SINISTER WISDOM

Submission Guidelines

Writing and Art

Please read carefully.

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 2500 words. Please include a short bio with your submission.

We STRONGLY prefer that you send your work by email in Word to JulieREnszer@gmail.com. If sent by mail, material must be mailed flat (not folded) with your name and address on each page. Send to: 6910 Wells Pkwy, University Park, MD 20782..

We prefer you type your work but short legible handwritten pieces will be considered; tapes accepted from print-impaired women. All work must be on white paper. Please proofread your work carefully; do not send us changes after the deadline.

A self-addressed stamped business-sized envelope must be enclosed. If you want acknowledgement of receipt, enclose a separate self-addressed stamped postcard. GRAPHIC ARTISTS should send B&W photos or drawings (duplicates) of their work. NO SLIDES. Images sent electronically must have a resolution of 225 for photos and 600 for line drawings. Let us know if we can keep artwork on file for future use. Include a short biographical sketch. Selection may take up to nine months.

We publish only Lesbians’ work. We are particularly interested in work that reflects the diversity of our experiences: as Lesbians of color, ethnic Lesbians, Jewish, Arab, old, young, working class, poverty class, disabled, fat. We welcome experimental work. We will not print anything that is oppressive or demeaning to Lesbians or women, or that perpetuates stereotypes. Please contact us if you have a new theme you would like to see explored.

Sinister Wisdom Style Guidelines:

The following guidelines are provided to prospective writers forSinister Wisdom to aid the editors in the selection process and to facilitate the journal design if work is selected. We appreciate the attention of potential writers for Sinister Wisdom adhering to these guidelines.

All fiction and non-fiction should be submitted in a standard font 12 pt font i.e., Times Roman, Arial, Tahoma. Double spaced.

Poems should be submitted in standard font, 12 pt.

American English punctuation, i.e., periods and commas inside quotation marks.

Serial commas (e.g. a comma immediately before the coordinating conjunction as in lesbians, lesbian-feminists, and women.)

No extra spaces between sentences.

When referencing a quote or statement, please use present tense, i.e., Eileen Myles asserts; Mary Hartman complains; Ophelia maintains (that Hamlet was an asshole).

Hyphenate compound nouns and modifiers: cyborg-tech; American-feminist Judy Punch;

No comma in year, i.e., 1990s not 1990’s.

Be consistent in style: If you use 1980s stay with 1980s, don’t switch to nineteen-eighties.

Spell out numbers one to twenty.

Numbers (including dates) at the beginning of a sentence should be spelled out; Nineteen-hundred fifty-four was a bad year for American communists. Sixteen dykes played ball last night.

Titles of books, movies, plays, works of art etc., are italics; titles of poems, short stories, papers, etc., in double quotes. For example

· The Trouble with Angels(movie)

· Handmade Love (book)

· “The Night I Met Bill Casey” (short story)

· “Red Prayer for a Nun” (poem)

· “The Body Politic: female sexuality and women artists since 1970” in Framing Feminism: Art and the Woman’s Movement 1970–1985. ed. Rozsika Parker and Giselda Pollack. London: Pandora Press, 1987. (article in a book).

Bios should be between 25 and 125 words.

Book reviews should include bibliographic data in the following format: Full title by Author (Publisher’s City: Publisher, Year of publication).

The Chicago Manual of Style is referenced. See this link for citations:

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html.

For additional information or any questions e-mail the editor: JulieREnszer@gmail.com