Call for Submissions: Letters From Our Partners
Deadline: April 1, 2014
Word Limit: 2500
Publisher: Transgress Press
Contact: jess@iamsocialjustice.comLetters From Our Partners, inspired by the 2011 Lambda Literary Finalist Letters For My Brothers: Transitional Wisdom in Retrospect, is an anthology of letters written by partners/spouses of trans* people to their trans* partner(s). We are looking for personal stories from partners who are or have been in a relationship with trans men, trans women, and/or non-binary trans* people.
We are interested in stories related to but not limited to:• Personal Identity: How is or has your identity been challenged or supported by your partner(s)’s identity? What gender roles and expressions have evolved through these relationships? Has your self perception of your own gender or identity evolved or changed? What about your perception of gender outside your relationship?
• Relationship Disclosure: How has your relationship(s) impacted personal, community, family, work, etc., based relationships, roles, etc.? Do you or your partner(s) disclose your partner(s)’s trans status to people you know in these different circles? What has their reaction been?
• Physical Embodiment: Has your partner(s) chosen to access medical transition? If so, how has this medical transition affected your relationship? Have differences in hormones impacted your relationship emotionally, mentally, spiritually, sexually, etc? How has your partner(s)’s desire or lack thereof for surgical procedures affected your relationship dynamics, your gender role as a partner, or your identity?
• Identity Disclosure: What was/is your partner(s)’s coming out process like personally, professionally, etc? How has this disclosure impacted your life as his/her/their partner?
• Relationship Dynamics: What changes have occurred in your relationship and across relationships? Have you shifted from monogamy to polyamory, or vice versa? Did you ever consider ending your relationship? Have you raised children? Have you connected with or distanced yourselves from extended family? Were these changes related to your partner(s)’s transition or trans status? If so, how?
• Support System: As a partner how have you found support? What supports did or do you need? At what point(s) in your relationship did you need the most support? Has this support brought about success in your relationship or your life? If so, how?
• Self Care: How do you manage your own needs as a partner? Has your own identity ever contradicted or complicated your partner(s)’s social, medical, or internal gender transition? If so, how do you manage this contradiction?
• Identity Intersection(s): How does class, race, ability, religion, education access, immigration, military service, family status, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, and physical embodiment and the like also come up regarding you and your partner(s) before, during, and after a gender transition process or lack thereof?
About the editors:Jessica Pettitt is a social justice educator and works to connect people to the solution to their problems. As the queer wife of a transman and co-parent to two mutts, Jess calls Northern California home. In between traveling from campus to campus and organization to organization, she also serves as a reader and editor for a lot of publications and has published several articles herself including a reflection journal. The second and third edition of this journal and a huge facilitation guide for this resource will be published within the year.
Jordon Johnson, M.S.W., M.A., is the Coordinator for the McKinley Community PLACE MATTERS team, which seeks to change systems that perpetuate environmental health disparities related to the impacts of institutional racism and multi-generational trauma, by empowering participating communities within the county to impact equitable policy change. He has taught courses in Social Work and American Studies in universities throughout New Mexico. He is currently a PhD Candidate in American Studies at the University of New Mexico.
We look forward to hearing from you!