Sinister Wisdom

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

This Sinister Wisdom issue aims to explore a new term – ecolesbianism – and what it can offer us
in this climate crisis. As guest editors who share resonant but different experiences with ecology
and lesbianism, we want to connect with people interested in, identified by, and/or provoked by
the ecolesbian concept, while advancing the depth of the ecolesbian conversation as we explore
the futures it prompts us to imagine and work towards. In this issue, we are asking: what is
“ecolesbianism” and what can its future/s hold?

This call welcomes non-essentialized takes on gender and lesbianism and a diversity of queer
identities exploring the concept of ecolesbianism. We welcome submissions of fiction,
non-fiction, poetry, interviews, visual art (e.g. illustrations, photographs, collages), and
genre-non-specific work, up to 5,000 words. We expect submissions to have an informed
understanding of intersectionality across issues (eg, disability and racial justice), and to
incorporate such perspectives where possible. For thematic guidance, authors can approach the
ecolesbian concept broadly, or take inspiration from these further questions:

• What does it take to be an ecolesbian? What is the scope of ecolesbianism, and can it
   move us beyond gender-essentialized views of lesbianism?
• How is climate change affecting lesbian practices and perspectives? Can we be informed
   by lesbian experiences from areas facing extreme climate change?
• How might distinct lesbian niches (e.g. trans lesbians, Black lesbians, butch culture)
   inform the ecolesbian concept and movement?
• Building upon established concepts such as ecofeminism, ecosexuality, and queer
   ecologies, what new insights can ecolesbianism or lesbian ecologies offer to our activism,
   relationships, writing, thinking, and being?

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMISSION

Expected timeline:

1. By 1st February 2026: Contributors to submit final drafts to the editorial team for
    review. Details on what is expected of each submission is listed below and clarifications
    can also be found in the journal’s submission guidelines page. Editorial process may
    involve communication with authors throughout upon submission, potentially including
    but not limited to revision requests.
2. By 1st August 2026: Editorial team to send final confirmation of acceptance for
    inclusion in the journal.
3. 2027/2028: Issue published.

Please direct inquiries to the Sinister Wisdom Guest Editorial team at:
isabella.b.nunez@gmail.com,
yasmin@u.yale-nus.edu.sg, and
maxlopez@nus.edu.sg with the
subject line “Sinister Wisdom Special Issue – [Title of your piece]”. Submissions can be made on
the Sinister Wisdom Submittable page.

• Submissions in non-English and/or multiple languages are welcome. The editorial team
   speaks English, Spanish, and Cantonese, and will work to understand submissions in
   other languages. Translations are welcome but not required.
• Written submissions files should be in a clearly legible font type and size. These may be
   changed by the editorial team should the contribution be included in the final journal
   issue.
• Written submissions should be in an editable WORD file format. Submission in other
   types of file should be accompanied by a strong reason for it, and cooperation for
   re-formatting may be required if the submission is incompatible with tools used to edit
   the issue.
• Visual art submissions should be submitted in the highest quality possible, in a widely
   downloadable format, e.g. PNG, JPEG, PDF.
• Written submissions have a 5,000 words limit.
• Submissions of previously published work will not be accepted.
• Contributors should indicate if they are comfortable with any part of their submission
   being re-formatted into a creative product (e.g. magazine, poster, etc.). The issue will
   primarily be published in a standard text and image format, and editors will explore
   further presentation formats once all submissions are finalized.

FURTHER INTRODUCTION TO ECOLESBIANISM

Why are we putting together this issue, and why now?

Remaining hopeful amidst the state of global affairs necessitates work. Between climate change
and a global swing towards an androcentric, (cis)heteronormative and techno-fascist far-right, the
future of our intimacies seems far from guaranteed. The libertarian identity politics that promised
freedom once upon a time now feel like a distracting façade, breaking our issues into digestible
bites without apparent connections between one or the other. The time for solidarity is long
overdue – both across queer groups and across species. We cannot risk the mistake of
understanding our mutual struggle as a human issue exclusively. The taxonomization of life into
species is a colonial impulse which has produced hierarchical boundaries between the human and
the ‘sub-human’ that have hurt us collectively. The same logic governs the ideology of
transphobia for example, imposing a prescriptive taxonomy of gender onto human life. Our
queer ontologies, and more specifically our lesbian ontologies, will not find a breakthrough for
as long as we remain operating as humans for humans, neglecting our other-than-human kin with
whom political, personal, and communal horizons are yet to be built. As ecolesbians, we want to
see what could happen if we apply the unique passion, voracity, and thrill of lesbian love to our
relationship with the Earth.

