miscellany

Call for Submissions: Best Lesbian Erotica Volume 4

PEOPLE I have exciting news!! Cleis Press asked me to edit the next edition of Best Lesbian Erotica, volume 4 (aka 2019)! I’ve had such a good time putting together anthologies — Say Please, Best Lesbian Erotica 2012, and the forthcoming Erotix: Literary Journal of Somatics through Body Trust — and I am really thrilled to do another one.

In 2016, for the 20th anniversary of Best Lesbian Erotica, I posted a personal history of it, with some of my favorite volumes and what they have meant to me. My essay “Why Lesbian Erotica is Valuable Activism” was in the edition I edited, Best Lesbian Erotica 2012, and it’s also on Sugarbutch here.

Here it is! I would especially love submissions from you folks who read a lot of erotica and maybe have secretly tried your hand at it … I’d love to have a variety of stories by people who have never been published before.

Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year Volume 4 (Best Lesbian Erotica 2019)

Editor: Sinclair Sexsmith
Publisher: Cleis Press
Deadline: August 31, 2018 (earlier encouraged)
Payment: $50 and 1 copy of the book within 90 days of publication
Rights: non-exclusive right to publish the story in this anthology in print, ebook and audiobook form. Authors will retain copyright to their stories.

Sinclair Sexsmith is editing the next volume of Best Lesbian Erotica, and is looking for your best sexy stories about queer women.

Representations of queer women, non-binary AFAB, and trans women’s sexuality that are not as frequently seen — with ability, race, ethnicity, class, neurodiversity, ace-spectrum, age, religion, or other social justice politic viewpoint — are particularly of interest. Writers who have not previously published are encouraged.

The anthology is not limited to certain kinds of sex acts. “Vanilla,” BDSM, fetish, ace, and all kinds of sensual and sexual expression are welcome. I will be looking for a wide variety of sexual identities: mommy, mistress, sir, puppy, girl, etc. I will consider a few reprints published in 2018, but prefer unpublished stories. No simultaneous submissions. Up to two submissions per author, between 2000-4000 words. No poetry or speculative fiction please.

Send your double-spaced, Times New Roman black font submission with the subject line “Best Lesbian Erotica submission” to lesbianbdsmerotica@gmail.com as a Google document (preferred), or as an attachment in .doc, .docx or .rtf format. Include the story title, your legal name, pseudonym (if applicable), 150-word bio, previous publication information for the story (if applicable), and mailing and email addresses on the first page.

Queries are welcome.

Published by Sinclair Sexsmith

Sinclair Sexsmith (they/them) is "the best-known butch erotica writer whose kinky, groundbreaking stories have turned on countless queers" (AfterEllen), who "is in all the books, wins all the awards, speaks at all the panels and readings, knows all the stuff, and writes for all the places" (Autostraddle). ​Their short story collection, Sweet & Rough: Queer Kink Erotica, was a 2016 finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, and they are the current editor of the Best Lesbian Erotica series. They identify as a white non-binary butch dominant, a survivor, and an introvert, and they live outside Seattle as an uninvited settler on traditional, ancestral, & unceded Snoqualmie land.

One thought on “Call for Submissions: Best Lesbian Erotica Volume 4”

  1. dorothyfreed says:

    Hi Sinclair. What Ever happened to my submission, Adventure in Palm Springs, submitted to the forthcoming Best Lesbian Erotica. I never heard a word. Dorothy Freed. dorothyfreed@aol.com.

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