Gender Recovery

Seeking Submissions for An ANTHOLOGY ON TRANS, TWO-SPIRIT, AND NONBINARY RECOVERY

Gender Recovery seeks essays and poetry by trans, two-spirit, and nonbinary people on the triumphs and trials of recovery, with particular attention paid to mental health, transition, and addiction.

Mainstream stories of our lives so often focus on dysphoria without any sense of euphoria, wherein gender feels like a pathological problem to solve before the trans person can "blend in." This anthology aims to take the standard diagnostic language of trans, two-spirit, and nonbinary narratives and completely rewrite it. Rather than presenting a prescriptive story steeped in medical confusion, Gender Recovery: Rewriting Tales of Transition, Mental Health, and Addiction aims to present our trans, two-spirit, and nonbinary lives on our own terms.

Recovery, however, does not necessarily mean recovered. Recovery can be a constant process, full with bumps and hazards, exciting detours and missed opportunities, moments of growth and plateaus of peace. A person who has been sober for ten weeks has just as much a place in this anthology as someone who has been sober for ten years. An ode to the positive impact of sertraline on one person's dysphoria is just as important as an evaluation of why someone chose estrogen over Adderall when they can only afford to buy one. Sites of recovery exist both within and outside the offices of medical practitioners: they’re in the dance studio, on social media, at the kitchen table, within a support group for survivors of violence… basically, wherever you find solace, opportunity, and inspiration.

I will meet you where you are in your recovery process. Don't be afraid to make unexpected connections or be a little messy. I view this anthology as an opportunity for community conversation and collective healing, and given the topic I commit to be sensitive to how you can/can’t show up.

AUDIENCE

This anthology will be published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers with a broader audience in mind. Other trans, two-spirit, and nonbinary people who are experiencing these issues are the target audience, but so are mental health workers, social workers, therapists, and other medical practitioners who wish to change their practices to better suit the trans, two-spirit, and nonbinary people they are tasked with helping.

SAMPLE QUESTIONS/INTERSECTIONS TO CONSIDER

• What does gender euphoria look like? What about sobriety? Stability?
• Did you have a totally undramatic, uncomplicated, relatively easy transition, with a fabulous support system, and feel some kind of way about it?
• Did joining a supportive community of queer people of color transform your sense of self as a trans person of color? Why?
• As a teaching artist working toward community resilience, how does your two-spirit identity inform your work? How can art lead to recovery?
• How can healing from an eating disorder and gaining weight interact with feelings of gender dysphoria and/or euphoria?
• How has a former addiction been healed through gender transition, only then to be made worse when the recovery community did not accept your current identity?
• What is it like to go to the pharmacy for your hormones and your anti-anxiety meds? Do you keep old pill bottles because they have an old name on it? Do some medications have positive connotations, or negative?
• Do you prioritize working on PTSD or gender identity in your therapy sessions as a survivor of violence? What factors impacted you and your therapist’s decision on how to manage your time together?

SUBMISSIONS GUIDELINES

Please include the following at the start of your entry: name (as you want it to be printed); pronouns; email; a bio (up to 50 words); and where you are based.

In this header, I am also asking for a list of five major content descriptors for your piece. Content descriptors should be words or short phrases that address: trigger warnings (ie, #racism), themes (#religion), style notes (#lyrical), general silliness (<insert meme here>), mood (#nostalgic), identity (#working class), and/or whatever else you think is salient. You may exceed the five descriptor limit should your piece include more than five major trigger warnings you feel must be included alongside your work. An example based on one of my old essays would be: #qpoc #child abuse #neglect #suicidal ideation #in-patient care. A second example based on that same essay is: #healing #community #latinx #abuse #suicidal ideation.

Submission Length

• Creative Nonfiction: 2000–4000 words, with 3000 being a solid length to aim for. Hybrid essays (ones that include snippets of poetry, academic work, or visual images) will also be considered.
• Poetry: 3 to 5 unpublished poems, or up to 7 pages of poetry (whichever comes first).
• Proposals: If you would like, you are welcome to send in a proposal before you begin writing to see if you are on the right track. Please submit 250 words describing what your project will entail. Feel free to also reach out if you want to propose a piece that is not an essay or poem; let's see how we can make it fit!

Submissions should be emailed as a .doc file to recoveryourgender [at] gmail [dot] com by February 15, 2020. Address correspondence directly to me (so, "Ariel"). There is an advantage of submitting early, as I will consider conditional acceptances (which will include suggestions for edits) up until the final deadline as my availability allows.

Compensation

Contributors will receive a copy of the anthology. For the sake of transparency, I will share I will receive a royalty based on sales of the book. I plan to reinvest the majority of this money directly into the community: a third will be donated to indigenous groups, and another third will be donated to LGBTQ groups (understanding, of course, these missions can and should overlap). I will be taking suggestions from contributors about where to donate closer to the publication of the book.

ABOUT THE EDITOR

Ariel Estrella (they/them) is a queer Latinx scholar hailing from Queens, NYC who focuses their advocacy on fostering beloved communities. After graduating from Macalester College with a BA in English and Gender Studies, they worked in community-based arts and labor nonprofit organizations. Ariel is now pursing a doctoral degree in English at Cornell University, with a focus on queer of color lyricism. Their writings have been included in anthologies published by Arsenal Pulp, Tia Chucha Press, and Jessica Kingsley Publishers.