CFP: Divination, Myth, and Art

Call for Papers for a Femspec Special Issue:

Divination, Myth, and Art

Femspec, an interdisciplinary journal dedicated to challenging gender through speculative means in any genre, announces a call for material on divination, myth, and art. These materials may deal with the speculative aspects of divination through any means including Tarot – particularly representations of Tarot and other readings in film, speculative literature, art, poetry, and popular culture. They may also deal with creative writing, women artists, feminist myth scholars, and ancient mythic archetypes appearing in fiction or framing artistic production.


We are particularly looking for publishable critical and creative material that explores women’s reclamation of myth from our own and other cultures, plus the creation and use of new myth. Who made those images? What is the relationship between powerful goddess archetypes and the lives of women in the cultures that produced and worshipped them? We are also interested in submissions that focus on the divination reading process and the spiritual medium reader using whatever tools at hand.

Submissions may include:

• critical analysis
• short stories, poetry, and excerpts from longer works
• personal accounts of working as a reader, mythic explorer, ritual writer, artist, fiction writer, etc
• memoirs and autobiographical accounts of spiritual and divination readers scholarly papers about speculative fiction, cultural products or ethnographies exploring women’s experience of the spiritual or mythic
• participant observation/autoethnography projects
• commentaries on representations of the spiritual reading in any aspect of popular culture, including the evolution of contemporary decks in the women's spirituality movement, the practice of palmists or phone psychics, art, film, Tarot reading shops, booths on boardwalks or at carnivals and festivals such as Renaissance Fairs
• as well as discussion of technology, divination, myth, and the arts, like the phenomenon of internet readers, digital artists’ collective, and cyber-mythmaking

We also seek reviews of films, books, and any media including jewelry, popular culture, television shows, and music using myth, divination, and the creative to challenge the gender stereotypes of today.

DEADLINE: October 15th, 2012

MLA format required. See the Femspec website (femspec.org) for paper submission format. For more information, contact femspec@aol.com. The cover artist will receive two free copies of the issue. All submitters must have active subscriptions throughout the submission, review, and publication process. 

CFP: The Future of Reproductive Justice

Call for Papers for a Femspec Special Issue:

The Future(s) of Reproductive Justice

Human Rights + (Social Justice Projects) * (Access + Consent) = Reproductive Justice

The term “reproductive justice” emerges from the work of women of color activists in the 1990s, who linked access to reproductive healthcare to racist, classist, and sexist power structures. SF authors like Octavia Butler, Nancy Kress, Suzy Charnas, and Marge Piercy have all used their work to explore the connections between power, access, consent, and reproductive wellbeing. In this special issue of Femspec, we invite our contributors to think critically about the future(s) of the reproductive justice movement.

As a peer reviewed journal dedicated to critical and creative works that challenge gender, Femspec branches several genres. Because of this, we cast our net wide, in search of articles, fiction, poetry, and prose that explores…

• Speculative fiction’s engagement with reproductive justice
• The connections between reproductive justice, bodily sovereignty, and science fiction feminisms
• Fantasies of choice/non-choice in feminist utopias and dystopias
• Visions of reproductive freedom
• Policy, access to healthcare, and speculative fiction’s role in resisting conservative projects
• Short stories, poetry, and excerpts from longer projects
• Creative nonfiction

We particularly encourage submissions from students, scholars at large, and writers working outside the academy. This project will be partially funded through Kickstarter.

DEADLINE: October 15th, 2012

MLA format required. See the Femspec website (femspec.org) for paper submission format. All copyrights will be maintained by Femspec. The cover artist will receive two free copies of the issue. The journal is double anonymously peer-reviewed. All submitters must have active subscriptions throughout the submission, review, and publication process.