Updated: Join the Femspec Team!

Do you want the opportunity for professional development?

Are you just getting out of your Masters program brimming with skills and unsure of your candidacy for a doctoral program?

Are you in the doctoral program or assistant prof. slot wanting to fatten your resume with professional service?

We've filled some of our earlier opportunities. But we're still looking for people to fill these roles:

1. Subscription and Mail Coordinator - A person in this role is responsible for maintaining the subscription base and ensuring that it is current, for receiving the shipment from the printer, and for mailing out the issues

2. Advertising Executive - This person will coordinate ad exchanges with other journals, and seek paying advertisers such as publishers.

3. Book Review Editor - Responsibilities include communicating with editor about overall vision of what needs to be reviewed in the journal, conferring at conferences, strategizing about how to collect the latest books each year, making the rounds at conferences to get books directly from exhibitors, going through new title lists to order review copies, focusing on compiling scholarly texts to review, advertising for reviewers on lists such as Pop Culture, WMSTL, SFRA, IAFA; sending reviews out for peer-review; copy editing and proof reading reviews; collecting bios from reviewers as well as ensuring that they subscribe; supervising returning the page copy to publishers and authors once book reviews are printed.
4. Book Review Coordinator- This person will send out copies of book reviews to publishers, and will send published pieces to non-subscribing authors for review

5. Database Liaison - This person is responsible for liasoning with databases for various issues including information updation etc. 

6. Graphic Designer - This person will be responsible for designing and making brochures, leaflets for conferences etc. 

7. Press-release writer

8. Citation checker - For all accepted submission

9. Grant writer

10. Creative Submissions Editor

11. Art Contest Coordinator

If interested please send a CV, letter of interest describing how your skills, knowledge of the journal and the field, and experience lend you to this position, and three letters of reference to femspec@aol. 
Production team members are required to keep subscriptions current throughout their internship, and are asked to make a three year commitment. If they leave their job or quit or resign from their task without finding and training a replacement before their term is up, an exit fee of $100 is required to assist the journal in its transition in recruiting and replacing the labor.

*New* CFP: Gender and Aging in Speculative Fiction

Femspec: Special Issue on Aging and Gender in Speculative Fiction

Deadline for Submissions: May 30, 2013

We're inviting papers, fiction and art for a special issue of Femspec, Aging and Gender in Speculative
Fiction.

We're looking for work that examines speculative fiction books, TV shows, or movies that re-imagine the way we view women growing older and/or depict the way societal expectations of gender roles impact how we age. Keeping in mind the feminist thrust of the journal, we seek submissions that consider how major feminist sf writers depict aging characters, that apply feminist theory to depictions of aging in sf texts broadly defined, or that address sf’s potential to critique the relationship of gender to ideologies of aging in contemporary society or to re-imagine the future of aging primarily for women, but also for men within a gendered perspective.


In addition to this special issue, Femspec seeks scholarly submissions that explore gender issues in sf, apply feminist criticism to the study of sf or analyze the work of women writers in science-fiction media or "speculative fiction” broadly defined.

The background to the issue
The seeds for this special issue were planted at a paper session, "Women Growing Older in the Perilous Realm: Science Fiction and Re-Imagining Old Age" at the 2012 National Women’s Studies Conference 2012, chaired by Margaret Cruickshank. Whether analyzing a picture of older women as inhabiting a privileged position from which to critique society as in “The Space Crone,” a vision of the planet Vulcan where an older woman is the powerful high priestess, or the creation of a culture in which older women are given the most creative work as in Joanna Russ’s Whileaway, we need to ask: how does this re-imagining of old age empower older women, give new value to their accumulated knowledge or new expression to their abilities, apply a feminist lens to their subordination or oppression, or otherwise upend the hegemonic narrative of women’s aging as nothing but a decline into silence and invisibility.

Note
Because Femspec is a fully independent journal funded by subscriptions rather than institutional support, subscription is required on submission. Essays undergo a rigorous two-step jury process with independent readers and members of the Femspec editorial board. Submissions can be sent directly to the special issue editor, Aishwarya Ganapathiraju, aganapath@gmail.com or to Femspec.org, where subscription information can be found.

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.