This Sinister Wisdom issue emerges from a Singapore-published zine “The Anthropussy: an
ecolesbian manifesto” (2024) which introduced ecolesbianism as an extension of our lesbian
principles and gender-marginalised intimacy onto our relationships with the environment and
more-than-human kin. The idea of the ‘Anthropussy’, playing with the scholarly term
‘Anthropocene’, alludes to the erotic and utopian potential we carry within this era of
unprecedented anthropogenic climate change. It combines an environmentalist recognition of the
climate crisis with a feminist and queer theory analysis of the vulva as a symbol for vast
potential, pleasure, intimacy, and expansiveness that a lesbian experience of interspecies
relationships might involve, while seeing kinship with the non-human as a way to transgender
(verb) the cisgender body.

We are also particularly interested in futures, or futurity, in this issue. For the queer body, the
concept of ‘the future’ is laden with uncertainty – we are not guaranteed the political rights,
health care, and social acceptance that we need, but still we move forward. Our climate future is
of course marked with uncertainty as well. What places are becoming uninhabitable, and for
whom? What will become of what we call ‘nature’? And where can we find what Anna Tsing
(2015) calls a “third nature”: that which lives despite capitalism? We hope this issue will call
back to connections made in Sinister Wisdom 77 “Environmental Issues/Lesbian Concerns”, with
an updated political landscape and concern for futurity. We are inspired by scholars like Donna
Haraway, Gloria Anzaldúa, José Esteban Muñoz, and Kim Tallbear, and by our own queer
communities, persisting on this uncertain earth and living despite capitalism. And we want to be
inspired by more – by you! We want to collect stories, perspectives, visions, and all sorts of
explorations of our Ecolesbian Futures.

GUEST EDITORIAL TEAM

Isabella Blea Nuñez (they/she)

Colorado, USA

isabella.b.nunez@gmail.com

Izzy is a community organizer based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and a co-author of “The
Anthropussy.” Izzy’s understanding of ecolesbianism has evolved in recent years through
experiences in small-scale agriculture, healing justice, and food systems work.

Yasmin Sani (they/he)

Singapore

yasmin@u.yale-nus.edu.sg

Yasmin is a writer and researcher currently based in Singapore. They received their B.A. with
Honours in Environmental Studies from Yale-NUS College. Drawing from the environmental
humanities and political ecology, Yasmin works across archival research, critical theory, and
site-specific inquiry.

Max D. López Toledano (they/she)

Singapore

maxlopez@nus.edu.sg

Max is an anthropologist based at the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, with
particular interest in queer sports scenes across the world, transgender issues, and in how ‘the
future’ is defined, experienced, anticipated, negotiated, claimed, and challenged by different
communities. This includes but is not limited to the consequences of anthropogenic
environmental change, epidemiological notions of ‘preparedness’, or the gendered politics of
reproductive futurity. As a trans lesbian, Max wonders how untethering lesbianism from
prescriptive ideals of the body may expand our understanding beyond the realm of gender and
sexuality, possibly even across species lines.

Sinister Wisdom is excited to announce a special issue dedicated to reproductive justice (RJ) and
 lesbianism1/queerness. This issue seeks to answer: what is the role of lesbians in the RJ movement?
 We want to explore the ways in which RJ matters to our community. Reproductive justice is a framework
 that was coined by women of color in the 1990s from the intersections of reproductive rights, social
 justice, feminism, and the broader struggle for liberation. The National Black Women’s Reproductive
 Justice Agenda2 defines RJ as the “human right to control our sexuality, our gender, our work and our
 reproduction.” It is a framework that addresses not just the legal right to access reproductive health
 services, but also the social, economic, and political conditions necessary for individuals to have the
 resources and support to make autonomous reproductive choices.2 RJ encompasses not only
 reproductive rights like in vitro fertilization, abortion and contraception, but also intersections between
 healthcare access, family-building options, the ability to make informed choices about our reproductive
 health and bodily autonomy.

