Muswell Press is delighted to announce the call out for entries to
QUEER LIFE, QUEER LOVE 3 to be published in November 2025
‘Beautiful writing, original ideas and a few surprises’ Matt Cain
‘Celebrating queer love…multiple fleeting, varied’, Kevin Brazil, TLS
Muswell Press is delighted to announce a call out for entries to Queer Life, Queer Love 3, the highly acclaimed, ground-breaking LGBTQI+ anthology, celebrating the best new queer writing from around the world.
The editors are looking for original voices and brilliant writing which explores characters, stories and experiences beyond the mainstream. Celebrating the fascinating, the forbidden, the subversive, and even the mundane, but in essence, the view from outside
Earlier collections have showcased a plethora of talented authors and have helped Muswell Press expand its roster of published writers with contributions from Jon Ransom, Isabel Costello, Karen McLeod and Avi Ben-Zeev.
The new anthology will contain 30 stories, non-fiction pieces, flash fiction and poetry. The previous two anthologies included writers from Botswana to Minneapolis, San Francisco to Spain featuring both established and new voices.
Entry is open to anyone, without restriction. Submissions are welcome from 30th October to 30th December 2024 full details of how to enter are on the Muswell website www.muswell-press.co.uk Winning authors will be notified in March 2025
Matt Bates worked as the lead fiction buyer for WH Smith Travel prior to embarking on a creative writing degree at London University. He has been a judge on both the Costa Book Prize and the Booksellers’ Association debut fiction prize. He was the curator of the influential 2017 WHS promotion that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1967, and is Editor at Large for Muswell Press.
Paul Burston is the author of six novels and five non-fiction books and the editor of two short story collections.He hosts the award-winning LGBTQ+ literary salon Polari and is the founder of The Polari Prize book awards for LGBTQ+ writers. In 2016 he featured in the British Council’s Global List of ‘33 visionary people promoting freedom, equality and LGBT rights around the world.’His latest book is the bestselling memoir We Can Be Heroes : A Survivor’s Story.
Karen McLeod is writer in residence at The Bookseller Crow on the Hill and a visiting lecture in creative writing at UCAS. She won the Betty Trask Prize for her debut In Search of the Missing Eyelash and her memoir Lifting Off was published to great acclaim in June ’24. She performs comedy as Barbara Brownskirt and regularly works with Polari the LGBTQ+ Literary Salon.
Sarah and Kate Beal are the owners and publishers of Muswell Press. With over 50 years publishing experience between them at some of the UK’s most influential publishers, including Bloomsbury, Faber, Oneworld and Harpercollins. They started Muswell Press in 2017 and have since been nominated and won several awards including Polari, Fortnum & Mason, IPG Newcomer and British Book Awards Finalist.
How to Enter
Muswell Press is delighted to announce a call out for entries to Queer Life, Queer Love 3, the highly acclaimed, ground-breaking LGBTQI+ anthology, celebrating the best new queer writing from around the world.
The editors are looking for original voices and brilliant writing which explores characters, stories and experiences beyond the mainstream. Celebrating the fascinating, the forbidden, the subversive, and even the mundane, but in essence, the view from outside.
The wining 30 entries will all be published in Queer Life, Queer Love 3 in November 2025.
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: 30th October 30th 2024
• Competition closes: 30th December 2024
• Winning authors will be notified in March 2025
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 in the book, physical address and email address, plus a short biography, no more than 60 words. Details on the Muswell Press website www.muswell-press.co.uk
RULES OF ENTRY
1. Entries must be entirely your own work, not the work of AI or any other person. 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 work.
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. 3 poems maximum per entrant.
Short story: 3,000 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 copy 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, Kate Beal, Sarah Beal and Karen McLeod.
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.