OutWrite is pleased to share with you the work of six talented Black writers from the LGBTQIA+ community. This journal centers interconnected themes of Black imagination, joy, and liberation.
As we work to create a world where Black people not only survive, but thrive, we must nurture our imaginations and foster joy along the way.
—Tahirah Green, Journal Editor
[View PDF: We Got This-Black Writers on Imagination, Joy and Liberation]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 5, 2021
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Marlena Chertock and Malik Thompson, OutWrite Co-Chairs
outwritedc@gmail.com
Submissions Opening for OutWrite’s 2021 Chapbook Competition
WASHINGTON, D.C. — OutWrite is pleased to announce its third Chapbook Competition, running from April 15th to June 15th, 2021. The winning chapbooks will be celebrated at the 2021 OutWrite LGBTQ Literary Festival. Submission details are included at the end of this text.
Each winner will receive 25 copies of their winning chapbook, an offer of print publication from Neon Hemlock Press, and an opportunity to read from their work at OutWrite 2021.
Winning chapbooks will be selected in three categories by the competition judges:
Nonfiction: Christopher Gonzalez
Christopher Gonzalez is the author of I’m Not Hungry but I Could Eat, a story collection forthcoming from SFWP in fall 2021. His writing has appeared in the Nation, Catapult, the Millions, Best Small Fictions 2019, and elsewhere. He is a fiction editor at Barrelhouse and lives in Brooklyn, NY, but mostly on Twitter @livesinpages.
Fiction: Darcie Little Badger
Darcie Little Badger is a Lipan Apache writer with a PhD in oceanography. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, Elatsoe, was featured in Time Magazine as one of the best 100 fantasy novels of all time, and her second novel, A Snake Falls to Earth, is publishing with Levine Querido in October 2021. Darcie’s short fiction, nonfiction and comics have appeared in multiple places, including Nightmare Magazine, Strange Horizons, and The Dark. She is currently engaged to a veterinarian named T.
Poetry: Dena Rod
Dena Rod is a non-binary poet whose work has been highlighted in My Shadow is My Skin: Voices from the Iranian Diaspora, Butter Press, and Imagoes: A Queer Anthology. Their debut poetry collection is forthcoming from Milk and Cake Press May 2021. In 2020, Dena toured with Sister Spit, debuted the chapbook swallow a beginning, and joined The Rumpus‘s features team. A fellow of Kearny Street Workshop’s Interdisciplinary Writer’s Lab, Dena writes to illuminate their experiences in the Iranian American diaspora and queer communities through creative nonfiction essays and poetry. Connect with Dena at denarod.com.
There is no fee to enter this year’s contest.
Please follow these guidelines in preparing your submission:
Entries must be submitted no earlier than April 15th, 2021 and no later than June 15th, 2021. The submission window closes at 11:59pm EST on June 15th.
Submit all entries via this submission form. Queries can be made to outwritecontest@gmail.com. If the form is inaccessible to you for any reason, please email your submission to the email above with all of the information requested by the form.
Any updates to these guidelines will be posted here.
About OutWrite
OutWrite is a celebration of LGBT literature, held annually the first weekend in August in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit: thedccenter.org/outwrite.
About Neon Hemlock Press
Neon Hemlock is a purveyor of queer chapbooks and speculative fiction based in Washington, DC. More information at www.neonhemlock.com.
About the DC Center
The DC Center for the LGBT Community educates, empowers, celebrates, and connects the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. To fulfill our mission, we focus on four core areas: health and wellness, arts & culture, social & support services, and advocacy and community building. We envision communities where LGBT people feel healthy, safe, and affirmed.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Marlena Chertock, Malik Thompson, OutWrite Co-Chairs
outwritedc@gmail.com
Local poets Marlena Chertock and Malik Thompson have been announced as the new Co-Chairs of OutWrite. After 5 years of service, culminating in the 2020 festival being nominated for the 35th Annual Mayor’s Arts Award, writer and editor dave ring is stepping down as Chair of the festival. We thank him for his many years and support of OutWrite.
Malik and Marlena look forward to continuing OutWrite’s mission of cultivating inclusive literary programming that reflects and uplifts trans/queer literary communities. Both poets come to this work after being engaged in literary community — including festivals, conferences, poetry readings, open mic series, and writing workshops — at both the local and national level for years. OutWrite is delighted to have them at the helm, looking towards 2021 with the intention of centering BIPOC writers, Indigenous writers, and disabled writers.
