Tagged call for submissions

Call for Submissions: Journal of Bicycle Feminism on Money and Class

October 20, 2015 — by Elly Blue

How does bicycling fit into your personal economy? Your social standing? How do your choices when it comes to bicycling relate to your income, and how do they relate to your attitudes towards money? Did your bike cost a lot or a little, and how do you feel about that? Have you done economic research or reporting on bicycle issues? What are your observations about the costs and benefits of cycling?

The first volume of the Journal of Bicycle Feminism, Cycletherapy, was about feelings: joy, grief, and healing. The second volume is about money, status, and wealth, whatever those topics mean to you.

A wide variety of submissions are sought, particularly from underrepresented perspectives. Personal narratives, essays, and reporting will be the bulk of the volume—lengths between 1,000 and 3,000 words are ideal, but if a piece needs more words we can talk. Illustrations and photographs are sought as well. I’d like to include one piece of fiction, and one very short (around 500 words) and funny piece for the end of the book.

The submission deadline is February 1, 2016. Email questions, queries, or submissions to elly at microcosmpublishing dot com.

Call for Ideas: What Should Microcosm Make Next?

October 13, 2015 — by Elly

Dear readers,

Yup, that’s you, reading this now.

If you’re at all familiar with Microcosm, you probably know that we do a whole lot more than just publish books.

We make t-shirts. Patches. Stickers. Buttons. Other stuff sometimes comes down the pipeline like fanny packs or sweatshirts. It’s all made in the US and we try to support companies that are in it for reasons of the heart rather than the wallet.

A large amount of this stuff is bicycle-related because that’s how we roll. But a lot of it is about other stuff, like vegan, punk music, feminism, politics, health, community justice, and generally poking holes in and kicking down the walls.

The point is that a lot of the ideas for these things come from readers like you. Sometimes someone emails us and says “Can you make a a version of your Evolution design but with a unicycle?” And we do.

Or sometimes people send in original artwork for us to put on stuff. And we do that too:

You too can submit a finished design (if we used it, you’d still own it, and we’d pay you royalties). Or just tell us the idea that you had that you wish someone would make. We’ll make it if it works for us and send it to you, too!

We made a google thing for you (it’s below) to tell us about your idea (or you can always just email us too).

Thank you!

Love,

Microcosm

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Call for submissions: Bikes in Space 4: Utopia / Dystopia

July 27, 2015 — by Elly Blue

Announcing…. a call for submissions for the fourth annual Bikes in Space anthology.

Our 2016 theme is: Utopia / Dystopia

Bicycle transportation is often seen as a means towards a utopian project. The joy of cycling, the environmental and health benefits, and so on, are spoken of almost evangelically, and many riders and advocates have lain awake imagining a world where the bicycle reigns supreme, or at least roams free. Some of the political backlash against cycling is a reaction to this dream of a bicycling future; a dystopian fantasy of a society where cars are outlawed and the freedoms they represent to many are curtailed. Yet others love bicycling but question dominant visions that often seems exclusionary and class-divided.

For the fourth volume of Bikes in Space, Microcosm’s Elly Blue Publishing invites you to imagine, write, and submit short stories and art on the theme of bicycling and utopias, with a feminist perspective. Golden visions of feminist pedal powered communities vs patriarchal auto-dystopias are fine. But even better are tales that complicate the idea of a fully perfect or fully terrible society, show unexpected viewpoints, and are fun to read.

Bikes in Space is an outlet for speculative fiction (or related genres) short stories with a feminist perspective that incorporate bicycling or bicycles in some way. What these things mean vary, and we seek a wide range of styles and viewpoints.

Most stories we publish are approximately 2,500 words. Some are much shorter, a few are slightly longer. In general, make your story the length it needs to be.

We especially seek stories that convey perspectives that have not traditionally been seen and heard in science fiction, and encourage people who don’t see themselves as fitting into any sort of science fiction establishment to submit stories.

Please email submissions to elly at microcosmpublishing dot com. The deadline for submissions is Nov 1, 2015.

To get a sense for the types of stories we publish, check out the original Bikes in Space zine, the second book, and of course volume 3, Pedal Zombies (the best way to get it before August 4, 2015 is via our Kickstarter project).

Big thanks to contributor Aaron M. Wilson (he has a story in the first volume, and wrote a series of bicycle sci-fi reviews for Pedal Zombies) for the idea, inspired by this year being the 100th anniversary of the original publication of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story Herland.