Authors of Color

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Gendereveal $1000 grants for trans POC projects and activism international

OutWrite Chapbook Competition

I'm managing editor at Stone of Madness Press, and for our 11th issue, curating a selection of new/emerging writers, including teen/high school writers (with 3 or fewer publications, not including personal blogs). Submissions are open now through May 15th.

If you're queer/trans/disabled/Mad/ND and you've always wanted to submit to a literary magazine but never gotten around to it –– whether you've been intimidated by the process or simply not aware –– this is a great time to try it! Don't worry about getting everything "right," just check out our guidelines and send your words to the email listed.

Submissions are always free, and we also have a $5 option for feedback or a 24-hr turnaround time. Unfortunately, we can't afford to pay writers, though we plan to begin doing so by the end of 2021 (!!).

With NaNoWriMo starting, I thought now is a good time to advertise my writing server again! The Forge is an all-ages server run by and for LGBTIA+/queer writers and writers of color. We're a small (30+ members) laidback community with a variety of channels including writing sprints, critique channels, a place to find beta or sensitivity readers. We have frequent writing discussions (as close to daily as possible), server events every other month, and biweekly writing challenges!

The Forge has a ton of roles and activities, and role-specific channels for poc, lgbtia+/queer folks, adults, and minors. We welcome everyone, but the intention is that lgbtia+/queer voices and voices of color are uplifted.

Toni Morrison, a Nobel Laurete, an icon of the literary world, and an elder in the womanisn movement has died at the age of 88. Born Chloe Ardelia Wofford, Morrison was an unfailing leader in the push for Black women narratives and wrote such classics as Song of Solomon, Sula, and Beloved, the latter of which earned her a Pulitzer Prize. Much can be said about the transformative power of her works, but I’d rather leave you with her own words right now:

“You can’t fly with regrets of yesterdays on your wings.

You can’t fly if you’re still in love with that ex that’s bad for you. Give that shit up!

You can’t fly if you’re afraid of standing up and taking power. Give that shit up!

You can’t fly if you’re spending the time you should be using to fly on other less important things. Give that shit up!

Focus on flying, if you wanna to fly. Because if you really wanna fly, nothing should be able to stop you. And if you’re not flying, realize something is. And lose that shit!”

After a long time of not doing anything because I am the worst, you can now BUY A MISS TRANSLATED CHAPBOOK:

It’s an ebook you can get ON AMAZON (sorry). Click on that sexy link, pay $2.99, and YOU can get all of the following:

9 poems from the miss translated series, one of which is NEW and NEVER BEFORE SEEN OR PUBLISHED ooooooh

the ones everybody seems to like, like la sirena y el pescador and el vampiro/ICE. 

a slightly tinytext experience because it turns out it is VERY HARD to format these bananas line breaks for a book?? I tried zooming in on my phone and that seemed to work fine.

the knowledge that you are helping an amazing immigrant rights group created by and for immigrants, new sanctuary coalition. you may have read about their executive director, Ravi Ragbir, being seized by ICE and threatened with deportation until community pressure caused them to back off. 100% of the profits from this chapbook will be going to this group. (Full disclosure: My mother works for New Sanctuary, and I’ve volunteered there doing everything from childcare to data entry. I love the community NSC has created and I think they do fabulous, empowering work.)

If you love physical artifacts and holding books in your hands, i feel you. If you buy the chapbook, I will absolutely send you the PDF for printing. I want people to have this chapbook. I want people to talk about this chapbook. Our immigrant friends in NSC’s community are terrified and vulnerable, and this is what my mother asked me to do to help them, so whatever I can do to make it easier for you to support NSC, let me know.

tl;dr: IMMIGRANT RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS. BUY THE MISS TRANSLATED EBOOK. GET A NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN POEM. PLEASE REBLOG.

I started a lil zine/community space for trans men and trans masc people who love other men! 

– follow LOU’S CLUB on Instagram @transfxggotry

– we feature artwork, selfies, anecdotes, resources, in-community chat, profiles, memes, and more by and for gay, bi, and queer trans men and masculine-aligned people.

