Deadline: 15 March 2011
Demeter’s Spicebox Submissions Guidelines and Calls for Submission (Inaugural Issue)
1. Demeter’s Spicebox is a paying market that offers a flat rate of USD$10 per accepted story. Two stories will be accepted per submission period. We are looking for works of up to 6000 words. Prose only, no poetry. Please send your submissions and all related queries to to demeterspice@gmail.com.
2. Our goal is the exploration of lesser-known fairytale types set within regions of the world which have not gained enough exposure in both literature and the arts.
3. While this endeavour is aimed at exploring lesser-known fairytale types as well as folk traditions from lesser-represented regions of the world, we require our writers to be ethical in their revisions of fairytale types and in regards to positioning their narratives within what may be cultures that are different to their own.
4. Demeter’s Spicebox does not encourage or condone “literary tourism” and must be made to feel that the story rings with authenticity, that common kernel of humanity which suffuses the best fairytales. Know your folktales and be respectful of the areas you are writing about.
a. We strongly disapprove of certain forms of cultural appropriation, although we encourage diversity, hybridity and ambiguity in the texts that we solicit.
b. For example, do not give us stories where your subject is exoticised or any race or culture is demonised in order to cast your protagonist in a more favourable light.
5. We would also like to remain genre-ambiguous, but we lean rather strongly towards literary writings with fantastic and mythic elements or magic realism within these retellings. Certain genres such as horror or science fiction may therefore be a hard sell for this particular project unless you’re brave enough to write a story that convinces us otherwise.
6. Demeter’s Spicebox is a diversity-friendly market which has editors and readers from different regions of the world and different cultures. We therefore encourage writers from around the globe, whether established or struggling, to send us stories.
Inaugural Call for Submissions
1. We are soliciting stories which reference the Aarne-Thompson folktale type 711, which deals with the Beautiful and the Ugly twin. It is an essential, Manichean kind of tale which proves that the “ugly” sister really can have far more fun.
2. One of the better-known versions of this story was documented by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, as Tatterhood, but variations of the Beautiful and Ugly twin exists across cultures.
3. We would like to see explorations of this theme within different settings. Norway or Iceland would be the conventional choice for this tale, but for the inaugural Calls for Submissions we would also like to see stories set in South East Asia or the Indian Subcontinent.
4. The reading period will be from 1 February to 15 March 2011.
5. There will also be an additional prompt per Calls for Submissions, which should be embedded within each story (the primary prompt will be the tale type for each reading period). These will be textual cues and links to subsequent stories. Subsequent writers will need to reference the object that the writers for this inaugral issue create — these objects should be able to /plausibly/ travel or be referenced by a story in another culture.
a. Your task is to create, within your tale, either a cracked teapot or a magical pair of shoes.
b. Go crazy with your design, add a travelling salesman or a shoemaker, or whatever takes your fancy, but be aware that your textual creations will have to be carried forward by subsequent writers as we exhibit the fluidity of folk and fairytales within an interactive, hypertextual environment!
More information here.
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