Call For Submissions
Shakespearotica: Queering the Bard
Editor: Salome Wilde
Publisher: Storm Moon Press
Deadline: April 1, 2013 May 15, 2013
Orientation: Queer (see below for description)
Length: 4000-8000 words
Payment: $50 per story
The queer pleasures of Shakespeare are legion, from bawdy romance between cross-dressed lovers to raging jealousy that reaches beyond any simple classification of desire. Salome Wilde seeks titillating tales adapted from Shakespeare’s plays and memorable characters. Writers may stick close to the original text to highlight queerness that’s arguably already part of the play or rework the drama to their heart’s queerest delight. Modern updates and behind-the-scenes tales of cast and crew are also welcome. Like the Bard’s, your tale may be humorous or serious, end in happily-ever-after or terrible tragedy—just take us through the queerly erotic en route.
The collection will take its definition of “queer” from Alexander Doty inMaking Things Perfectly Queer. Stories may include LGBT (and even heterosexual elements), but like Doty, the editor seeks “those uses of ‘queer’ that make it more than just an umbrella term in the ways that ‘homosexual’ and ‘gay’ have been used to mean lesbian or gay or bisexual, because queerness can also be about the intersecting or combining of more than one specific form of nonstraight sexuality.” If your Shakespearotica tale “evokes complex, often uncategorizable, erotic responses from […readers] who claim all sorts of real-life sexual identities,” it’s what this collection seeks.
A few ideas to inspire…
• Romeo, a woman in drag, enjoys far more of Juliet than we ever knew
• Mounting a production of Midsummer Night’s Dream becomes a director’s queerest dream come true. (Must be the fairies!)
• Iago: closet pansexual voyeur
• Orgy of fools, anyone?
• The pagan delights of MacBeth’s witches reach far beyond making prophesies
• Caliban and Ariel: when the master’s away…
• How many lovers did tentacle monster Julius Caesar ravage to deserve such backstabbing?
Caveats: no pedophilia, bestiality, rape intended to arouse, or gender/orientation-bashing.
Submission Requirements:
• Send polished submissions to submissions@stormmoonpress.com
• Email subject should read: Shakespearotica “Submission Title”
• Include author’s legal name, pen name (as applicable), address, and email at top of story document
• Format: Double spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font, 1″ margins, blank line between paragraphs and do not indent paragraphs
• Send as .rtf attachment only
• Be open to editing and proofreading feedback
Contributors will receive 2 print and 1 PDF copy of the anthology upon publication.
Questions and que(e)ries welcome: cyberplaything[at]yahoo.com