CFP: “Kick *ss” Moms: Mothering and Reproduction in SF

Deadline: Dec. 15 2011

Femspec is an interdisciplinary feminist journal dedicated to sf, fantasy, magical realism, surrealism, myth, folklore, and other supernatural genres. We have been in print since 1999 and boast of an advisory board that includes Suzie Charnas, Pamela Sargeant, and Samuel Delany. We are currently seeking submissions for a special issue or themed section dedicated to women who balance the worlds of adventurer and caregiver, with a focus on mothering and reproduction in sf. 

Most female characters in sf, fantasy, and other supernatural genres do not have children.  Those who do are often relegated to a peripheral role until the children are grown.  However, characters who balance raising a child and saving the world can be fascinating.  Why aren’t there more of them? We are interested in works that explore these issues, as well as writings about mothers and parents who have attempted to rearrange childrearing through creation of intentional community and work about the reconstruction of the breeding process socially in various genres.  We are also looking for works that address the intersection of mothering and adventuring – including the adventure of construction of a new society freeing women from reproduction according to traditional norms. 

We are hoping to find works which look beyond the stereotype of the mom who will protect her children to the death and investigate mothering at multiple levels including the creation of utopian and dystopian societies in which mothering is arranged differently.  We are also interested in papers about teaching any of these works that experiment with reproduction and treatment of reproduction and mothering in early sf.

We would welcome works from the following genres, which address these issues:

• Critical papers
• Fiction
•  Non-fiction
• Poetry
• Book Reviews
• Art Work

Please submit two copies of your piece to: 

Valerie Guyant
625 Hibbard Hall
English Department
U of Wisconsin Eau Claire
Eau Claire WI 54701


or guyantvl@uwec.edu

Since Femspec is double anonymously peer reviewed, submissions must exclude any indication of your name. Along with your submission, include a separate sheet with:

• The title and genre of your piece
• Your name
• Address
• Email Address
• Phone number
• A two sentence abstract 

If your work passes the first round, you will be asked for an electronic submission. All submissions should conform to current MLA guidelines, which can be found online at http://www.mla.org.

Any submission that does not arrive with sufficient copies will not be sent through the review process. Please note that only subscribers may submit to Femspec. To subscribe, please visit our website at http://www.femspec.org. Subscription must be in hand in order for the submission to be reviewed, and it must be maintained throughout the submission, review, and publication process.

If you have any questions, please visit our website or contact femspec@aol.com.

All copyrights will be maintained by Femspec.

The cover artist will receive two free copies of the issue.

CFP: Speculative Dimensions of Divination

Deadline: Feb. 15 2012

Femspec (a peer reviewed journal dedicated to critical and creative works that challenge gender through speculative means in a variety of genres) is seeking submissions on 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.


Submissions that focus on the divination reading process and the spiritual medium reader using whatever tools at hand are particularly welcome and may include:

• critical analysis as well as short stories, poetry, and excerpts from longer works
• personal accounts of experiences working as a reader
• memoirs and autobiographical accounts of spiritual and divination readers
• scholarly papers about fiction, cultural products or ethnographies
• participant observation and commentaries on representations of the spiritual reading in any aspect of popular culture, including evolution of contemporary decks in the women's spirituality movement, the practice ofpalmists or phone psychics, art, film, the phenomenon of internet readers, Tarot reading shops, booths on boardwalks or at carnivals and festivals such as Renaissance Fairs.

Papers collected will be reviewed individually or as a special section or special issue of the journal, depending on the volume received and on what is timely for publication. The journal is double anonymously peer reviewed. All copyrights will be maintained by Femspec. All submitters must have active subscriptions throughout the submission, review, and publication process. The cover artist will receive two free copies of the issue.


MLA format required. See the Femspec website (femspec.org) for paper submission format. For more information, contact femspec@aol.com.

CFP: Women, Myth, and Art (Special Issue)

Deadline: 15 March 2012

Femspec, an interdisciplinary journal dedicated to challenging gender through speculative means in any genre, announces a call for material on women, myth, and art.


Do you use myth in your creative writing in any genre, or art? Do you write about women artists and writers who do so? Do you critique or contribute to the growing body of feminist myth scholarship exploring what the ancient mythic archetypes such as these can contribute to women in the modern world?


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 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.


See femspec.org for submission procedures. All submitters must subscribe and keep their subscriptions current throughout the submission, review and publication process.
The issue will contain an exclusive interview with Judy Grahn.


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


All articles must be in MLA style. Authors are responsible for style conversion and copyediting and proofing accepted work. We are a peer-reviewed cross-over journal in numerous data bases and have been in existence for over ten years.