This issue embraces a non-essentialized understanding of lesbianism. We expand this understanding to
 represent the diversity of lesbian lives and experiences. We do not seek to create further exclusion in the
 process. Lesbians are not exclusively cisgender women, and we are excited about and encourage
 submissions that hold and explore the nuances of trans and nonbinary lesbian experiences within
 reproductive justice. We hope to broaden, rather than constrain, both the lesbian label and the RJ
 movement.

We invite contributors to this issue to explore diverse topics within the umbrella of reproductive justice.
 These are the six tenets of reproductive justice we will explore in this issue. Tenets three, four, five and
 six were inspired by the women of the global majority who gathered at the International Conference on
 Population and Development held in Cairo, Egypt in 1994. We hope these are a good starting point to
 inspire submissions at the intersection of reproductive justice and queer/lesbian lives.

1.  Right to access affirming, affordable health care
    
   • Affirms & supports our diverse genders and sexualities (e.g. high quality menopause
            care, access to safe and affordable gender-affirming surgeries)
   • Prevents illness and supports us to be well throughout our lives (e.g. accessible and
            appropriate preventative screenings, access to healthy food)
   • Research that is reflective of our communities
   • Centers the most marginalized (e.g. disabled lesbians, trans lesbians, lesbians living with
            HIV, young lesbians)

     
   1. Right to tools/skills that promote bodily autonomy
    

   • Access to comprehensive & inclusive knowledge about anatomy and how bodies work
            (e.g. how to perform self examinations; cervix angles, how to and why track
            menstruation cycles)
   • Access to comprehensive, sex-positive, pleasure based, queer and trans-centered sex
            education
   • Freedom from shame & violence around the complexity of our bodies (e.g. disability,
            fatness, transness, woman-ness, menstruation, old age)

     
   2.  Right to have children, decide how many, and under what conditions to give birth.
    

   • Access to queer-affirming, culturally competent fertility care
   • Queer birthing justice: second parent adoption, addressing racial politics of sperm
            donation (i.e. Black lesbians access to Black sperm donors)

     3. Right not to have children
    

   • Access to abortion services, contraception, non-coercive sex
   • Dignity for family structures that do not include children

    4.  Right to parent one’s own children in safe & healthy environments
    

   • Equitable and affordable access to necessities like childcare, shelter, food and education
   • Genocides and famine in Haiti, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Palestine: “The
            current colonial genocide of Palestinians by Israel draws direct parallels to reproductive
            injustice under and after colonialism, with the treatment of Palestinian mothers
            comparable to the way that [people of the global majority] in the U.S., especially
            Black and Indigenous people, are disproportionately affected by reproductive
            injustice.”3

5.  Right to be free of reproductive coercion and violence

• Centering self-determination for queer, lesbian, bisexual, trans & non-binary sex workers.
  • Decriminalizing sex work and combatting stigma & discrimination against sex workers in our
           communities.
  • Healthcare providers assuming you desire pregnancy

  Submission Guidelines and Timeline

Submissions are accepted from September 15, 2025 through March 31, 2026 through the
 Reproductive Justice Sinister Wisdom Submittable. Please submit one document, even if you are
 submitting multiple pieces, up to 15 pages. We encourage essays up to 5000 words, poems, photography
 (especially of lesbians and queer people involved in reproductive justice!!!), visual art (.jpg or .gif), and
 oral histories. If there is something you’d like to submit in a format not listed, please email Leonne Tanis at: otherwisecnm@gmail.com.

Written submissions can be in any language — but must include an  English translation. You are welcome to use a pseudonym if you are  concerned about privacy. Submissions are open to writers and artists of  all  experience levels, no previous publication experience required.  Visit Sinister Wisdom Submission Guidelines for more information. Be sure to include a brief bio and any social media links with your submission!

And please share this call widely through your network!

Direct any questions to Leonne Tanis at: otherwisecnm@gmail.com

Team Bios

Leonne Tanis, CNM, WHNP-BC, is a midwife and reproductive health nurse practitioner, who practices
 in New York City. She identifies as a Black, Haitian-American lesbian and her interests include building
 intergenerational queer communities and practicing reproductive justice in marginal communities.

