So to Speak: intersectionality + language + art

An all-new collection of intersectional fiction, poetry, CNF, and visual art! This year's print issue is expanded, with 15 contributors across genres.

Our Spring 2023 Issue of So to Speak is available for purchase as a digital PDF for $3!

To receive a print hard-copy of the contest issue, you can select the add-on of "mail me a print copy!" for just an extra $6! (We'll even throw a back issue or two in with your order, free of charge.) 

The So to Speak is seeking fiction with an intersectional feminist lens!

The fiction team is looking for short stories and flash fiction pieces that engage, challenge, and surprise us. We particularly love stories that tackle multiple intersections (of race,  class, ability, sexuality, and/or gender identity) and allow us to hear  points of view that are not often heard.
We’re inspired by many great intersectional feminist authors doing important work—for instance, we’re currently in love with the stories  of Carmen Maria Machado, who uses the speculative and  the surreal to investigate the lives of queer women and the complex stories of their bodies. We also admire novelist Jesmyn Ward, who brilliantly captures complex intersections with beautiful, thoughtful prose and a distinct voice; Celeste Ng, who deftly explores intersections of class, race, and privilege; and R.O. Kwon, who crafts engaging narratives that interrogate the connections between race and religion.

In our time at So to Speak, the fiction team has seen many  stories that reflect the perspective of white, cisgender, heterosexual women. While this perspective is not necessarily a bad one, it is a point of view that is often featured in fiction. We would love to see more works that challenge this hegemony and feature voices and stories that are not typically heard. While we appreciate that writers can write  outside their own experiences, we prefer to read stories that come from  an "Own Voices" perspective—in other words, we prefer stories that  feature characters who explore intersections and perspectives that the  writer themself is familiar with.
All contributors will receive a $100 prize.

Formal Guidelines

In your submission, please upload and enter the following information:

• A single doc., docx., or pdf. file with a single prose fiction piece. Your submission should not exceed 4,000 words. All fiction submissions should be double-spaced with numbered pages.
• A Cover Letter that includes your name, address, phone number, email address, how you heard about So to Speak, and brief bio describing your background as a writer or artist and any applicable awards or publications.
• A brief statement about intersectional feminism. 

You may enter multiple submissions (ex: 2 submission packets each with a single fiction piece), so long as you pay the submission fee each time.

Find more information on our Submission Guidelines here: http://sotospeakjournal.org/guidelines/.

Find more information on our Mission Statement here: http://sotospeakjournal.org/about-so-to-speak/. 

So to Speak is seeking nonfiction with an intersectional feminist lens!
For work that we admire, look to the work of Shze Hui Tjoa in our 2020 contest issue, Daniel Garcia in our 2019 contest issue, and Chelsea Hernandez in our 2019 online issue. Outside of our journal, we deeply admire the work of Melissa Febos, Jeannie Vanasco, T Kira Madden, Claudia Rankine, and Eula Biss. We also appreciate work that is distinctively voiced and that provides  moments of unexpected, pathos-laden humor. A wonderful example of that  is Jessica Laurel Kane’s piece in our 2021 online issue. 

In the past, we have received many submissions on the topics of birth, breastfeeding, menstruation, and the male/female divide. We have also received several cis-centric submissions and work that ignores the  perspectives of people who are not white, cisgender, heterosexual. While no content area is “off limits” for us, we ask that you submit work  that contributes something new to the conversation.
We aim to be a space for voices occupying intersections that are not always heard. We deeply admire complex and sophisticated nonfiction that puts its subject under a tight lens. We appreciate the seamless integration of research as a means for diving deep into the personal.

All contributors will receive a $100 prize.

Formal Guidelines

 In your submission, please upload and enter the following information:

• A single doc., docx., or pdf. file with a single prose nonfiction piece. Your submission should not exceed 4,000 words. All submissions should be double-spaced with numbered pages.
  
