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Call for Canadian Submissions: Queer Isolation in a Pandemic

This call for submissions will end on June 30, 2020

All around the world, people are being asked to stay home to stop the spread of COVID-19. Self-isolate. Practice social distancing. Don’t spend time with anyone outside of your household.

But how is this affecting members of the Canadian LGBTQ2S+ community already impacted by social isolation? Many of us are at a higher risk of loneliness than our heterosexual and/or cisgender counterparts. Many of us live alone. Many of us suffer from mental health issues like depression or anxiety, further distancing us from the world.

In these difficult times, Plenitude wants to hear your stories. Our call for submissions is asking for writers who identify as LGBTQ2S+ to share their experiences of isolation from a queer and/or intersectional and/or racialized viewpoint. How are you coping (or not coping) with self-isolation and social distancing? What acts of self-care are keeping you sane? Are you following (or not following) the rules mandated by your local government? Have you been the victim of racism, homophobia, and/or transphobia in public or online? Are you isolating with family or roommates who aren’t affirming your gender? Do you still reach out on dating apps to lessen the feeling of being alone? Send us your truths. We want to hear them.

We especially encourage BIPOC and trans writers to submit their work.

Poetry: send up to five poems, no more than 100 lines each (including stanza breaks).
Fiction or Creative Nonfiction: no more than 3000 words.

This call is for submissions from Canadian writers. This includes Canadian citizens living in Canada or abroad; those who identify as Indigenous; and/or residents of Canada (temporary residents or refugees).

We ask that you send us your best work, reflecting the high standards of Plenitude’s poetry and prose. Search the Literature section of our website for examples of the styles we publish.

Plenitude stays committed to paying its authors the standard rate of $35 per poem and $80 per prose. This call for submissions is in addition to the regular work we publish (two poems and one story each month).

This call for submissions will close after June 30, 2020.

Plenitude buys first serial rights; copyright remains with the author/creator.