thinking about resistance

for no reason at all on this regular thursday! + a new zine & the regular links

I’ve been working on a poem about resilience, but while drafting, I keep accidentally writing out resistance. Maybe the former requires the latter.

Relatedly, it’s just a regular Thursday for folks who don’t like celebrating empire. The results of colonialism and slavery are entirely baked into most things in these so-called united states, not to mention the genocidal settler colonial project this country is helping as I type this.

Resistance big and small matters. Emphasis on and. I’ve been talking with my partner a lot this week about how ideological support is nothing without material conditions changing. We’ve been talking about what that looks like for us.

It’s a lot to chew on.

Art and writing, in my opinion, are two of many many pathways to liberation, pathways to making material changes. So let’s get into the usual resources for activism, art + lit, and publishing, with QTPOC at the forefront always.

Solidarity with Palestine:

• HUGE local activism win. SXSW has officially cut all ties with military and defense contractors. You can learn more here.

• USCPR is a good resource for engaging with us representatives. Let your reps know how you feel about the upcoming war criminal speech happening in 3 weeks

• Check out the BDS site for up to date info on boycotting

• Donate to people in need through Gaza Funds

• Check out workshop offerings or propose your own through Workshops4Gaza

• Gender Reveal has shirts and other products expressing trans solidarity with Palestinian liberation. Proceeds go to various relief funds.

Writing & Art Opportunities:

• here to complain
  - pays BIPOC contributors $50 - nonwriters welcome!

  • if you’re Black or brown with a work-related microaggression story to tell, we wanna hear it— because who among us doesn’t need to vent.

• LittlePuss Press

  • We are currently considering original manuscripts of fiction and non-fiction (including works-in-progress). We are also considering reprint proposals of literary/historical works of significance by transgender authors.

• Printed Matter is seeking artists books, zines, etc on Decolonization, Resistance & Solidarity

• Room Magazine - Humor issue - open to all genres by folks of marginalized genders - closes when submission cap is reached

• BOA Editions - Blessing the Boats Selections - open to full-length poetry collections by women of color - closes 7/14

• Anaphora Arts - Emerging Critics Program for writers of color, women & non-binary writers - fellowship app closes 7/15

• All My Relations - Volume 7: Rest - open to racially & ethnically marginalized, gender variant, & disabled creatives - closes 7/15

• Diode Editions - Full-length & Chapbook contests - closes 7/15

• Cotton Xenomorph - “this place is haunted” - open to all genres - closes 7/31

• The Q&A Queerzine - open to LGBT+ writers and artists - closes 7/31

• Coffin Bell - Queer, Feminist, & BIPOC Gothic issue - closes 7/31

• ANMLY - open to all genres - 8/1

• just femme & dandy - THE DRAG ISSUE - open to queer fashion writing - closes 8/5

• Nightboat Books - Editorial Fellowship for BIPOC - closes 8/15

• Sundress Publications - full-length poetry collections - closes 8/31

  • free subs for BIPOC the entire reading period

• manywor(l)ds - open to work from trans, two-spirit, disabled, neurodivergent, Mad, queer, crip, nonbinary, genderqueer, intersex writers - closes 7/31

  • We stand against [settler] colonialism in all its forms, and will gladly allow writers from SWANA communities to submit their work at any time.

• Annulet Editions - full-length poetry, prose, & literary criticism manuscripts - closes 9/15

• Literary Liberation
  - essays, interviews, etc on craft & writing, detailed guidelines here - closes 9/22

• Southeast Review - free subs for BIPOC writers & formerly or currently incarcerated writers

Queer writing from around the internet:

• the beautiful/brutal poem “a photo bro asked me a patronizing question in 2016 & I am still thinking about it” by nat raum in the latest Split Lip Magazine

• The Gayest Thing anthology right here on substack, edited by

  Nic Marna

• very moving essay from

  Robin Taylor (he/him)
  also here on substack, “Don’t All Fathers”

• while we wait for issue 2, check out GARLAND’s queer spirituality issue for free digitally or in print

• “Every Trans Suicide Is State Sanctioned Murder” by [sarah] Cavar in Protean Magazine

• The new issue of ALOCASIA is here! I especially love these two poems by Aerik Francis

• The new issue of Screen Door Review is also here! I haven’t been able to read it yet, but I’m so excited any time there’s dedicated space for queer Southern voices

• Really resonating with “Fear” by Liv Mammone in Poem-A-Day

What I’ve been up to:

• I’m crowdfunding to attend the Roots. Wounds. Words. writing retreat in September! I’ll be working on my memoir that expands on the topics touched on in this poem published last year and the following update:

• My new zine EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE is finally here! Pack your bags and revisit some trauma with me. My zines are always free/pay-what-you-want to download. If you feel so inclined to tip me for any of them, please check out my writing retreat fundraiser <3

  

• Something very wild to me: one of my flash pieces was on the Wigleaf 50 Longlist?!

  

• The print edition of VIBE’s Anthropoetics folio is on sale! My little deer poem is in this gorgeous issue

• I have some fall readings and events coming up soon, some poems coming out in awesome lit mags, plus the publication of GOOD GRIEF, my nonfiction chapbook, early next year. You’ll hear it all first here!

• Up next for trans poetica: my 2nd annual queer summer reading list, & more author interviews coming up soon

Happy regular Thursday! Let’s engage in mutual aid, remember those who are not free, and resist however we can.

<3

Thanks for reading this far down! Trans poetica will always be free, but donations are greatly appreciated! I have three pay-what-you-want zines available here (and a new one coming soon!) I am available for editing, readings, workshops, and more through my site.

If you have an opportunity for trans, BIPOC, disabled, otherwise marginalized writers or artists you’d like me to include, please let me know. If I’m platforming an institution that is doing wrong by our communities, please let me know that, too.