June is Pride Month in the US – and to celebrate it, here is a list of outlets that accept LGBTQ+ writing. Some calls are themed, and have a deadline. Many of these pay writers. Here they are, in no specific order.
Argot Magazine
This queer-focused website “spans the worlds of queer culture, the feminine narrative, marginalized communities, and politics and culture.” They want nonfiction, short stories, poetry, satire, comics, illustrations, and photo essays. Pay is $35-250. Details here.
The Malahat Review: Queer Perspectives
They want work by Canadian LGBTQ+ writers. They want fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry; query for work outside these perspectives. This issue will celebrate the “aesthetics, concerns, contributions, and achievements of queer writers living in Canada, recognizing their crucial role in providing a truly complete picture of what it is like to be alive in this country in the past, future, and especially today.” Pay is CAD60/page, and work must be sent by 15 July 2018. Details here.
LambdaLiterary
They accept volunteer contributions – essays and opinions on underreported topics that affect the LGBTQ+ community, interviews for authors with new projects on the horizon, LGBT poetry, reviews, as well as blogs and dispatches from people attending Cons or national LGBT book events. Details here.
The Gay & Lesbian Review
They publish nonfiction and poetry – but not short fiction, personal memoirs, or journals. Feature articles (essays around themes updated regularly on their website), reviews, interviews with LGBTQ+ activists and artists, artist’s profile, art memo (personal reflection on the work of a single artist), international spectrum, letters to the editor and guest opinion, all are accepted. The magazine is targeted at literate non-specialists – they want articles that are lively, thought-provoking, readable, and which avoid highly specialized jargon. They accept both pitches and completed articles. Pay is $100 for features and $50 for book reviews. Details here.
A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies
Published by Duke University Press, this journal publishes scholarship, criticism, and commentary in areas spanning law, science studies, religion, political science, and literary studies. The aim is to offer queer perspectives on all issues touching on sex and sexuality. The editors particularly seek out new research into historical periods before the twentieth century, into non-Anglophone cultures, and into the experience of those who have been marginalized by race, ethnicity, age, social class, body morphology, or sexual practice. They do not accept unsolicited book or film/video reviews, though editorial contact details are provided, to send enquiries and proposals to. Details here and here.
Connextions Magazine
This is an LGBTQ+ travel magazine and website. They want thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences of people who have traveled somewhere worth mentioning or had an experience that must be shared. They also welcome poetry. Pen names are acceptable. Details here.
Pink Triangle Rhapsody: Volume 1 – Mixed Genre
This is Lycan Valley Press’ newest anthology series in celebration of and dedicated to gay men and their cultural history, for which they accept submissions from gay male writers only. The series is intended to be a collection of stories written with “effusively rapturous or emotional expression.” Volume 1 is a mixed genre volume and will feature 5 stories in each of 5 genres for a total of 25 stories — Horror, Sci Fi, Dark Fantasy, Thriller, Pulp Mystery. Each story must include a supernatural, paranormal or occult element. Pay is $0.04/word. Send work by 31 December 2018. Details here.
Anathema
Writers must be queer persons of colour/Indigenous/Aboriginal to submit to this Canadian magazine. They accept speculative fiction and nonfiction. Pay is CAD50 and they are open to submissions year-round. Details here.
Less Than Three Press
Apart from unthemed LGBTQ+ romance manuscripts, they have calls for two themes: Home for the Holidays (holiday romance, pays royalties, 30 June deadline) and Life After All (apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic romance, pays $150, deadline extended to 30 September).
Pride Publishing
They want LGBTQ+ romance stories (novelette to novel length) on various themes, including Cowboys and Westerns and Men in Uniform. Series and serials are welcome. They pay royalties and there are no deadlines specified. Details here.
BLF Press: Back From the Future – A Collection of Black Speculative Writing
This is an anthology call for Black speculative fiction and poetry, including science fiction, fantasy and Afrofuturism. They want work by Black women writers, and welcome work from queer or lesbian writers. Pay is $50 and deadline for the themed issue is 30 June 2018. They also accept unthemed submissions – preferred genres are literary fiction, memoir, creative nonfiction, and short fiction. Details here.
CutBank: All Accounts and Mixture – A Celebration of LGBTQ Writers and Artists
Their summer issue will showcase poetry, prose (fiction and creative nonfiction), visual art, reviews, and interviews in a forum for LGBTQ+ writers whose voices might be mis- or underrepresented by the literary mainstream. This year, apart from publishing the work online, they will also do a print anthology, which will show new work, and that from the previous five years. They want work from people who self-identify as queer, though the work need not be LGBT-specific. Allies can contribute reviews of books by queer writers, and interviews. Deadline is 1 July 2018. Details here.
Gertrude
This is a queer literary and arts journal, publishing fiction, nonfiction, poetry and art. They welcome anyone identifying as LGBTQ+ to submit. They are currently open for creative nonfiction and poetry. Query for book reviews and interviews. Details here.
Plenitude
They publish work by both emerging and established LGBTQ+ writers. Currently, they want literary fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, reviews, interviews, and novel excerpts. They pay. Details here.
Quommnicate Media: Geek Out!
This will be an online and print anthology, and the theme is, ‘Where queer meets geek’. They want genre fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction – opinion essays, topical articles, reviews and comedy, comics/graphic stories and scripts. They do not want literary fiction, memoir-based nonfiction, traditional poetry, erotica or work intended for children. Pay is $5/page. Deadline is 31 August 2018. Details here.
The Wanderer
They publish prose (including book reviews) and poetry by artists whose lens “isn’t the straight, white, cis male one that dominates our culture.” They also want poems in Spanish. Pay is $10-25. Details here.
Autostraddle
They identify themselves as a “provocative voice and a progressively feminist online community for multiple generations of kickass lesbian, bisexual & otherwise inclined ladies (and their friends).” They have a list of the kind of writing they currently need, including personal essays or features on topics related to queer, feminist, butch/masculine-of-center, and/or outsider culture. Pay is usually $40-100, and they are “particularly inclined to compensate writers at higher rates who are QTPOC, professionals turning in work that doesn’t require editing/revisions, pitching a story from in a perspective or in a subject which is underrepresented on the site.” A few times a year, they also publish feature-style longform journalism/reported pieces for which they can pay up to $1,200, plus expenses – see guidelines. Details here.