OutWrite has extended the submission deadline for 2020’s two special edition festival journals: Ten Year Retrospective and We Got This: Black Writers on Imagination, Joy and Liberation. The new deadline is November 30. View submission guidelines here.
Mark your calendars for next year’s festival, which will be August 6-8, 2021. Due to this uncertain time, we will be planning OutWrite 2021 with the assumption that it will be virtual. We will release updates as the situation develops. Please visit outwritedc.org for more information and submit your ideas for panels and readings!
More about the Co-Chairs of OutWrite
Marlena Chertock has two books of poetry, Crumb-sized: Poems (Unnamed Press) and On that one-way trip to Mars (Bottlecap Press). She uses her skeletal dysplasia as a bridge to scientific writing. She is queer, disabled, and a 2020 Pushcart Prize nominee. Marlena serves as Co-Chair of OutWrite, Washington, D.C.’s annual LGBTQ literary festival, and on the Board of Split This Rock, a nonprofit that cultivates poetry that bears witness to injustice and provokes social change. Her poetry and prose has appeared in AWP’s The Writer’s Notebook, Breath & Shadow, The Deaf Poets Society, Lambda Literary Review, Little Patuxent Review, Neon Hemlock Press, Noble/Gas Quarterly, Paper Darts, Paranoid Tree, Plants & Poetry, Rogue Agent, Unheard Poetry, Washington Independent Review of Books, WMN Zine, Wordgathering, and more. Find her at marlenachertock.com and @mchertock.
Malik Thompson is a Black queer man proud to be from D.C. A bookseller, anime fanatic, and workshop facilitator. Malik has worked with Split This Rock, The University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Moonlit DC as a workshop facilitator. He also organized the Poets In Protest poetry series at the Black queer owned bookstore Loyalty Bookstores. Malik’s work can be found inside of Split This Rock’s Poetry Database as well as the mixed media journal Voicemail Poems. You can find Malik’s thoughts on literature via his Instagram account @negroliterati.
About OutWrite
OutWrite is a celebration of LGBTQ literature, held annually the first weekend in August in Washington, D.C. The 2021 festival will be August 6-8, 2021. For more information, visit: thedccenter.org/outwrite.
About the DC Center
The DC Center for the LGBT Community educates, empowers, celebrates, and connects the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. To fulfill our mission, we focus on four core areas: health and wellness, arts & culture, social & support services, and advocacy and community building. We envision communities where LGBT people feel healthy, safe, and affirmed.
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If you are facing a life threatening situation or seeking immediate care:
DC Mobile Crisis: 202-673-9300
DC Shelter Hotline: 202.399.7093 or 311
Maryland Mobile Crisis: 240-777-4000
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-8255
Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860
LGBTQ under 25: Trevor Lifeline: 866-488-7386
LGBTQ National Help Center (all ages – various lines/hours): 888-843-4564 www.glbthotline.org
We are seeking transmasculine folx to perform at the DCAVP Transmasc Voices Against Violence open mic event, May 29, 6:45-9PM. See the FULL EVENT DEETS HERE.
Theme: The topic is Transmasculine Survivors of Violence & Abuse. This event is a registration-only Zoom event, to be able to hold intimate space where transmasculine folx can speak up/out about their experiences of violence and abuse including those that may have happened pre-transition — a timeline that many transmasculine folx do not share openly for reasons of stealth, privacy and/or danger.
3-5 minute slots. The mic will be open after the first 5 performers for anyone interested — pre-event and during-event sign up list will be 1st come 1st served for the remaining time.
5-7 minute slots: We would like to have a small line-up of experienced performers to help set the stage as a place for authenticity and courage. If you are an experienced performer interested in one of the 5-7 minute slots on stage, please contact us. We will offer a $50 honorarium/each for 5 transmasculine-identified performers.
ASL interpreters provided.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 5, 2020
MEDIA CONTACTS:
dave ring, OutWrite Chair
outwritedc@gmail.com
WASHINGTON, D.C. — OutWrite is pleased to announce its second Chapbook Competition, running from May 5th to June 5th, 2020. The winning chapbooks will be celebrated at the 2020 OutWrite LGBTQ Literary Festival. Submission details are included at the end of this text.
Each winner will receive 25 copies of their winning chapbook, an offer of print publication from Neon Hemlock Press, and an opportunity to read from their work at OutWrite 2020 on Sunday, August 2nd.