• A Cover Letter that includes your name, address, phone number, email address, how you heard about So to Speak, and brief bio describing your background as a writer or artist and any applicable awards or publications. 
• A brief statement about intersectional feminism. 

You may enter multiple submissions (ex: 2 submission packets each with a single nonfiction piece), so long as you pay the submission fee each time.

Find more information on our Submission Guidelines here: http://sotospeakjournal.org/guidelines/.

Find more information on our Mission Statement here: http://sotospeakjournal.org/about-so-to-speak/. 

So to Speak is seeking poetry from an intersectional feminist lens! Being an intersectional feminist  is a commitment to lifelong learning—an intellectually open acknowledgement that systems, institutions, individual people, and places do not operate the same for every person.

We want to read poetry that excites us, that challenges our understanding of form and language. We want poetry that seeks and speaks its own embodied truth. Poetry can be a medium that invites the reader into the poet’s world, and we want to see new worlds, unexplored spaces, and strange landscapes. We’re interested in poems that dive deep into the varied images, identities, and idiosyncrasies you’re exploring. Right now, we’re particularly engaged with intersectional poetry that also explores themes of film and/or ecology. Some poets we adore are Donika Kelly, Oliver Baez Bendorf, Mary Oliver, Aracelis Girmay, Natasha Trethewey, and Claudia Rankine.

All contributors will receive a $100 prize.

Formal Guidelines

In your submission, please upload and enter the following information:

• A single doc., docx., or pdf. file with up to 5 poems. Your submission should not exceed 10 pages.
  
• A Cover Letter that includes your name, address, phone number, email address, how you heard about So to Speak, and brief bio describing your background as a writer or artist and any applicable awards or publications.
  
• A brief statement about intersectional feminism. 

You may enter multiple submissions (ex: 2 submission packets of 10 poems), so long as you pay the submission fee each time.

Find more information on our Submission Guidelines here: http://sotospeakjournal.org/guidelines/.

Find more information on our Mission Statement here: http://sotospeakjournal.org/about-so-to-speak/. 

So to Speak is looking for art which is implicitly or explicitly intersectional. Both formally educated and self-taught artists are welcome to submit. We strongly believe that art should be accessible to everybody, and that artists do not have to have classical training to make great art. Artists of all backgrounds and experiences are encouraged to submit work of any visual medium (though we are not able to publish video or audio art in our print issue).

We love art that challenges us to experience the world through the artist’s lens. Overtly political or activist themes are encouraged. We appreciate strong emotional content, and innovative techniques excite us.

We often see submissions which interpret So to Speak’s mission to be solely (or mostly) about cisgender women. While we welcome work from the perspective of cis women, that which focuses on anatomy, birth, and/or menstruation as the cornerstones of womanhood will generally be a poor fit for our journal; such themes can be seen as excluding trans/nonbinary people. That said, we would love to see these topics addressed through a fresh and intersectional lens.

All contributors will receive a $100 prize.

Formal Guidelines

• All submissions must be in jpg or tif formats at 300 dpi. Please label each file as LastName_Title.
• You may submit up to 5 pieces of artwork in a single entry. Dimensions if applicable, the materials used as applicable, a brief description of the submission.
• A Cover Letter that includes your name, address, phone number, email address, how you heard about So to Speak, and brief bio describing your background as a writer or artist and any applicable awards or publications.
• A brief description of how you see your piece (implicitly or explicitly) fitting into our intersectional feminist mission.

You may submit as many times as you like, so long as you pay a separate submission fee for each submission.                                                                                                                                                                                            
Find more information on our Submission Guidelines here: http://sotospeakjournal.org/guidelines/.  
Find more information on our Mission Statement here: http://sotospeakjournal.org/about-so-to-speak/.

The So to Speak is seeking fiction with an intersectional feminist lens!

