Stories of Transition
Project Description
Everything transitions, and transition is everywhere—in the changing seasons, in landscapes shifting into mountains and canyons, in human life and culture as we constantly discover new parts of ourselves to explore or re-imagine. Banana Slug Books’ next publication, Stories of Transition, an anthology of literary works interspersed with cyanotype prints, will position stories of gender transition and genderqueer experience next to stories which explore various transitions of the ecological world and of human life—bringing a lens of queer ecology and queer narrative form to stories engaging any compelling idea of transition. Just as the liminal zones between environmental habitats are often the most diverse and ecologically exciting, we want to see work that invites an expansive examination of our bodies, genders, cultures, localities, passions, and desires. We want stories about gender transition to appear alongside stories about midlife career change; descriptions of hormone replacement therapy next to meditations on gender-fluidity in non-human life; queer and trans narrators beside characters who are leaving jobs, entering new relationships, witnessing the climate crisis, moving across the world, speaking truth to power, or changing their minds. The anthology will pay special attention to questions concerning place, environment, and milieu through a base lens of queer ecology: challenging heteronormativity, dualisms, binary, and anthropocentrism in nature and culture alike, along with the idea that any of these constitute what is “natural.” Instead, what is natural is the complexity and plurality and transition we see all around us.
Cyanotypes
Stories of Transition will pair written work with full-page cyanotypes representing foliage, shells, feathers, lichens, and fungi sourced from their natural regions. As we mix iron compounds to treat paper and watch the photoreactive solution turn brassy in the sunlight, and as we wash away the water soluble iron salts revealing the Prussian Blue, we participate in a transitional artform that mirrors the written work found in this collection: the most natural and beautiful process of change and re-seeing, the stunning results of mineral and light and water. And what better color to appear alongside stories of transition than the rich blue intrinsic to the cyanotype process—blue being the color of logic and knowledge, as well as ignorance; a color of serenity and calm, as well as the intensity of blue flames; the groundedness of lapis lazuli and the unpredictable force of water; the melancholy of “the blues” and the hope of clear blue skies. Our natural world and our human lives are full of such contradictions, tensions we want to bear both visual and literary witness to in this multifaceted anthology.
We will encourage accepted contributors to press and mail their own samples, but are open to obtaining samples through university biology departments, ecological organizations, state parks, and more. We will also hold workshops where community members are invited into the process of creating the book’s cyanotype component. Our goal is to allow this early photographic medium to hold a mirror up to the work, allowing the visual arts to further illuminate the literary.
Submission Guidelines
We are open to writing of many forms, styles, and traditions—far be it from us to define or gatekeep a genre binary, or define what counts as narrative!—and writers need not identify as trans or genderqueer to submit. Rather—much like a good metaphor enhances our understanding by associating unlike things—we want to juxtapose a spectrum of diverse forms and perspectives demonstrating what “transition” means to our authors and to the prose they write, enriching our understanding as readers that change is fundamental to both human and natural existence.
We are likely to primarily select work under 8,000 words, but if the writing amazes us, we will consider work of any length.