Anequs has never been away from her isolated island community, one of the few indigenous enclaves that has largely been ignored by colonizers. But Anequs has just bonded with a baby dragon, and thus become the first Nampeshiweisit - dragon rider - that the island has seen in more than two hundred years. That’s something that does not go unnoticed by the colonizing powers that be.

Now, in accordance with the colonizers’ laws, Anequs must attend an academy on the mainland and prove her competence in dragon husbandry and magic. If she can’t or won’t perform to their expectations, her dragon will be put to death.

The odds are stacked against her, as the ministry of dragon affairs strongly disapproves of dragons being bonded to anyone other than young men of the colonial gentry. She finds that there are people in power - teachers, ministry officials, fellow students and their families - who are eager for her to fail. But she also makes friends and allies in this strange place far from home. She and the other outcasts of the school - the only other female student, the only other indigenous student, and the only autistic student - band together in solidarity. 

ברוך שהחינו וקימנו והגיענו לזמן הזה / Blessed is the One who has enlivened us, sustained us, and brought us to this moment. 

Not much more to say at the moment except acknowledge the overflowing gratitude to all the mentors, colleagues, scholars, activists, lovers, and friends who contributed to making this book possible. Looking forward to sharing it with all of you! If you’d like to bring me to your community to share the stories of A Rainbow Thread, please get in touch!

well look no further! ive started a small black writers’ discord with the hope that we can share writing, get ideas, and get constructive criticism from people who understand our experiences. it’s composed of mostly lgbt people, while i won’t exclude cishet people from joining, i ask y’all to be mindful. if you’re interested in joining shoot me a message and i can send you a link! 💕

What I’d recommend next is to find your women. Seek out and support, at all costs, women of color and put their testimony above all else. We have to go out of our way to support and value each other. Love is practice; you don’t gain expertise by never enacting it. Whether that’s liking a friend’s selfie, not withholding a compliment from another woman, or publicly supporting a woman who is being publicly piled on to. That just barely approaches equalising what we’re up against.

I have seen a post circulating for a while that lists 10 short stories everyone should read and, while these are great works, most of them are older and written by white men. I wanted to make a modern list that features fresh, fantastic and under represented voices. Enjoy!

1. A Temporary Matter by Jhumpa Lahiri — A couple in a failing marriage share secrets during a blackout. 

2. Stone Animals by Kelly Link — A family moves into a haunted house.

3. Reeling for the Empire by Karen Russell — Women are sold by their families to a silk factory, where they are slowly transformed into human silkworms. 

4. Call My Name by Aimee Bender — A woman wearing a ball gown secretly auditions men on the subway. 

5. The Man on the Stairs by Miranda July — A woman wakes up to a noise on the stairs. 

6. Brownies by ZZ Packer — Rival Girl Scout troops are separated by race. 

7. City of My Dreams by Zsuzi Gartner — A woman works at a shop selling food-inspired soap and tries not to think about her past. 

8. A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor — A family drives from Georgia to Florida, even though a serial killer is on the loose. 

9. Hitting Budapest by NoViolet Bulawayo — A group of children, led by a girl named Darling, travel to a rich neighborhood to steal guavas. 

I’d like to add:

11. Good Country People by Flannery O’Connor

12. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (this one is my favorite short story of all time)

13. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

14. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates

15. Désirée’s Baby by Kate Chopin

16. The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

17. Impressions of an Indian Childhood by Zitkala-Ša

18. “My Dear You,” Rachel Khong — love, loss, & absurdity in the afterlife

19. “The Husband Stitch,” Carmen Maria Machado — a feminist retelling of the folklore story “The Green Ribbon”

20. “Inventory,” Carmen Maria Machado — one woman’s retrospective list of her life’s sexual encounters

21. “Boys Go to Jupiter,” Danielle Evans — what happens after a white college student poses for a photo in a Confederate flag bikini

An Unkindness of Ghosts (2017)

Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She’s used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, she’d be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remains of her world.

Aster lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship’s leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer, Aster learns there may be a way to improve her lot–if she’s willing to sow the seeds of civil war.

by Rivers Solomon

Get it  now here

Rivers Solomon graduated from Stanford University with a degree in comparative studies in race and ethnicity and holds an MFA in fiction writing from the Michener Center for Writers. Though originally from the United States, they currently live in Cambridge, England, with their family. An Unkindness of Ghosts is their debut.