Sinister Wisdom

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.