lights and mask her rage by sending emails with too many exclamation points. Luckily, Jane has a reason to keep coming into the office: Madeline, the distractingly beautiful intern. Madeline has never dated a woman and is uncomfortable with labels but with carefully timed lunch breaks and painstakingly crafted texts, Jane works her way into her life. Meanwhile, Jane’s free-spirited artist roommate tries to keep her from falling for a straight girl by dragging Jane to gay bars and queer Shabbat dinners, where she meets the decidedly uncool and morally righteous musician, Addy. Caught between Addy’s readiness to commit and Madeline’s alluring unpredictability, Jane is pulled down a slippery path of lies and deceit, leading to a plane ticket that threatens to take everything down in one fell swoop.
The Next Chapter by Camille Kellogg
Katrina Kelly might have eight million Instagram followers and a multipage IMDb listing, but she also has a completely stalled-out career and some major questions about her sexuality, which seems to be moving closer to raging lesbian every week. Yet maybe she can solve both of those issues at once. . . . After all, rebranding as a queer icon is a great way to jump-start an acting career. Jude Thacker is fine. Completely fine, so please stop asking. Has the queer bookstore where she works been taken over by a boss who’d rather sell branded tote bags than books? Yes. Does she have a panic attack every time she has to leave her comfort zone? Maybe. Has she been on a single date since her heart was shattered two years ago? Absolutely not. When Kat and Jude cross paths in the bookstore, Kat realizes that their meet-cute might just be a meet-opportunity. But what’s meant to be a temporary publicity stunt quickly turns into real feelings for both women. As the media scrutiny intensifies, each must decide what’s real, what’s not, and if true love is worth losing everything they believe is keeping them safe.
ICYMI
Want a previously published book showcased? Let me know! The given work must: 1) be written by a self-identified member of the LGBTQ+ community, 2) be published within the last five years, 3) has not yet appeared on the ICYMI list, and 4) wasn't included in the Anticipated Books section within the last three months. All genres and independently-published works welcome.
Disclosure: I'm an affiliate of Bookshop.org. Any purchase through my storefront supports local bookstores and earns me a commission. Win-win!
Nothing this month, but thanks for checking in! You can always submit a request for this section.
Opportunities
- What: "Our 2nd Volume of Midsummer is now open for submissions! This time, we delve into the theme of Ardor. Let your restless intensity surge this summer like an unstoppable tide. Embrace the passion that courses through your veins, ignited by the warmth of the sun on your skin. Pour it all out onto paper and share it with us!"
- Fee: $0
- Pay: N/A
- Deadline: June 9th, 2025
PRISM International: 64.1 FILTH
- What: "We are looking for submissions that confront and live in the discomfort of filth—whether that lies in waste, eroticism, depravity, dirt, or something else entirely. What does the germ of filth give birth to, spread to? What does it inspire in you—vulnerability, liberation, or ostracism? What happens to filth if you resist the moralization of it? We dare you to befoul the beautiful, and to make beauty out of the profane. Send us prose, poetry, or hybrid pieces that explore the terrors and joys of desire, in all its baseness."
- Fee: $0
- Pay: $40 per printed page of prose and $45 per printed page of poetry
- Deadline: June 11th, 2025
- What: "This anthology is open to written submissions (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, hybrid) from queer and trans writers from across the world. Offer us the words between your teeth, the stories (true and imagined) that have been living rent free on your tongue, the poems that are just visible when you part your lips, open your mouth wide. We are open to any form of writing, from fiction to creative non-fiction to poetry and hybrid forms."
- Fee: $0
- Pay: $0
- Deadline: June 12th, 2025
- What: "We accept creative fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and visual works that focus on the queer and/or Latina/o/x/e experience and/or any experiences that deal with hybridity, fluidity, and inbetweenness (be it race, ethnicity, culture, gender, sexuality, etc.) Artists do not have to belong to the queer and/or Latina/o/x/e communities in order to submit to our magazine; however, in alignment with Entre's mission, queer and/or Latina/o/x/e artists may be given higher consideration--yes, we are focused on promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion!"
