by Feliks Garcia, Offsite Editor
Take a glance at the masthead of almost any magazine or literary journal, or at its table of contents. Browse through any bookstore; page through any book review. It’s impossible to ignore or deny: the publishing world is dominated by white men.
For a number of years, the VIDA count has shed a harsh, necessary light on that gender disparity. Last year, for the first time, their count took race into account, revealing an even greater and more appalling race gap.
Sarah Rafael García and Mónica Teresa Ortiz will tackle this issue head on with the Pariahs Anthology, a new publication established to create a space for voices often excluded from literary circles. Pariahs is looking for work from writers across all disciplines; the objective is inclusivity.
Both García and Ortiz worked against such exclusion throughout their writing careers. García was one of few people of color in her MFA department, largely dominated by white writers; Ortiz, however, went to a predominantly Latina/o university in El Paso, offered more exposure to Latin American authors. This sharply contrasted her undergraduate experience, which rarely strayed from white American and European authors; the few Latina/o writers they read were often considered a universal voice for a multi-faceted culture.
Writers are asked to consider these questions when submitting their work:
- Have you ever felt left out, expected to only write from the place where you stand (specific to gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, geography, education, etc)?
- Has academia, such as the MFA experience, limited you and your perspective?
- Have you been left out from “mainstream” literature or the writing industry?
- Do you feel silenced as a writer?
Pariahs Anthology is currently open for submission through September 1st. Interested writers can submit their work via Submittable.
Photo by ૐ Didi ૐ/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
