CALL for Disability and the Speculative POETRY ANTHOLOGY
CALL for Disability and the Speculative POETRY ANTHOLOGY
POEMS are sought for an anthology exploring the intersection of disability and the speculative. I was awarded a New York State Council on the Arts grant to explore disability poetics and I will spend part of that endowment to publish this anthology this year.
I first thought about disability in the realm of the speculative with John Brunner’s novel, The Whole Man/The Telepathist, Zenna Henderson’s The People Series and Anne McCaffrey’s The Ship Who Sang, all back when I was an able-bodied teenager. Now I am not and seek new sustenance.
I seek “biofuturity” for persons with disabilities via speculative poetry and find real life inspiration provided by AstroAccess whose goal to include disabled people in space exploration, whose disabled zero-g flights were huge news. I seek exploration of “criptopia’—environments that challenge compulsory able-bodiedness standards in contemporary society.”
- No gore, no vore, no violence, no ableism
- Maximum: 4 poems
- Send as separate attachments in doc, docx or pdf file formats
- File name: title of poem last name of poet
- include bio 150 words max, in body of email
- previously published consider, but no more than one among set of poems. Poet must have permission to reprint.
- No fee to submit. Payment one copy of paperback.
- To be published as paperback by end of year
- Deadline August 15, 2024 but may close sooner if book is filled.
- Send to speculativepoetry@gmail.com
Notes:
Speculative poetry, humanity’s primordial literature, the poetry of possibilities includes alternate history, cryptids, monsters, cyberfunk, cyberpunk, dystopia, fairytales, fabulism, fantasy, folklore, futurism, horror, magic, mythology, occult, paranormal, robots, science fiction, shifters, slipstream, solar punk, space opera, superheroes, supernatural, sword and sorcery, sword and soul, steamfunk, steampunk, time-travel, post-apocalyptic, and weird. It takes all poetic forms plus scifaiku.
“Outer space is not just humanity’s future:
It's a call to rethink life on Earth today.
https://astroaccess.org/about/
Murray, Stuart. "Disability Embodiment, Speculative Fiction, and the Testbed of Futurity." Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, vol. 16 no. 1, 2022, p. 23-39. Project MUSE https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/847101
Amanda Martin Sandino in Disability in Wonderland: Health and Normativity in Speculative Utopias 978-1-4766-8303-4 978-1-4766-5020-3. has conducted a multifaceted exploration of narrative utopias through the lens of disability studies and related critical theory.
Writing Fantasy Lets Me Show the Whole Truth of Disability by Ross Showalter
In speculative fiction, I can center the disabled experience in a way that feels more real than realism
https://electricliterature.com/writing-fantasy-lets-me-show-the-whole-truth-of-disability/
Rethinking Disability in Science Fiction and Fantasy
by Katea, July 25, 2023
https://aclibrary.org/blogs/post/rethinking-disability-in-science-fiction-and-fantasy/
Science Fiction, Disability, Disability Studies: A Conversation
Kathryn Allan , Ria Cheyne
Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies
Liverpool University Press, Volume 14, Issue 4, 2020 pp. 387-401
The Unspeakable Speculative, Spoken
Rebecca Wanzo, American Literary History
Oxford University Press, Volume 31, Number 3, Fall 2019
pp. 564-574
Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women's Spectacular Fiction, Sami Schalk. Duke University Press, 2018.