- Fee: $0
- Pay: $0
- Deadline: June 16th, 2025
Rebel Satori Press: General Submissions
- What: "Rebel Satori Press is thrilled to announce our call for submissions of cutting-edge LGBTQIA+ fiction! We’re on the lookout for innovative works that push boundaries and explore the vibrant spectrum of queer experiences. If your work delves into spirituality, folklore, magick, or witchcraft, we want to hear from you too!"
- Fee: $0
- Pay: N/A
- Deadline: June 30th, 2025
Off Topic Publishing: Trans and Genderqueer Voices Anthology
- What: "Submit poems, flash fiction, short stories, creative nonfiction, essays, and unclassified other writing of any style and theme. The work must be written by a trans/genderqueer person. Collaborative work is okay, as long as all authors are aware of the submission. If accepted, all authors will need to sign a contract. At least one of the authors must be trans/genderqueer."
- Fee: $0
- Pay: $20 CAD + an equal share of sales
- Deadline: June 30th, 2025
Fabulachia—Young Voices from Queer Appalachia
- What: "This anthology aims to participate in this community building, attempting to seek out, collect, introduce, and promote young queer voices (25 years and under) to each other, to the larger Appalachian queer community, and the nation at large. The plan is for a volume that is diverse in perspective, identity, and artistic approach—including fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, graphic literature, and hybrid forms (speculative nonfiction, autofiction, prose-poetry, etc.)."
- Fee: $5 (financial aid available)
- Pay: N/A
- Deadline: June 30th, 2025
NeuroQueer Books: Spoon Knife 10: Polarities
- What: "Our NeuroQueer Books imprint is for fiction, memoir, and other literary work, with a focus on themes of queerness and neurodivergence. The theme for Spoon Knife 10 will be Polarities. Polarities: pairs of opposite forces or qualities or tendencies. Good and evil. Love and hate. Life and death. Heroism and villainy. Feminine and masculine. Night and day. Vice and virtue. Old and new. Order and chaos. The public persona and the hidden shadow self. The mundane everyday world and that which lies beyond. What polarity lies at the heart of your story? In what ways does it manifest? What happens when the two sides of the polarity come into contact or conflict, or when one transforms into the other?"
- Fee: $0
- Pay: "$30 plus 1 cent per word"
- Deadline: July 31st, 2025
Rebel Satori Press: Queer Novella
- What: "Rebel Satori seeks short-form fiction/novellas and novelettes for its new Bijou Book Series. Manuscripts should be 25-30K words in length. Submitters are strongly encouraged to familiarize themselves with Rebel Satori's other titles before submitting. Themes must include LGBTQIA+-themed fiction or speculative fiction/fantasy."
- Fee: $0
- Pay: N/A
- Deadline: July 31st, 2025
2025 Bennett Nieberg Transpoetic Broadside Prize
- What: "The Bennett Nieberg Transpoetic Broadside Prize awards a single poem written by a trans poet who has yet to publish their first full-length book. The prize consists of $500, 5 limited edition letterpress broadsides of the winning poem. We are pleased to announce this year's final judge is Michal "MJ" Jones!"
- Fee: $5 (waivers available)
- Pay: $500
- Deadline: July 31st, 2025
Bi Women Quarterly: Allies & Accomplices
- What: "What does it mean to you to be an ally or an accomplice? What are meaningful ways that people have shown allyship and accompliceship to you or to the bi+ community on a large scale or individual level? How do you wish people could show up? How have you practiced allyship and accompliceship for others, and does your experience as a bi+ person impact the way you do so? In a time where solidarity feels more essential than ever, we’re looking to hear about ways to show up in support for others, whether they be loved ones, strangers, organizations, or in any other form."
- Fee: $0
- Pay: N/A
- Deadline: August 1st, 2025
Wayfarer Books Radical Authenticity Prize for Trans & Non-binary Writers
- What: "This prize is open to those who identify within the Transgender, Non-binary, and Gender non-conforming spectrum. This prize is open to works of poetry, creative nonfiction, memoirs, and essay collections. (No fiction, please.) While we welcome all themes—especially those that highlight the experiences of marginalized communities—the material/themes of your entry do not need to be about the transgender/non-binary experience to be eligible."
- Fee: $20
- Pay: "We pay authors anywhere from 8-12% of the list price on print; 25% on eBook; 25% on Audiobook."