Drewe Haddox is an artist and abortion doula based in Detroit. They love couchsurfing with queers
 all over the world and dancing in zumba class.

Izzy Nuñez is a Colorado (eco)lesbian who loves growing food, singing karaoke, and basking in
 queer community.

Margaret Zanmiller is a lesbian living and writing in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Additional team members: Kelsey McGarry, Eira Iris Lipkin, Claudia Vargas, Yemi Combahee

1 Lesbianism defined as intimacy between people of marginalized genders. 

2 https://blackrj.org/our-causes/reproductive-justice/. 

3 https://pressbooks.claremont.edu/gws183transfemtheories2024/chapter/sydney-mcgonigal-coloniality-and-reproductive-justice-in-palestine/ 

What does butch-femme mean in lesbian and queer communities today?  What does it mean to live the pandemic, the surge in anti-trans and  anti-LGBTQ legislation, and the start of a second Trump presidency  through the lens of butch-femme? What are butch-femme communities doing  locally, nationally, to shape lesbian and queer lives? What sort of  butch-femme future are we building together? 

Sinister Wisdom’s Butch-Femme Renaissance issue is interested in all  genres and styles of writing and visual art from butch-femme identified  lesbian, dyke, queer, gender non-conforming and trans folks. If you live  a butch-femme lifestyle or see yourself in butch-femme dynamics — or  have something to say about why you don’t — we want to hear from you.

We are especially interested in reported work — interviews with local  community groups, Q&As, grassroots organizing features, essays, sex  and dating topics, photography and other visual arts. Here are some  ideas:

• Interviews and oral histories with butch-femme movers, shakers, organizers, community leaders, thinkers and lovers
• Profiles on local organizations, grassroots movements or  justice-seeking initiatives led by and for butches, femmes, studs,  stemmes, trans and gender non-conforming people
• Intergenerational dialogue on butch-femme culture
• Writing on butch-femme sex, love and dating (bonus points if you talk about OFOS dating, stone tops, pillow princesses or kink)
• Essays (including personal essays) on gender presentation, identity,  and “finding your own” (Example: the butch boxing class that changed my  life, how my wife and I planned our wedding as a butch-femme couple,  getting top surgery as a butch, t4t butch-femme dynamics, how you  organized and threw a butch-femme book club or fundraiser etc.)
• Any work that explores power and identity in critical and unexpected  ways — especially work that deals with politics, legislation, and  systems of oppression explicitly. We’re especially interested in  thinking about local and federal anti-LGBTQ legislation, anti-DEI and  anti-education initiatives, incarceration, student protests,  reproductive rights, healthcare, ID access and much much more. We are  particularly interested in hearing from butch-femme identified folks who  live rurally and/or in red states.
• Any work that questions, tests or maps the boundaries of butch-femme  culture. Where does butch-femme thrash and upend patriarchal  expectations, heteronormative social scripts, boredom? Or do you see  butch-femme as restricting? As exclusionary along race or class lines?  Sing it! The praise and the criticism. We want to hear from you.

The above ideas are primarily for written submissions — but we want  your illustrations, your photo journalism, your comics, your  photography, your genre-bending and gender-bending best in all  categories of art! 

We are particularly interested in hearing from BIPOC butch-femme  identified folks and from those who live rurally and/or in red states.  International submissions are strongly encouraged and will be  prioritized. 

Don’t go to the archives for this issue — get out on the street.  Think fresh. Think on-the-ground. Think about how you’d talk to your  best friend, not your professor. This issue is not overly interested in  the academic, the formal, the historical. So much of being lesbian,  queer, and trans is looking back, towards the past, to excavate traces  of yourself and your community. That is vital, necessary work. But  that’s not the work of this issue. 

Submissions are accepted from July 1 to December 31, 2025 through the Sinister Wisdom Submittable.  Please submit one document, even if you are submitting multiple pieces,  up to 15 pages. Please include a brief bio and any social media links  as well.

Written submissions can be in any language — but must include an  English translation. You are welcome to use a pseudonym if you are  concerned about privacy. Submissions are open to writers and artists of  all experience levels, no previous publication required.

