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Submissions open for Queer Life, Queer Love: The Second Anthology

Muswell Press is delighted to announce that the submission deadline has been extended to 18th November 2022 .

Following the success of the first Queer Life, Queer Love anthology, this second volume celebrates the best new queer writing from around the world, by both new and established writers. Published in May 2023, just ahead of Pride, the collection will feature voices across all narrative forms including fiction, poetry, non-fiction and flash-fiction. Comprising 30 winning submissions, the anthology will capture the very best of international queer writing today.

The editors will be looking for writing that explores characters, stories, and experiences beyond the mainstream; works that celebrate the fascinating, the forbidden, the subversive, and even the mundane, but, in essence, works that express the view from outside.

Entry is open to all writers, without restriction, details of how to enter below. Submissions close on 18th November. The winning authors will be notified in December.

Editors

Matt Bates is Editor-at-Large for Muswell Press, and an associate poetry editor for The Mechanics Institute Review. Matt was formerly the Fiction Buyer for WHSmith Travel where he curated the award-winning Fresh Talent promotion and numerous other queer related promotions. He has been a judge for the Costa Book Prize (Novel) and chair for The Booksellers Association Debut Fiction Category Prize. He is an Associate Vice President of the Romantic Novelists Association, has been involved in numerous book industry panels and contributed to numerous book-related articles in newspapers and journals. He completed a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing at Birkbeck in 2021 and an MLitt in English Literature at the University of Glasgow. His own work has been published in The Mechanics Institute Review and Culture Matters.
Julia Bell is a writer and academic, she is the author of novels, the bestselling Creative Writing Coursebook (Macmillan) and the book-length essay Radical Attention (Peninsula Press). Her essays and short stories have been published nationally and internationally including in the TLS, the White Review and the Paris Review and broadcast on the BBC. Her poetry has been longlisted for the National Poetry Competition and shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. Her memoir-in-verse is Hymnal is forthcoming with Parthian is spring 2023. She is a Reader in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London
Kate and Sarah Beal are the owners and publishers of Muswell Press, an independent publisher of compelling books, twice shortlisted for the IPG Newcomer Award and a Regional Finalist in the British Book Awards 2021 and 2022.

Submissions to Queer Life, Queer Love to qlql@muswell-press.co.uk
Press enquiries to fiona@brownleedonald.com

Queer Life, Queer Love: The Second Anthology – How to Enter
The anthology comprises 30 stories, non-fiction pieces, short stories, flash fiction and poetry, the winning entries from an international competition to capture the best of Queer writing today. What do we mean by Queer? We are looking for writing that explores characters and experiences beyond mainstream society. Celebrating the fascinating, the forbidden, the alien, the subversive, the view of the outsider.
The wining 30 entries will all be published in Queer Life, Queer Love, The Second Anthology in May 2023.
The competition is open to writers of any nationality across the world writing in English aged 16 and over at the time of the closing date.
• Entry opens: September 5th 2022
• Competition closes: 18th November 2022
• Winning authors will be notified in December 2022
HOW TO ENTER
Entries may only be submitted online via qlql@muswell-press.co.uk . Please headline your email with QLQL and the genre you are submitting. Please also let us have your name as you’d like it to appear, physical address and email address, plus a short biography, no more than 60 words.
RULES OF ENTRY
1. Entries must be entirely your own work. Any evidence to the contrary will result in disqualification.
2. The author is entirely responsible for any potential copyright or other legal issues in their story.
3. Entries cannot be rewritten, re-edited, or replaced with a new version once submitted.
3. Entries must not have been published or self-published anywhere including on any website, blog or online forum, broadcast, have won or been placed (2nd, 3rd, runner up etc) in any other competition.
4. If your entry has been entered, long-listed or shortlisted in other competitions, and provided it has not won a prize or been published, it is eligible.
GENRE AND WORD COUNT
Poetry: 42 lines max. No minimum
Short story: 3000 words max. No minimum.
Non-fiction: 1,500 words max. No minimum.
Flash fiction: 250 words max. No minimum.
COPYRIGHT
Worldwide copyright of each entry rests with the author, but Muswell Press has unrestricted rights to publish the winning poems, short stories, flash fiction stories and non-fiction entries in Queer Life, Queer Love: The Second anthology.
Muswell Press has the right to sell translation rights in the anthology.
The authors give Muswell Press the right to publicise individual extracts, or to use them in relevant promotional material.
EDITORIAL
The work will be edited, formatted and typeset in Muswell Press house style ie single quote marks, ise endings, British English spellings (unless specified by entrant).
No graphics or unusual layouts can be reproduced.
PAYMENT
There is no payment for being published in the anthology however each contributor will receive a copy of the anthology and can purchase further copies at 50% discount.
If translation rights are sold to a publisher outside the UK a royalty from that publication or those publications will be shared amongst the contributors.
JUDGING
The entries will be judged by Matt Bates, Julia Bell,  Kate Beal and Sarah Beal
The judges’ decision is final . Judges are unable to comment on individual entries. Judging is fair and unbiased. Muswell Press reserves the right to change the panel of judges without notice.