Get Sexy with the Saints and Sinners Short Story Contest

I still don’t quite know what to make of the fact that, even though the city’s major literary festival is an homage to Tennessee Williams, there’s still demand for a specifically LGBT literary festival as well, the Saints and Sinners Fest. Is the TWF not gay enough to satisfy the queer New Orleans literary set? Are people still upset that Williams didn’t publicly come out of the closet until after the Stonewall riots, when he’d been fellating men for over 40 years? Have the straights simply hijacked the TWF to the point that queer writers feel underrepresented? Or is it just such a tourist-centric event than any emphasis on Williams’ homosexuality might be deemed bad for business? I’d bet it’s more of the last two. I’ll ponder this and get back to you.

In the meantime, submissions are open for the annual SAS short fiction contest. Regardless whether you’re queer or square, submit your unpublished short stories between 5,000 – 7,000 words with GLBT content on the broad theme “Saints and Sinners” (read: get sexy; where’s all my Poppy Z. Brite fans?) for the chance to win $250 and publication in an anthology from QueerMojo Press. Author Dorothy Allison will select the winners (second and third place get $50). Allison is the author of Cavedweller, which was a New York Times notable book of the year, Bastard Out of Carolina, a finalist for the 1992 National Book Award, and edited early feminist and LGBT journals Quest, Conditions, and Outlook.

More details on the contest here.