Fist of the Spider Woman: Tales of Fear and Queer Desire is currently seeking submissions of queer women’s horror erotica. As the anthology’s title suggests, we are looking for writing that is both frightening and arousing written by queer women and other women whose sexuality subverts or falls outside the mainstream.
Horror, in particular contemporary horror films, all too often follows a set formula in which the same familiar thrills are offered to evoke fear in a heterosexual audience. Female characters are relegated to the roles of lascivious victims or asexual and reluctant-heroines. Even vampy villains, such as classic noir “spider women,” use their prowess to seduce and topple married men. We propose that edgy, feminist-minded, queer women – women who are already operating outside of the status quo – are the perfect contenders to explore distinct, honest fear and desire.
In this anthology, horror (including gothic, noir, and the speculative writing) can be anything that disrupts reality, as we – queer women – know it, instills both terror and titillation, and perhaps even forces us to confront who we are. Horror should be realized as an emotion, not a set of fixed characters or plotlines; a story like William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily is just as much a horror story as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Whether horror hosts the usual cast of zombies and ghosts or touches on themes that are closer-to-home, such as mental or physical wellbeing or family dysfunction, contributors should explore what truly scares or stirs us as women. In accordance with this definition of horror, erotica can be anything that arouses us as women, although portrayals of queer sex are highly encouraged. (“Revenge plots” will be considered, however few will be accepted.)
Contributors are invited to approach the book in two ways:
• Root horror within a decidedly queer reality and diverge as far from mainstream horror formulas as possible. Some key questions to explore are: What happens when we abandon heteronormative settings – senior proms and shopping malls – and bring horror to women’s spaces? What kind of horrors would attack our homes and our lives? Are we, as queer women, villains because or our rejection of society? Does queerness make us a kind of Frankenstein’s monster? And how can fear be used as a means to experience transgressive sexuality and eroticism?
• Twist, challenge, or “queer” mainstream horror. What if the tomb raider unleashed an ancient lesbian curse? How and who would a female predator hunt? Or how would a conversation between you and Edgar Allen Poe, Mary Shelley, or Emily Dickinson unfold?
Submission Guidelines:
• Fiction and creative nonfiction submissions are accepted.
• Prose of 9000 words maximum. Double-spaced, paginated hard-copies.
• Please include a short bio and contributor notes, as needed.
• Submission deadline: May 1, 2008. Please send submissions with a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) to 1160 Victoria Drive, Vancouver BC V5L 4G5. Only those with SASEs will receive a reply. If you live outside Canada, you must include an International Reply Coupon or email address for a reply. In some cases email submissions will be accepted with permission from the editor: amberdawn.tralala@gmail.com
About the editor:
Amber Dawn is a writer, filmmaker and performance artist based in Vancouver. She is the co-editor of With a Rough Tongue: Femmes Write Porn (Arsenal Pulp Press 2005). Her award-winning, genderfuck docu-porn, “Girl on Girl,” screened in eight countries and has been added to the gender studies curriculum at Concordia University. She has toured three times with the infamous US tour, The Sex Workers’ Art Show. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.
About the publisher:
Arsenal Pulp Press is an independent Canadian publisher located in Vancouver, BC, which has published titles such as Queer View Mirror, Quickies, Hot and Bothered, Brazen Femme, First Person Queer, Red Light, and Zed, among other queer titles.