The fiction team is looking for short stories and flash fiction pieces that engage, challenge, and surprise us. We particularly love stories that tackle multiple intersections (of race,  class, ability, sexuality, and/or gender identity) and allow us to hear  points of view that are not often heard.
We’re inspired by many great intersectional feminist authors doing important work—for instance, we’re currently in love with the stories  of Carmen Maria Machado, who uses the speculative and  the surreal to investigate the lives of queer women and the complex stories of their bodies. We also admire novelist Jesmyn Ward, who brilliantly captures complex intersections with beautiful, thoughtful prose and a distinct voice; Celeste Ng, who deftly explores intersections of class, race, and privilege; and R.O. Kwon, who crafts engaging narratives that interrogate the connections between race and religion.

In our time at So to Speak, the fiction team has seen many  stories that reflect the perspective of white, cisgender, heterosexual women. While this perspective is not necessarily a bad one, it is a point of view that is often featured in fiction. We would love to see more works that challenge this hegemony and feature voices and stories that are not typically heard. While we appreciate that writers can write  outside their own experiences, we prefer to read stories that come from  an "Own Voices" perspective—in other words, we prefer stories that  feature characters who explore intersections and perspectives that the  writer themself is familiar with.
All contributors will receive a $100 prize.


Formal Guidelines


In your submission, please upload and enter the following information:

• A single doc., docx., or pdf. file with a single prose fiction piece. Your submission should not exceed 4,000 words. All fiction submissions should be double-spaced with numbered pages.

• A Cover Letter that includes your name, address, phone number, email address, how you heard about So to Speak, and brief bio describing your background as a writer or artist and any applicable awards or publications.

• A brief statement about intersectional feminism.

You may enter multiple submissions (ex: 2 submission packets each with a single fiction piece), so long as you pay the submission fee each time.   
Find more information on our Submission Guidelines here: http://sotospeakjournal.org/guidelines/.    
Find more information on our Mission Statement here: http://sotospeakjournal.org/about-so-to-speak/.

So to Speak is seeking nonfiction with an intersectional feminist lens!
For work that we admire, look to the work of Shze Hui Tjoa in our 2020 contest issue, Daniel Garcia in our 2019 contest issue, and Chelsea Hernandez in our 2019 online issue. Outside of our journal, we deeply admire the work of Melissa Febos, Jeannie Vanasco, T Kira Madden, Claudia Rankine, and Eula Biss. We also appreciate work that is distinctively voiced and that provides  moments of unexpected, pathos-laden humor. A wonderful example of that is Jessica Laurel Kane’s piece in our 2021 online issue.
In the past, we have received many submissions on the topics of birth, breastfeeding, menstruation, and the male/female divide. We have also received several cis-centric submissions and work that ignores the perspectives of people who are not white, cisgender, heterosexual. While no content area is “off limits” for us, we ask that you submit work  that contributes something new to the conversation.
We aim to be a space for voices occupying intersections that are not always heard. We deeply admire complex and sophisticated nonfiction that puts its subject under a tight lens. We appreciate the seamless integration of research as a means for diving deep into the personal.
All contributors will receive a $100 prize.


Formal Guidelines


In your submission, please upload and enter the following information:

• A single doc., docx., or pdf. file with a single prose nonfiction piece. Your submission should not exceed 4,000 words. All submissions should be double-spaced with numbered pages.

• A Cover Letter that includes your name, address, phone number, email address, how you heard about So to Speak, and brief bio describing your background as a writer or artist and any applicable awards or publications.

• A brief statement about intersectional feminism.

You may enter multiple submissions (ex: 2 submission packets each with a single nonfiction piece), so long as you pay the submission fee each time.   
Find more information on our Submission Guidelines here: http://sotospeakjournal.org/guidelines/.    
Find more information on our Mission Statement here: http://sotospeakjournal.org/about-so-to-speak/.

So to Speak is seeking poetry from an intersectional feminist lens! Being an intersectional feminist  is a commitment to lifelong learning—an intellectually open  acknowledgement that systems, institutions, individual people, and places do not operate the same for every person.

