Introducing a New Chapter in My Life!

Over the past few years I've been giving thought to how I want to advance the art and power of storytelling. Not just the work that comes from telling my own story and experiences, but finding a way to support the stories we all tell. The things we all write about. And the subjects we're all concerned with.

The past couple of years I've been working on major book projects. One is complete and others are forthcoming. Through the process of writing my own work and finding ways for my essays and larger projects to get published, I realize there are not too many opportunities for emerging writers to get their ideas and work out there in published form. And frankly, that's unacceptable. These voices of young emerging writers offer a refreshing and critical outlook on society that's invaluable for our movement and culture at large. That being so, I've envisioned for a while creating a way for young writers to have the opportunity to get their work published. Well, my dreams have come into fruition!

This month I launched Ruca Press, an independent publisher of serious works of non-fiction and fiction that engage the intersectionality of race, gender, sexuality, religion, and society—with an emphasis projects from young adults, LGBT/Queers, and people of color.


My vision for Ruca Press is to empower emerging writers that are engaging about very relevant and critical subjects in their writing. I'm definitely very excited about this new venture. It's been rewarding already with getting everything together and running. To support Ruca Press: follow us on Twitter and "Like" us on Facebook.

An anthology is already in the works that will focus on sexual and sexuality as a form of queer resistance and space. Here is the call for submissions:

REJECTING THE BEDROOM:

Sex and Sexuality as a Site of Queer Resistance and Space

• CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS •

“It’s all about sex.” — The opening line and closing remarks to the North American television series Queer As Folk. But really, what is sex? Through an interdisciplinary approach this project explores sex and sexuality as tropes and markers of queerness. This work responds to the hegemonic cultural gaze on queer sexual behavior by reclaiming sex and disrupting/blurring the lines of the limiting constructions of the private space: rejecting the bedroom.

The bedroom has, essentially, become a new closet for queers. The hegemonic heteronormative culture echos that it’s okay for queer people to fuck each other, so as long as they keep it in the bedroom—"we just don’t want to see it."  Anti-gay legislation and the acceptance of the nuclear model of relationships has forced queers into bedroom, silenced, to have to sex like our heterosexual counterparts. This work thus gives a voice to queer sex and, essentially, allows sexuality to define the essence of queerness; because even when it’s not about sex, it isstill about sex.

We do consider, however, that while this project works to ‘reject’ the bedroom, it also raises the question of whether or not (and how) we can reclaim the bedroom and queer that space on our own terms.

We are especially interested in serious critically engaging essays about queer sexual politics, public sexual cultures, cruising, polyamory, sex and spiritual/religious identity, HIV/AIDS, sexual consumerism, porn, conceptualizations of sex as space, sexualities outside of the U.S., and sexual and gender transgression. We are looking for essays that question the social and political hierarchies of sex and sexuality, that engage different sexual cultures based on race, class, gender, body type, ability, and sexual identity.


The basics:

We are accepting well-written, sophisticated essays for the Rejecting the Bedroom anthology until November 1, 2011.

Successful submission packets will include a cover page that provides the writer's contact information and a brief bio (150-300 words). All submissions should be double-spaced, in Times New Roman (12pt) font.

As a small press, Ruca Press is unable to provide monetary compensation for submissions. Contributors will receive 2 contributor copies of the book and will be able to purchase additional copies of the book at-cost.


Send submissions to:

Please email all submissions to submissions@rucapress.com in a single Word (.doc or .docx) or Rich Text Format (.rtf) attachment. Be sure to include the following in the subject line: "Bedroom Submission: YourLastName."

Please direct all questions and concerns regarding Submission Guidelines to info@rucapress.com.