- Deadline: October 1st, 2025
Snowflake Magazine: The Disability Issue
- What: "Snowflake Magazine is a LGBTQIA+ collaboration and networking initiative spearheaded by a quarterly arts and literature magazine. Our goal is to showcase the incredible talent of the LGBTQIA+ community, provide a platform to boost the often overlooked work of smaller queer creators, and help connect artists and writers in the community we cultivate."
- Fee: $0
- Pay: £15
- Deadline: Unknown
The Linden Review: Special LGBTQIA & BIPOC Issue
- What: "Send us your very best creative nonfiction on ANY topic and with a maximum word count of 2500. We are interested in hearing from LGBTQIA and BIPOC writers. "
- Fee: $0
- Pay: N/A
- Deadline: Unknown
Sinister Wisdom: Barbie: the Movie
- What: "In this special issue, Sinister Wisdom will explore lesbians' reactions to Barbie: The Movie. How do we voice the joy and gratitude of this cultural moment where lesbian lives and lesbian culture is expressed in the movie with a major musical plotline from the Indigo Girls and two out dykes with major roles in this movie, now the highest grossing movie in Warner Brothers' history? What else do we think and feel about this cultural moment? Were you expecting to feel deeply personally touched by Barbie? What was a special scene that reflects your dyke life? Were you surprised or shocked by your reaction to the film? How do we understand Barbie's continuing life and its relationship to lesbians and lesbian culture?"
- Fee: $0
- Pay: N/A
- Deadline: TBD
- What: "Bookish Brews accepts multiple types of submissions including essays, themed reading lists, and book reviews. I’m not limited. Below you can find a description of what I’m looking for. Bookish Brews’ mission is to highlight the voices of the global majority in literature and therefore I am specifically looking for submissions from diverse voices. I want to do what I can to help get your words published in the online space and help you gain a published piece under your belt."
- Fee: $0
- Pay: N/A
- Deadline: rolling
- What: "Here at CVNT, as in life, we resist easy answers. We resist simple definitions. We reject false divisions of sex & gender deemed 'immutable biological reality' by servants of patriarchy, wealth, & white supremacy. We invite the multitudinous: the girls not picked, the razor-burned adventurers, the panicked first-time doubter, the well-tucked veteran, the post-op princess. In short, CVNT exists for the solicitation, exhibition, advancement, & support of transfeminine writers. With so many voices, laws, & weapons raised in ignorance, hatred, or mistruth against transfeminine people, binary trans women, & genderqueer folks, it’s time we had our own 'protected space.'"
- Fee: $0
- Pay: $0
- Deadline: rolling
- What: "Afternoon Visitor was founded in the spring of 2020 in Iowa City. We are an online biannual publication of poetry, hybrid text, visual poetry, and visual art. We’re looking for accidental visitors, harbingers, and spectres. We’re particularly interested in giving space to trans + queer writers in every issue and presenting work from established and emerging writers. We welcome experimental work, long form poetry, and sequences."
- Fee: $0
- Pay: $0
- Deadline: rolling
- What: "We seek work of all genres by writers from the LGBTQIA community. We do not define or gatekeep what it means to be a queer writer: if you think your work belongs here, then it belongs here. To get a sense of what we publish please read some of our former issues. We don’t know what we like until we see it. Each month we announce a different theme, but don’t worry if the work you submit doesn’t quite fit: we often build issues and themes around work that takes us by surprise."
- Fee: $0
- Pay: $25
- Deadline: rolling
- What: "Screen Door Review is a triannual literary magazine that publishes poetry and flash fiction authored by individuals belonging to the southern queer (lgbtq) community of the United States. The purpose of the magazine is to provide a platform of expression to those whose identities—at least in part—derive from the complicated relationship between queer person and place. Specifically, queer person and the South. Through publication, we aim to not only express, but also validate and give value to these voices, which are oftentimes overlooked, undermined, condemned, or silenced."
- Fee: $0
- Pay: N/A
- Deadline: rolling
- What: "AC|DC currently publishes new short fiction or creative nonfiction by LGBTQIA+ authors on Tuesdays. AC|DC is always open for submissions. Take a look at what’s on the site to decide if your work might be a good fit. We have a preference for the dark and raw but are open to all."