Please share this call widely on social media! And direct any questions to sara.gregory91@gmail.com 

Editor Bio

Sara Youngblood Gregory (she/they) is an  award-winning lesbian journalist, editor, and author. She writes about  power, identity, health, and culture. Sara is currently a Contributing Writer and Editing Fellow for Yes! Magazine,  covering LGBTQ equity, politics, and culture. Formerly, she was a  wellness staff writer for PS. Their work has been featured in The New York Times, the New Republic, Vice, New York Magazine, Teen Vogue, Cosmopolitan, The Guardian, and many others. Read more here! 

Sara serves on the board of the lesbian literary and arts journal Sinister Wisdom, having lent a hand most recently on Sinister Wisdom 128 Trans/Feminisms.  As a poet, Sara has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the  Net, and Best New Voices. Her debut, speculative poetry collection DEAD  BOYS IN SPACE won the 2023 Pamet River Prize from YesYes Books and is  forthcoming Fall 2026. Her chapbook RUN. is out now. 

In her poem, “Intifada Incantation: Poem #8 for b.b.L.”, Harlem-based poet and activist, June Jordan writes, “I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED/ BOUNDARIES TO DISAPPEAR.” 

With June Jordan’s voice behind us, we wonder, what is queer life like in the neighborhoods of New York’s uptown communities? What are the perceptions of queer life in forgotten districts? What are the disquieting stories of resilience? The ones that remind us of our autonomous power? And what of the untold stories of looking for love in a city that doesn’t love you back? What’s the story behind the bench you avoid at the park? Tell us about your craziest commute–all the trains you took to see your crush and the mess you witnessed on the way. Tell us about the party that made you feel like you finally belonged. When did you decide that you needed to choose yourself to survive?

Sinister Wisdom, a multicultural lesbian literary and arts journal, recognizes that wisdom comes from the left (sinister) and from places that are to some unexpected. Scarlet Gomez is editing an issue of stories from across New York’s uptown community, spanning from 110th in Harlem to Wakefield in the Bronx. Scarlet and Sinister Wisdom invite all queer, trans, nonbinary, genderqueer, genderfluid, gender non-conforming, two-spirit, intersex folks, and any woman who has ever loved another woman, to submit to our Archived As: I Said I Love You issue. Short stories, essays, letters, poems, interviews, photographs, and other creative expressions are welcome.

Some examples of what we are looking for: the love letters you never threw out, the stories you daydream about the one who got away, the tale of how you fell in love at first sight. We want journal entries about overcoming family trauma and your worst breakups; musings on discovering yourself at any age, but especially from late-bloomers, and all the table talk of the parties and protests you’ve met the most beautiful people at. Work about being in the closet, high school and church crushes, and work flings are also encouraged. 

Please submit fiction, non-fiction, poetry, interviews, and genre-non-specific work, up to 5k words, and a short contributor biography, between 25 and 125 words through the Sinister Wisdom Submittable page.

We are also seeking illustration and photographs, (.jpg or .tif files only, print resolution size at least 300 ppi).

Please do not send previously published work.

Submission Deadline: January 31, 2026. The anticipated publication date for this issue is in 2027 or 2028.

About the Editor: Scarlet Gomez (she/they) is a queer Dominican Bronx-based poet, writer, zine-maker, and founder of Poetry House LLC. She's had several short stories and poems published in literary journals such as Philadelphia Stories, The A3 Review, and Femme Dyke Magazine. She’s a Hedgebrook alum. When she’s not writing poetry, she’s working on her debut novel, No World Without You, and when she’s not doing that, she’s building the future she wants to see. 

Lesbian Writing (General):  

Material may be in any style or form, or combination of forms.

  Maximum: five poems, two short stories or essays, OR one longer piece of up to 5,000 words.

  Please proofread your work carefully; do not send us changes after the deadline.

  Please send a short contributor biography between 25 and 125 words with your submission.

Sinister Wisdom acquires first North American serial rights for all work that we publish. By acquiring first North American serial rights, authors guarantee that publication in Sinister Wisdom will be the first publication in North America. That is, the work has not appeared previously in another journal, in a book, online, or in other forms of publication. In rare instances, Sinister Wisdom will reprint work that has been previously published. Authors should discuss with the editor and publisher PRIOR to submission. 

Many questions about rights are answered here: https://www.pw.org/content/copyright 

Upon publication, all rights revert to the author.