Hi everyone, Michael here. You might have seen my job title with the press is listed as being with NeuroQueer Books, and not with Autonomous Press. A few people have asked about it, and it’s time to set a few things straight and clarify how our press works. Autonomous Press is the name of the company, but it’s also the name of one imprint. Sort of like how Marvel Comics has the MCU, and it has its own mission and tone and target audience. Now, we’re also planning on rolling out a few more imprints, and each one will have a different focus and audience. Again, this is like how Marvel Comics has Marvel Max and the Ultimates universe. Each of them is a little different, but their titles all fit together.
This March, the first of our new imprints will be coming. It’s called NeuroQueer Books, and the focus is going to be, as our AutPress website says, “queer issues, queering, sexuality, gender, or critical response to other aspects of identity (such as race, class, disability) as they interact with neurodivergence and psychological development,” but that is a little unclear to anyone in the creative writing community who doesn’t do a lot of theory, and the fact that we are a literary imprint that deals mostly in poetry and fiction can be a little bit new for people who are used to working in theory. So, since we are actively looking at submissions now, I wanted to establish some clearer guidelines for NQ Books, and also to share a few programs with you. Let’s start at the top, with book proposals.
NQ Books Book Submissions
NeuroQueer Books is looking for book-length (50,000+ words) collections of poetry, prose fiction/nonfiction, novels, memoir, graphic novels, photo essay books, and creative-critical scholarly work. Submissions may be multi-genre. Writers need not claim a disabled identity to submit, but they should be writing from the intersection of neurodiversity and queerness, and the work should deal heavily in some kind of exploration of identity. The prompt is broad to be inclusive, so do not be afraid to query with questions. You can contact me through the NQ Books Facebook Page.
NeuroQueer Horizons
Writers are also invited to send shorter collections, novellas, and other work for consideration in the monthly NeuroQueer Horizons series. We are still looking for writers coming from within a neuroqueer identity, and we will consider the same mix of presentation formats that we do for full-length books. NQ Horizons does have a theme, though, and only submissions that fit the theme will be considered.
NQ Horizons Call: NeuroQueer Horizons is a series of ebooks that run between 10,000 and 30,000 words, with some leeway for quality material. We are looking for work in any genre, but prefer poetry and fiction in the science fiction, fantasy, and steampunk genres. The prompt is “What is intelligence? What does it mean to communicate?”
Submissions will not be open for this series until June 2016. NQ Horizons submissions that are made up entirely of work that was previously featured in AutPress anthologies and/or Barking Sycamores will be automatically accepted into the release queue. If a single writer with at least 3 NeuroQueer Horizons releases wants to re-release them as a combined paperback, that proposal will also be automatically accepted.
Spoon Knife Anthology
In addition to being featured with your own release, you can also submit to the annual Spoon Knife Anthology. We are currently working through the first year’s submissions, but we will have a new editor for volume 2 and a new prompt, and that will come out some time in May. For year one, Spoon Knife focused on works invoking compliance, defiance, resistance, and consent.
For those of you waiting on submission acceptance, we are pleased to announce that we have settled on an honorarium, and we will be announcing that payment in a few days, when we unveil the first volume’s cover design.
We’re also planning a few other projects that might have submission opportunities, but these three programs give us a way to provide writers with a paid, feedback-oriented path from a single poem or short story to an eventual paperback collection with little pressure, a flexible pace, and a consistent audience that allows them to develop rapport. We also strongly suggest sending work to Barking Sycamores between anthologies, and submitting revisions there if you receive a rejection with feedback. If it is accepted, then it has a second chance with us in one of your NQ Horizons collections.
NQ Books – Year One
We do have a few empty spots in our calendar, but here’s what the first year of NeuroQueer Books looks like for now. We are considering another book or two that is in the process of acceptance and finalization, and we can consider new books for August until January, and we can consider new books for December until the end of March. Please send us a query or a full manuscript if you have work ready.
March :
- Imaginary Friends, a novel by Michael Scott Monje Jr.
- The Spoon Knife Anthology, poetry & narrative, N.I. Nicholson & Michael Scott Monje, Jr. (eds.)
- Barking Sycamores: Year One, featuring poetry, essays, fiction, and art from the first four issues, N.I. Nicholson (ed.).
June:
- Teaching Languagings | To: Nonverbal Thinkers — The US Book, a poetic aesthetic by Michael Scott Monje, Jr., with a foreword by Andrew Dell’Antonio and an afterword by Dani Alexis Ryskamp.
August:
- Mirror Project, a science fiction novel by Michael Scott Monje, Jr. (2nd edition re-release)
December:
- NeuroQueer Horizons 1: A Waking Narrative by Michael Scott Monje, Jr.