CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: CentroMariconadas: A Queer & Trans Central American Anthology

image by Dichos de un Bicho

Por favor de compartir y contribuir!  (El link en Español –> https://goo.gl/urdnn8)

Kórima Press is accepting submissions from Queer and Trans Central American writers for the forthcoming anthology CentroMariconadas, edited by Maya Chinchilla. The title of this volume is inspired by the work of the late queer Salvadoran oral historian and author Dr. Horacio N. Roque Ramírez. CentroMariconadas seeks to honor and continue Horacio’s tireless pursuit of affirming community scholarship and queer storytelling.

Horacio coined the term “CentroMaricón” as a conversation starter and as a way to find each other, no matter what we’ve been called by others or would come to call ourselves. Using the irreverent wordplay Central Americans are known for, he saw a need to give a name to the world-making we have long been engaged in as a matter of survival and creation. We continue this work by calling this collection forth to document our Central American Queer joy, resistance, poetics, and the intellectual and artistic movements we are a part of in the face of silence, violence, and heartbreak.

Answering the call to build, document, and create our worlds as we see them, we invite Queer and Trans Central Americans to submit poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, short essays, and testimonio that (re)imagine/celebrate/bear witness to queer, cuir, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and/or non-binary Central American experiences. Recognizing that these words and identities may not encompass the entirety of our experiences, we offer them as a starting point for the stories that need to be told.

We welcome writing that explore themes of loss, joy, survival, danger, identity, hybridity, love, sex, sexuality, gender and gender expression, immigration, education, humor, language, pain, family, solidarity, inter- and intra-cultural bonds and ruptures, latinx-ness, separation, trauma, healing, domesticity, labor, parenthood, (chosen) family, faith, machismo, feminism, community, self-care, and alternative futures. We welcome lush, honest, descriptive writing that invites us into the world(s) you are crafting.

Writings may be in English, Spanish, and Spanglish. If your submission uses other languages, please contact for further instruction. Central America encompasses peoples from the seven countries of the isthmus (Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Belize) and their diaspora.

1. Send submissions to: submissions [at] korimapress [dot] com
2. In subject line, write: “CentroMariconadas Submission: YourFullName”
3. Attach a single Word (.doc or docx) document with the following:
   1. Up to 10 pages of poetry or prose (500-750 words, max. [Contact editor for longer submission inquiries.] )
   2. include your last name in the file name (e.g. “ramirez.doc”)
   3. Bio (include how you identify. 300-word max)
   4. High resolution photograph of yourself

Compensation: As a small press, Kórima Press is unable to provide monetary compensation for submissions. Contributors will receive 3 copies of the anthology and opportunity to purchase additional copies at-cost (cost to be determined upon publication).

About the Editor: Maya Chinchilla is an Oakland-based Guatemalan femme writer, video artist, educator, and author of The Cha Cha Files: A Chapina Poética (Kórima Press). Maya writes and performs poetry that explores themes of historical memory, heartbreak, tenderness, sexuality, and alternative futures. Her work—sassy, witty, performative, and self-aware—draws on a tradition of truth-telling and poking fun at the wounds we carry.

Born and raised in Long Beach, CA, by a mixed class, mixed race, immigrant activist extended family, Maya has lived and loved in the Bay Area for the second half of her life. Her work has been published in many anthologies and journals and has received several awards and grants for her work. She is a founding member of the performance group Las Manas, a former artist-in-residence at Galería de La Raza in San Francisco, CA and La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley, CA, and is a VONA Voices, Dos Brujas, and Lambda Literary Fellow. Along with Karina Oliva Alvarado, Maya co-edited Desde el Epicentro: An Anthology of Central American Art and Poetry. As a lecturer she teaches creative writing, literature and Latinx Studies at SFSU, UC Santa Cruz and UC Davis.