Winning chapbooks will be selected in three categories by the competition judges:
Nonfiction: Tyrese Coleman
Tyrese L. Coleman is a writer, wife, mother, and attorney. Her debut collection of stories and essays, How to Sit, was published by Mason Jar Press in 2018 and nominated for a 2019 PEN Open Book Award. Her work has appeared as a notable in Best American Essays 2018 and 2016 and nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Fiction: Rivers Solomon
Rivers Solomon writes about life in the margins, where they are much at home. Their debut novel, An Unkindness of Ghosts, was a finalist for a Hurston/Wright and Lambda award and appeared on the Stonewall Honor List. Their novella, The Deep, has been nominated for a Hugo and Nebula. Solomon’s next book is forthcoming 2021 from MCD books.
Poetry: Faylita Hicks
Faylita Hicks (pronouns: she/her/they) is a Black queer writer and the Editor of Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review. She is a 2019 Lambda Literary Fellow, a 2019 Jack Jones Literary Arts “Culture, Too” Fellow, and a 2020 Right of Return Fellow. She was a finalist in the 2018 PEN America Writing for Justice Fellowship, the 2018 Cosmonauts Avenue Annual Poetry Prize and Palette Poetry’s 2019 Spotlight Award. Her collection HoodWitch (Acre Books, 2019) is a finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Annual Award and is now available.
There is no fee to enter this year’s contest.
Notes on each category:
Please follow these guidelines in preparing your submission:
Entries must be submitted no earlier than May 5th, 2020 and no later than June 5th, 2020. The submission window closes at 11:59pm EST on the 5th.
Submit all entries via this submission form. Queries can be made to outwritecontest@gmail.com. If the form is inaccessible to you for any reason, please email your submission to the email above with all of the information requested by the form.
Any updates to these guidelines will be posted here.
About OutWrite
OutWrite is a celebration of LGBT literature, held annually the first weekend in August in Washington, D.C. The 20120 festival will kick off on Friday, July 31. On Saturday, August 1st, there will be a full day of readings, panels, book sales, and exhibitors. To finish the weekend, a number of writing workshops will be held on Sunday, August 2nd. For more information, visit: thedccenter.org/outwrite.
About Neon Hemlock Press
Neon Hemlock is a purveyor of queer chapbooks and speculative fiction based in Washington, DC. More information at www.neonhemlock.com.
About the DC Center
The DC Center for the LGBT Community educates, empowers, celebrates, and connects the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. To fulfill our mission, we focus on four core areas: health and wellness, arts & culture, social & support services, and advocacy and community building. We envision communities where LGBT people feel healthy, safe, and affirmed.
Taking guidance and recommendations about social distancing from the DC government and the CDC, effective Monday, March 16th, The DC Center for the LGBT Community’s office will be closed. Staff are still working remotely, and will be checking emails and voicemails multiple times each day. Please reach out to supportdesk@thedccenter.org to connect with the DC Center, as we are still able to provide services and support.
If you are interested in attending support groups remotely, please reach out to your facilitator or supportdesk@thedccenter.org and we can provide options for remote meetings using conference lines.
The situation is changing rapidly, please refer to the CDC’s website and coronavirus.dc.gov for up-to-date information on what you can do to help prevent and slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The DC Center team will be meeting regularly to assess the situation and rest assured that we will open as soon as it is safe to do so, as we know that many of our clients and participants are vulnerable and will need support. If you are able, please consider donating and supporting organizations that provide food, medicine, and other support to marginalized populations.
If you are facing a life threatening situation or seeking immediate care:
DC Mobile Crisis: 202-673-9300
DC Shelter Hotline: 202.399.7093 or 311
Maryland Mobile Crisis: 240-777-4000
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-8255
Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860
LGBTQ under 25: Trevor Lifeline: 866-488-7386
LGBTQ National Help Center (all ages – various lines/hours): 888-843-4564 www.glbthotline.org
Reel Affirmations Film Festival has been nominated for 2019 Best LGBT Event in the Washington Blade’s Best of Gay DC! Please vote for us! You can vote everyday, once a day until August 28th.
Tune into WETA TV 26 at 8:30PM on Friday, June 21st to see an interview with our very own Kimberley Bush! The interview is part of a half-hour production showcasing LGBTQ visual and performing arts in the Greater Washington area. Kimberley will be discussing Arty Queers, a monthly art market featuring original works for sale by local LGBTQ artists. Arty Queers is held at The DC Center on the second Saturday of each month.