submission guidelines
Trivia: Voices of Feminism will appear twice annually and accept submissions all year round. We publish feminist writing in the form of literary essays, experimental prose, poetry, translations, and reviews. We encourage women writers to take risks with language and forms so as to give their ideas the most original and vital expression possible. Our larger purpose is to foster a body of rigorous, creative and independent feminist thought.
TRIVIA #11, “Are Lesbians Going Extinct?” #2
co-editored by Vancouver poet and essayist Betsy Warland.
In an essay written in 1983, Nicole Brossard wrote: “Une lesbienne qui ne reinvente pas le monde est une lesbienne en voie de disparition.” (A lesbian who does not reinvent the world is a lesbian going extinct.) At that time, the phrase made very good sense. As writers, thinkers, activists, and in our day-to-day lives we felt (many of us) compelled to reinvent a world in which we were for the most part invisible if not unthinkable, a world whose values we largely rejected. Today, over 20 years later, we are accepted, even embraced, by mainstream culture—as co-workers, wives, mothers, talk show hosts—in ways we could not have imagined then. But how have we gained this inclusion? Have we gone quiet as lesbians (not denying our lesbianism but seldom foregrounding it)? Are we still reinventing the world? As writers, are we inventing new forms? Is there still a radical edge to the word “lesbian”? Or are we now, by Brossard’s definition, a disappearing species?
We want to hear from young lesbians as well as anyone who ever embraced and/or lived this notion of lesbians as political trailblazers, radical visionaries. If you still identify as lesbian, what does it mean to you to be a lesbian today? In what relationship do your politics stand to your sexuality? Do you still see lesbians as a vanguard? See yourself as reinventing the world? If you no longer identify as lesbian, are there political/cultural reasons for this? Are there aspects of lesbian existence that you miss? Are glad to be free of? Do you still identify as a political trailblazer, a radical visionary? We welcome responses in the form of essays, poems, stories, creative nonfiction, and any in-between genres. Deadline: March 5, 2010.
- All written submissions should be sent via attachment (as a .doc or .txt file) to , accompanied by a cover letter.
- We encourage writers to provide working notes for their texts.
- We invite writers to send images to accompany their text—as JPEG files—along with ideas about where to place them in their piece.
- Please keep formatting to a minimum in the text file or document you send us.
- Instead of headers or footers, provide your name and contact info on the first page.
- If your article has footnotes, please convert them to endnotes.
- Simultaneous submissions will be accepted as long as we are informed what other publications are considering your work.
"After-Readings," and "Trivial Lives," both traditions established by the original editors, will be regular features of Trivia: Voices of Feminism.
After-Readings: From Trivia 13: "After-readings are a form of review essay in which the dialogue between reader and text becomes a catalyst for the reader's own meditations. They acknowledge the intense interaction between readers and texts and the transformational nature of reading. We welcome after-readings of current and non-current publications. Dialogues with films and artwork are also welcome."
Trivial Lives: From Trivia 2: "While many women's writings have been completely hidden from our view, others, though published and given worldwide attention, have never received the kind of recognition they deserve. The purpose of Trivial Lives is to honor those women who have suffered from one or both forms of neglect, as well as to inspire the reader to seek out the sources of each woman's work, the resources that tell us more about her, and the concrete effects of her ideas in the world." We wish to expand this category to include 1) women writers, artists, activists, thinkers from around the globe whose voices broke the silence barrier but are now fading away with time and 2) women who are not necessarily writers or thinkers, but whose lives and/or work are marginalized and deserve recognition.
Please note that we are seeking a guest editor—or editors—for issue #12, scheduled to appear in February of 2011
The theme can be of your choosing. Required: resonance with Trivia’s mission and significant editorial experience. Send queries directly to the editor:
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