We want to read poetry that excites us, that challenges our understanding of form and language. We want poetry that seeks and speaks its own embodied truth. Poetry can be a medium that invites the reader into the poet’s world, and we want to see new worlds, unexplored spaces, and strange landscapes. We’re interested in poems that dive deep into the varied images, identities, and idiosyncrasies you’re exploring. Right now, we’re particularly engaged with intersectional poetry that also explores themes of film and/or ecology. Some poets we adore are Donika Kelly, Oliver Baez Bendorf, Mary Oliver, Aracelis Girmay, Natasha Trethewey, and Claudia Rankine.

All contributors will receive a $100 prize.


Formal Guidelines


In your submission, please upload and enter the following information:

• A single doc., docx., or pdf. file with up to 5 poems. Your submission should not exceed 10 pages.

• A Cover Letter that includes your name, address, phone number, email address, how you heard about So to Speak, and brief bio describing your background as a writer or artist and any applicable awards or publications.

• A brief statement about intersectional feminism.

You may enter multiple submissions (ex: 2 submission packets of 10 poems), so long as you pay the submission fee each time.    
Find more information on our Submission Guidelines here: http://sotospeakjournal.org/guidelines/.
Find more information on our Mission Statement here: http://sotospeakjournal.org/about-so-to-speak/.

So to Speak is looking for art which is implicitly or explicitly intersectional. Both formally educated and self-taught artists are welcome to submit. We strongly believe that art should be accessible to everybody, and that artists do not have to have classical training to make great art. Artists of all backgrounds and experiences are encouraged to submit work of any visual medium (though we are not able to publish video or audio art in our print issue).
We love art that challenges us to experience the world through the artist’s lens. Overtly political or activist themes are encouraged. We appreciate strong emotional content, and innovative techniques excite us.
We often see submissions which interpret So to Speak’s mission to be solely (or mostly) about cisgender women. While we welcome work from the perspective of cis women, that which focuses on anatomy, birth, and/or menstruation as the cornerstones of womanhood will generally be a poor fit for our journal; such themes can be seen as excluding trans/nonbinary people. That said, we would love to see these topics addressed through a fresh and intersectional lens.
All contributors will receive a $100 honorarium.

Formal Guidelines

• All submissions must be in jpg or tif formats at 300 dpi. Please label each file as LastName_Title.
• You may submit up to 5 pieces of artwork in a single entry. Dimensions if applicable, the materials used as applicable, a brief description of the submission.
• A Cover Letter that includes your name, address, phone number, email address, how you heard about So to Speak, and brief bio describing your background as a writer or artist and any applicable awards or publications.
• A brief description of how you see your piece (implicitly or explicitly) fitting into our intersectional feminist mission.

You may submit as many times as you like, so long as you pay a separate submission fee for each submission.
Find more information on our Submission Guidelines here: http://sotospeakjournal.org/guidelines/.
Find more information on our Mission Statement here: http://sotospeakjournal.org/about-so-to-speak/.

We welcome submissions from anybody aged 13-18 for our Young Writers Initiative. We are particularly interested in hearing from individuals who identify with marginalized identities and who view themselves and the world through an intersectional lens. If you wish to submit and you are over the age of 18, please submit using our genre forms (during open submission windows) or to our blog.

We accept submissions only through our Submittable page, and we do not charge a fee to submit for our young writers.

• Prose submissions (fiction and nonfiction) must be 4,000 words or less. If submitting flash (pieces under 1,000 words), you may submit up to 3 pieces in a single document.
• Poetry submissions may consist of up to 5 poems in a single document as long as the entire submission is no longer than 10 pages.
• Art submissions may consist of any type of art that can be displayed on a website. This includes audio and visual art, as well as studio arts such as painting, drawing, illustration, ceramics, etc. Photographs must be submitted in jpg or tif formats with a dpi of 300.

