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Call for submissions! Trans Anthology for Young Readers

Call for submissions! Trans Anthology for Young Readers

By Annick Press Date: November 26, 2020

Call for submissions | Trans Anthology for Young Readers

Trans/nonbinary/Two-Spirit/genderqueer/gender creative/gender noncompliant folks, this is a call for you.

We are creating a beautiful, illustrated anthology for binary and nonbinary trans readers ages 12 and up and for their friends and allies, by binary and nonbinary trans people. We are telling our own stories, breathing life into our wishes and dreams, becoming the possibility models we need. We are shaping our own truths, we are creating the future, we are mourning, surviving, and celebrating. Yes, this uses our names and our pronouns as we know them to be ourselves, but we are not stopping there—there is so much more. This is for us and by us, in all our differences and variations, and the possibilities are endless.

We are creating an anthology to delight, as a love letter, as future-builders, as dreamers, as survivors, and as people with ancestry. We need your words! Submissions may be fiction or non-fiction. Topics may include (but are not limited to):

Delight: Writing that celebrates our joy, stories of things gone well, ritual and celebration, moments that affirm and uplift. 

Love letters: Moments of loving ourselves, stories of friendship or romantic love, experiences of actual allyship, moments of being seen as who we are and loved wholly. Things we wish we had been told when we were in middle school (whether we are there now or not).

Future-building and dreams: Ways we are making our own futures. Writing about people that inspire us or keep us going. Imagining possible futures, alternate realities, cultural shifts that bring belonging.

Survivors: Writing about surviving, whether that is surviving our own expectations, surviving our families, surviving assault or violence, surviving migration, surviving depression and anxiety. The reality is that we are all surviving and that what we are surviving is not just about our gender. Writing about surviving colonialism, racism, poverty, ableism.

People with ancestry: Writing our own history. Stories that help us know in our bones that we have always been here, that we are real and vital and part of our cultures. Honoring, remembering, and uplifting past heroes and counter-heroes. 

To be published by Annick Press in 2022. 

When sending us your ideas, please include: 

Please also keep in mind the age of the readership and the topics and themes that would have been of interest to you at age 12 and up. Writers of all ages are encouraged to submit, especially younger writers. We want to center your voices. You don't need to have ever published before—this call is open to new and established writers.

Please send submissions to j(at)juxtaposeconsulting.com by March 1, 2021.

Contributors selected for the anthology will each receive a nominal payment and two copies of the book. We’re also looking for ways to build community with this anthology so that its creation and publication feel truly celebratory. We look forward to working in partnership with contributors to promote the book and to amplify their voices and writing. Annick Press is committed to supporting contributors individually and collectively. Our hope is to build relationships and support your work both within the scope of this project and beyond.

We aim to center the work of Two-Spirit, genderqueer, and trans people (binary and nonbinary) who are Black, people of color, Indigenous, disabled, working class/poor, rural, or otherwise part of an equity-seeking group. We commit to working with people respectfully and tenderly, acknowledging our differences.

Two-Spirit and trans (binary and nonbinary) illustrators, we’re going to want to print your work, too! There will be an upcoming call for illustrators. If you would like to be emailed when the call goes out, feel free to send j an email at j(at)juxtaposeconsulting.com. If you want to send us your portfolio or a link to your work now, we’re open to that, but decisions about illustrators will come after author decisions.

About Annick Press

Annick Press is recognized as one of the most innovative and cutting-edge publishers of fiction and non-fiction for children and young adults in North America. Founded in 1975, Annick is home to many award-winning titles, garnering over 100 distinctions and awards in 2019 alone. Annick’s bestselling and critically acclaimed titles include The Paper Bag Princess, Fire Song, Fatty Legs, Stormy Seas, and #NotYourPrincess. Annick creates engaging books that aim to spark a lifelong love of reading and to challenge kids to think critically about the world around them. You can visit Annick Press at www.annickpress.com, Instagram at Annick_Press, Facebook at AnnickPress, or Twitter at AnnickPress.

About the editor

j wallace skelton is a writer, artist, and PhD candidate in Toronto. j is the author of three previous books and a variety of chapters, nearly all on LGBT2Q topics, and has worked in a variety of roles creating celebration and welcome for LGBT2Q young people and young people of marginalized genders. j is trans and really would prefer to live without pronouns altogether. j is very proud to be making the anthology that j really could have used in middle school. You can find j online at www.jwallaceskelton.com, on Facebook at wallacejc, or Twitter at transparent_jws.