Call for Submissions Summer ’18

The Thought Erotic is open for submissions for Summer/Fall 2018!

Our reading period is June 1 to September 3 (extended).

We’re looking for stories, poems, essays and art about sex and sexuality—narratives and images that shake up what our ideas of erotica and porn look like, of what they are and what they have potential to be. We’re looking for celebrations of sex while acknowledging that it can be fraught with fear and trauma—recognizing that the sexiest thing might be a reclamation or flat-out rejection of current definitions and expressions of sex. We are looking for authors and characters that are underrepresented and unheard, especially around ownership of body, self and voice—for stories from and featuring people of color, people who identify as LGBT, queer and/or gender nonconforming, women and people with disabilities. We’re looking for a spectrum of sexual expression, from vanilla to kinky. We’re looking for fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction (from lyric essay to cultural critique) and visual art.

The Thought Erotic features stories and essays where sexuality is a site of empowerment, of ownership of one’s own body, identity and story. It is a place to re-story and reclaim some of our cultural ideas around sex + sexuality. To take back/undermine/undo the heteronormative, sexist, racist, cissexist, patriarchal narrative of what sex is and looks like.

Our open reading period again is June 1 – September 3, 2018. Please see our submissions page for more details and to submit your work!

Let’s Talk about Sex…

Like action and dialogue, writing sex scenes can be extremely intimidating. And rightly so—it’s tricky to do and especially to do well. Add to the intricacies of craft, all of our cultural taboos, repressions, baggage, and general weirdness around talking about (little the less depicting) sex, sexuality and sexual encounters—and many authors take the easy road and avoid the subject altogether.

But you’re not an easy-road writer, are you?

Continue Reading

Rua do Salitre

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rua do salitre

by Ian E. Watts

Going nowhere in particular, our only aim is to catch the sun’s light among the rustling leaves around the
Rossio Square. Pointing out a couple on a bench, Vanessa mentions, “All interaction between men and
women is a guarded stalking and is always sexual in nature. A careful reading of every glance, every
word, and every gesture betrays masked intent.”Continue Reading

The Search for Non-Capitalist Pleasure

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The Search for Non-Capitalist Pleasure

by Ansley Clark

One of my most pleasurable memories occurred in my friend’s tiny room, sitting in her plastic and unremarkable desk chair. We were English teachers living in Beauvais, France; my hair was full of split ends, and my friend offered a trim. Since none of us owned any glassware, she handed me red wine in a mug. Her fingers combed through my hair, occasionally skimming my scalp, while her scissors quietly and steadily snipped away, like small gentle insects.Continue Reading

Queering a Path through the Universe: Sex & Love in Sci-Fi

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Queering a Path through the Universe: Sex & Love in Sci-Fi

by Courtney E. Morgan

There have been more and more representations of queer characters and relationships in mainstream media lately—more depictions of fully fleshed out, round protagonists, given fullness and complexity in their relationships and their narratives. Queer characters can be the leads in important movies, can win awards: Moonlight, Call Me By Your Name, Battle of the Sexes come to mind.[1] It’s a beautiful thing.Continue Reading

Feminized Rastafar-I, Adaptive Diaspora, and Embodied Resistance in Marcia Douglas’ The Marvelous Equations of the Dread

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Book Review: Feminized Rastafar-I, Adaptive Diaspora, and Embodied Resistance in Marcia Douglas’ The Marvelous Equations of the Dread

by Stephanie Couey

Marcia Douglas’ 2016 novel, The Marvelous Equations of the Dread centers around a young Jamaican woman named Leenah. Leenah’s multimodal and fully-embodied engagements with sound grant her privileged access into the temporal and spiritual experience of Rastafar-I. Following pan-African traditions of resistance centered around adaptation, Leenah radically adapts to her surroundings as a deaf woman in a persistently-masculinist and sound-driven movement.Continue Reading