Please be aware that, as employees of an institution of higher education in the State of Virginia, all of our editorial staff are mandated reporters. This means that if we suspect child abuse or neglect, we are legally bound to report that information to proper authorities. We do not want this information to deter anybody from submitting to us, but we also want to be upfront and honest about our obligations.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

The So to Speak Blog team has been inspired by such artists as Cheryl Strayed and Ryan Van Meter. Cheryl Strayed’s vulnerable, but incredibly distinct voice sustains you as you read about her struggle with drug abuse and the loss of a parent. Ryan Van Meter’s narrative storytelling and his sentence-level craft carry us through his work as he explores his identity as a gay man. We love work that explores the complexities of experiences and identities, work that lends itself to a larger meaning in every aspect.

The So to Speak Blog is unique in that it opens itself up to multiple forms of storytelling. We love the poetry, essays, and short stories we receive and we encourage artists to continue to submit pieces that fall into those genres. However, we want to see more work that bends form and genre, work that extends outside of the personal essay or the traditional poem, and work that is visually stimulating. Hybrid works, reviews, interviews, and visual art are welcomed submissions. We also would love to see more multimedia, like videos and podcasts, on the So to Speak Blog. In summary, we want to see art that tells a story in an exciting way and gives us a new perspective.

While we enjoy reading all of the pieces we receive and sincerely thank everyone who shares their work, a lot of submissions explore similar topics and issues through a similar lens. These topics include: motherhood, womanhood, sexual assault/rape, and misogyny. While these are all important to bring into conversation and can definitely be discussed in submissions, So to Speak’s mission is to explore the intersections of feminism, identity, and culture. We wish to see pieces that go deeper, offer new perspectives, and flip what has been considered the “literary canon” on its head.

Some topics we would love to see more of include: positive perspectives on gender, especially from transgender and non-binary artists, toxic masculinity, mental health, disability/ableism, and sexuality. And to go along with our mission, we love submissions that explore different intersections, like race and motherhood, economic status and healthcare, gender and immigration, and more.

If you are submitting Visual Art: (1) All submissions must be in .jpg, .tif, or .png formats at 300 dpi; (2) Please label each file as LastName_Title; (3) You may submit up to 5 pieces of artwork in a single entry; (4) Please include the dimensions (if applicable), the medium (if applicable), and an artist statement with a brief description of the submission.

Nonfiction and Fiction pieces should not exceed 1,200 words. Please submit one document (doc., docx., or pdf. files) with a single prose piece. All prose submissions should be double-spaced with numbered pages. Poetry submissions should not exceed 8 pages. Please submit one document (doc., docx., or pdf. files) with up to 3 poems. Hybrid work should not exceed 10 pages. Please submit one document (doc., docx., or pdf. files) with a single hybrid piece. Reviews and Interviews should not exceed 1,500 words. Please submit one document (doc., docx., or pdf. files) with a single review or interview. 

Videos and Podcasts can be variable in length, but should not exceed 20 minutes. Please include a brief summary/artist statement, to be published alongside your video or podcast should we accept your submission. Closed captions are required for videos, and typed transcripts are required for podcasts. Please be sure you have permission to use whatever media (sound, music, visuals, etc.) you incorporate into your video or podcast submission. Video submission will be uploaded in our YouTube account should we accept your submission for publication. Per their guidelines, “YouTube does not set a minimum resolution but recommends a resolution of at least 1280x720 for video that has a 16:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of at least 640x480 for video that has a 4:3 aspect ratio.” We accept .mp3 and .wav file types for audio submissions and .mp4, .mov, and .mpg file types for video submissions. Please submit high-quality video and audio for consideration -- submissions with excessive background noise, issues with lighting or resolution, poor sound quality, etc. will not be selected for publication. If you have questions about your video or audio submission, please send us an email titled “Blog - Video/Audio Submission Question” prior to submitting. 

In addition to your submission, we’ll ask you to submit:

• A Cover Letter that includes your name, address, phone number, email address, how you heard about So to Speak, and brief bio describing your background as a writer or artist and any applicable awards or publications.
• A brief description of how you see your piece(s) (implicitly or explicitly) fitting into our intersectional feminist mission.