The Editors

We are happy to announce the editors for the second volume in the Spoon Knife Anthology series.

Dani Alexis Ryskamp is an editor and the Legal Coordinator for Autonomous Press and the author of “My Mother GLaDOS,” which appears in The Spoon Knife Anthology.  Her research on neurodivergence and poetry also appears in The Hilltop Review.  She actually wrote her own contributor bio for this post, which is a first.

Sam Harvey  is a graduate student in rhetoric and professional communication at Saint Cloud State University.  He begins his Ph.D. work in rhetoric and professional communication at Iowa State University in Fall 2016.  Sam is also the author of “Journey to Self-Love in a Culture Demanding Self-Hate,” which appears in The Spoon Knife Anthology. He is feeling very odd writing his own bio and is going to proceed to go hide now.

The Call for Submissions

We are seeking submissions of poetry, fiction, and memoir for Spoon Knife 2: Test Chamber.  This book will be the second in the series, following The Spoon Knife Anthology, released in March 2016 by NeuroQueer books.  As part of the NeuroQueer family, Spoon Knife 2 focuses on neurodivergence and disability as they intersect and interact with queer issues.  This includes queering disability and neurodivergence, as well as discussing how neurodivergence functions or fits with other aspects of a queer identity.

The phrase “test chamber” may be read in myriad ways: as an adjective + noun denoting a place (“the subject was placed in the test chamber”), as an imperative verb + direct object (“to find weakness, test (the) chamber”), as a compound verb (“test-chamber a round to check that your slide isn’t jammed”), and others not imagined here.  These meanings are dynamic.  That is, they coexist, interact, change, and complicate one another in various ways.

For the second volume in the Spoon Knife series, we seek to feature works that focus on one or more of the meanings of “test chamber” as it/they relate to neurodivergence, disability, and/or queer issues.  What does it mean to be inside (or outside) the “test chamber”?  To test the chamber?  To test-chamber or to be test-chambered?  More importantly, how do we approach the boundaries of neurodivergence, queerness, or both in a way that questions, subverts, blurs, or even embraces them – forcing ourselves and others to question the existence or permanence of the “test chamber” itself?

Or, if you prefer an alternate way in: play Portal.  Write accordingly.

While we will consider any submissions that are on-topic and we do wish to solicit voices from a broad range of neurodivergent and disabled perspectives, preference will be given to authors who clearly identify as neuroqueer and whose work demonstrates a neuroqueer point of view.

Length and Format

Fiction and Memoir: 10,000 words or less of fully-polished prose, submitted in standard manuscript format (title page with contact info, double-spaced Times New Roman 12-point font, pages numbered with either title or author’s name in the header.)

Poetry: Up to 5 pieces of any length and style, provided they use the prompt above as a touchstone.

All submissions need to be in a Word-compatible format (.doc, .docx, .odt).

Deadline and Terms

Submissions are due by Monday, August 22, 2016.  Authors will be notified of their acceptance or rejection no later than October 15, 2016.  Please include a cover letter that makes it clear exactly how you are to be credited – we will reproduce these exactly, including punctuation and spacing.  We will also need a 3-4 sentence bio for the contributors.

Submission email: dani@autpress.com

Please put “Spoon Knife 2” and the genre (poetry, fiction, or memoir) in the subject to help us distinguish between anthology submissions and book proposals.  Thank you!

Like its predecessors, Spoon Knife 2: Test Chamber is a funded anthology.  Precise payment details will be available shortly.

On behalf of Michael and The Puzzlebox Collective, the Autonomous Press partnership would like to invite you to read the rest of the post with the benefit of a soundtrack. The embedded video is electronica (seizure sensitivity warning), but it is more in line with a World style than a heavy, warbly Dubstep beat. The visual is simply the band’s album cover art, a distorted logo, and their name, Laibach. The video should not autoplay.

From the Introduction to The Spoon Knife Anthology, “What is a Spoon Knife?” by Michael Scott Monje, Jr:

The first question I got from my partners and blogging friends when I started talking about spoon knives was “What is that?” Every one of them had heard about Christine Miserandino’s “The Spoon Theory,” of course, and they could tell I was referencing it, but none of them seemed to be familiar with traditional woodworking tools, because they didn’t see that reference or its connection to activist work. Not at first, at least. Once I posted some pictures of various spoon knives and the bowls they were used to carve, the idea caught fire. …

… [T]he spoon knife, that old woodworker’s companion that looks something like the tool it is used to make, only sharp and nasty and quick. A spoon knife is used to carve the bowl, which makes it curved, like a melon baller. It shaves away the unnecessary parts of the wood in layers, too, so it has to be sharp and strong, to keep slicing and slicing until it has peeled enough to make a depression in an otherwise smooth stick. It looks thin, like something made from an old beer can, but in a master’s hands, it rewards patience and precision.

If we’re keeping with our extended metaphor, though, then we still have to ask the question: What is a spoon knife? We know what our symbol does, but what in our community is capable of doing that thing—cutting away layers of what shouldn’t be there, to leave us with the ability to do more, reach further, and nourish ourselves more successfully. What looks thin and weak, but nonetheless digs deep channels into reality?

My belief is that the spoon knife is a story. For some, it’s an expression of solidarity that refills our emotional reserves even as it bolsters the morale of the one who offered support. For others, it might be an example that provides the cognitive scaffolding needed to get out of an abusive situation, or even just to recognize one in the first place. It’s also possible for it to be a confrontation, a reality that will not yield to our need until we learn to wield it and to control its damage with unwavering precision.

NeuroQueer Books is proud to present the roster for the first volume of The Spoon Knife Anthology.

You heard that right, folx. First volume. In a few months, you will see a call go up for next year’s edition, and it will be edited by Autonomous Press’s newest partner, Dani Alexis Ryskamp. She currently blogs at Autistic Academic and manages NeuroQueer. Before we can start taking submissions, though, Dani has to select her out-of-press editor because the book needs 2 people on it, and then they need to write a specific call that fits the second volume’s title.

Next year’s edition will be called The Spoon Knife Anthology 2: Test Chamber. After that, we plan on rotating the editorship until every NQ Books editor has a chance to take on at least one volume. After that, who knows? It all depends on you, our readers and writers.

Here is the list of contributors:

• Alex Conall
• Alison Kopit
• Alyssa Hillary
• Amanda Sleen
• Andrea Abi-Karam
• Andrew Reichart
• Athena the Architect
• Barbara Ruth
• Bridget Allen
• Cara Liebowitz
• Dani Alexis Ryskamp
• E. Lewy
• Elizabeth J. Grace
• Emily Knapp
• Harriet Grace
• Jessica Goody
• Kassiane A. Sibley
• Leah Kelley
• Lucas Scheelk
• Luis Lopez-Maldonado
• Marc Rosen
• Marcel Price, a.k.a. Fable the Poet
• Marshall Edwards
• Michael Scott Monje, Jr. (ed.)
• N.I. Nicholson (ed.)
• Nick Walker
• Nina Fosati
• Sabrina Zarco
• Samuel T. Harvey
• Sarah Caulfield
• Selene dePakh
• Stephanie Heit
• Thalia Rose
• Thomas Kearnes

The Spoon Knife Anthology: Thoughts on Compliance, Defiance, and Resistance will be available March 15th from NeuroQueer Books. Stay tuned for preorder and early ebook sales on the AutPress Direct store.

[Image description: Mechanized flesh and architecture combine in a dystopian landscape that evokes depersonalization and desolation in this art from Selene Depakh. Over top, the title of the anthology and the editorial credentials stand in stark white.]