Andrea Thompson

NEWS:

OPEN CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS!

OTHER TONGUES: 

Mixed-Race Women Speak Out

Deadline for Submissions:   April 15, 2010

Summary:

Co-editors Adebe D.A. and Andrea Thompson are seeking submissions for an anthology of writing by and about Canadian mixed-race women of Black/white heritage, intended for publication in Fall 2010.    

Purpose:

The purpose of this anthology is to explore the question of how Black/white mixed-race women in North America identify in the 21^st Century.  The anthology will also serve as a place to learn about the social experiences, attitudes, and feelings of others, and what racial identity has come to mean today.

We hope this anthology will become part of the discourse surrounding race and gender as they pertain to mixed-race women in this specific time in herstory, which is also one that marks the inauguration of the first Black/mixed-race President in North American history.  

Overview:

This anthology will include poetry, spoken word, fiction, creative non-fiction, spoken word texts, as well as black and white artwork and photography.  We are inviting previously unpublished submissions that engage, document, and/or explore the experiences of being mixed-race, by placing interraciality as the center, rather than periphery, of analysis. 

You are encouraged to share your own individual experiences and tell your unique story as it relates to the ways in which you identify yourself.  We especially welcome anecdotes of answering the same old “what are you?” question in a new way!

Some possible topics for submissions you may want to explore/address in your submission:

How do you define your (racial, ethnic, cultural) identity? 

In what ways have you responded to the "what are you?" question?

What does being "exotic" mean to you?

Have you have ever experienced discrimination due to your racial background?

Do you see yourself as part of the margin or hyphen space? 

What role does art have in revising traditional ideas, as they pertain to race and beyond?

Discuss a significant event in your life that helped shape your racial identity.

What are the implications of the inauguration of a mixed-race American President? 

What does identifying as mixed-race say about social and political solidarity? 

What is the future of "race"?

Submission Guidelines:

Please send one (1) submission of up to 2500 words of poetry, spoken word, fiction, creative non-fiction, or spoken word as a SINGLE attachment to othertonguesanthology@gmail.com 

Black and white images and artwork should be 300 dpi and sent as attachments in jpg. of tiff. format.  Artwork and photography limited to three (3) per applicant.

Please include your contact information, including your name, address, phone number, e-mail, title(s) of work submitted, type of submission, and a short artist bio (50 words max) in the body of the email, with your name and the type of submission in the subject line (e.g. Jazmine – “Poetry Submission”). All submissions are due April 15, 2010.  Incomplete submissions will not be considered.

 If you prefer that your contribution remain anonymous, please also include this preference at the top of your submission. 

All personal information you provide will be kept strictly confidential.

We also ask that contributors offer information regarding their own specific racial background (either in the body of the work submitted, or in the bio material).  This request is to insure that all possible contributors reflect the demographic the anthology seeks to represent.

If you have any questions about this project, please contact the Editors, Adebe DeRango-Adem and Andrea Thompson, at othertonguesanthology@gmail.com

We look forward to reviewing your submission!

About the Editors

Adebe D.A.

Adebe D.A. is a recent MA graduate and writer whose words travel between Toronto and New York City.  She recently completed a research writing fellowship at the Applied Research Center in New York, where she wrote for ColorLines, America’s primary magazine on race politics.  She has served as Assistant Editor for the arts and literary journal Existere, and was the 2007 York University poetry contest winner for her piece entitled “The Virtues of Love” as chosen by acclaimed writer and Griffin Poetry Prize shortlist nominee, Priscila Uppal.  She is also a founding member of S.T.E.P. U.P. – a poetry collective dedicated to helping young writers develop their spoken word skills.  Her poetry has been featured in sources such as Canadian Woman Studies Journal, The Claremont Review, Canadian Literature, and CV2.  She won the Toronto Poetry Competition in 2005 to become Toronto’s first Junior Poet Laureate, and is the author of a chapbook entitled Sea Change (Burning Effigy Press, 2007).  Her debut poetry collection, Ex Nihilo, was one of ten manuscripts chosen for the Dektet 2010 Competition using a blind selection process by a jury of leading Canadian writers: bill bissett, George Elliot Clarke, and Alice Major.  Ex Nihilo will be published by Frontenac House in early 2010.  Visit her blog at www.adebe.wordpress.com

Andrea Thompson

Andrea Thompson is a performance poet who has been featured on film, radio, and television, with her work published in magazines, journals and anthologies across Canada.  Thompson’s debut collection, Eating the Seed (Ekstasis Editions, 2000), has been featured on the reading lists of the University of Toronto and the Ontario College of Art and Design, and her spoken word CD, One, was nominated for a Canadian Urban Music Award in 2005.  A pioneer of slam poetry in Canada, Thompson has also hosted Heart of a Poet on Bravo TV, CiTr Radio's spoken word show, Hearsay, and acted as Executive Director of the Edgewise Electrolit Centre, where she produced Telepoetics, a video-conferenced live poetry series in Vancouver.  In 2008, Thompson toured her Spoken Word/Play Mating Rituals of the Urban Cougar across the country, and in 2009 was the Poet of Honor at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word.  A founding member of the Spoken Word Arts Network, formed in association with the Banff Centre for the Arts in 2005, Thompson continues to dazzle audiences with her electric and unique style that blends elements of jazz, dub, hip-hop and traditional literary verse into a style that is all her own.  Visit her website at www.andreathompson.com