- Fee: $0
- Pay: $0
- Deadline: rolling
- What: "The B’K is a quarterly art and lit, online and printed magazine prioritizing traditionally marginalized creators, but open to all."
- Fee: $0
- Pay: $10
- Deadline: rolling
Bella Books Call for Submissions
- What: "At Bella Books, we believe stories about women-loving-women are essential to our lives—and so do our readers. We are interested in acquiring manuscripts that tell captivating and unique stories across all genres—including romance, mystery, thriller, paranormal, etc. We want our books to reflect and celebrate the diversity of our lesbian, sapphic, queer, bisexual, and gender non-conforming community—in all our glorious shapes, sizes and colors. Our desire to publish diverse voices is perennial. We don’t want to tell your stories for you—we want to amplify your voices....We publish romance, mystery, action/thriller, science-fiction, fantasy, erotica and general fiction. At this time, we are particularly interested in acquiring romance manuscripts."
- Fee: N/A
- Pay: N/A
- Deadline: rolling
- What: Baest Journal, "a journal of queer forms and affects," seeks to publish work by queer writers and artists.
- Fee: $0
- Pay: $0
- Deadline: rolling
Articles
Reading Behind Bars, and Beyond Barriers
by Jackie Snow
Friends and family typically can’t send books directly to their loved ones inside. Instead, prisons require books to come from “approved vendors,” often specialized book services with marked-up prices, or sometimes from Amazon, which, while somewhat more affordable, remains financially out of reach for many families already strained by the costs of having a loved one in prison.
And then there is us—the third option, a network of volunteer-run book-to-prison programs sending free reading materials on shoestring budgets. DC Books to Prisons, now in its 26th year, is one of several dozen similar organizations across the United States and Canada that bridge this gap, ensuring that reading materials reach those who would otherwise go without, no matter how labyrinthine the regulations.
And labyrinthine they were. Even before the letters disabused me of my literary blinders, I discovered an entire universe of rules governing the process of getting books inside prisons. Learning the regulations felt like studying for a degree in carceral bureaucracy, complete with surprise pop quizzes and midsemester syllabus changes.
by Hannah Baer, Lauren Oyler, and Brandon Taylor
The literary takedown is enjoying a renaissance. Every time a new high-profile hitjob leaks, the terminally online literati stop working altogether and join the pile-on—dragging the overrated author or the overzealous critic, sometimes both. What’s the function of this ritual? Have we, as the New York Times’ Joe Bernstein has suggested, transitioned from an era of “tedious structural critique” to one of “petty hatred”? To get to the bottom of this new culture of hostility, Broadcast Contributing Editor Leon Dische Becker convened a showdown between two author-critics who have been on both sides of the violence: Lauren Oyler and Brandon Taylor. These two merry combatants have written and received tough reviews, and even sent a couple strays at each other over the years—one reason we invited a trained clinical therapist, fellow author and Broadcast contributor hannah baer, to moderate. The packed crowd at Press Play 2024 was expecting blood. Instead, they got a punchy, funny, and oddly sexy conversation about the sadomasochistic turn in contemporary criticism, writers who “top from the bottom,” and the murky line between a justified pan and a hysterical hit job.
Authors Are Accidentally Leaving AI Prompts In their Novels
by Matthew Gault
Fans reading through the romance novel Darkhollow Academy: Year 2 got a nasty surprise last week in chapter 3. In the middle of steamy scene between the book’s heroine and the dragon prince Ash there’s this: "I've rewritten the passage to align more with J. Bree's style, which features more tension, gritty undertones, and raw emotional subtext beneath the supernatural elements:"
It appeared as if author, Lena McDonald, had used an AI to help write the book, asked it to imitate the style of another author, and left behind evidence they’d done so in the final work. As of this writing, Darkhollow Academy: Year 2 is hard to find on Amazon. Searching for it on the site won’t show the book, but a Google search will. 404 Media was able to purchase a copy and confirm that the book no longer contains the reference to copying Bree’s style. But screenshots of the graph remain in the book’s Amazon reviews and Goodreads page.
This is not the first time an author has left behind evidence of AI-generation in a book, it’s not even the first one this year.
