As a member of the Outer Alliance, Crossed Genres advocates for queer speculative fiction and those who create, publish and support it, whatever their sexual orientation and gender identity. We make sure this is reflected in our actions and our work.

For our twelfth issue, the final issue of our first year, Crossed Genres has chosen LGBTQ for the issue’s theme. In order to include as many varied perspectives as possible, we’ve decided that Issue 12 will include roughly twice as much content as our regular issues.

Submissions are open to everyone! We want this issue to be open to as many voices as possible, and encourage all writers and artists to submit their work – Allies included! We are seeking short stories (1000-8000 words) focusing on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer characters, and all different aspects of their lives. We also are very interested in artwork (black-and-white) and related articles and essays (500-3000 words)

As with other issues of Crossed Genres, short story submissions must contain some aspect of Science Fiction and/or Fantasy; other submission types can as well, but it’s not required. We’ll also consider other formats we don’t usually consider for publication: b&w cartoons, book reviews, personal stories, etc., so long as they relate to the LGBTQ theme. We may also consider some related online-only content such as video or music (please query).

The issue will be released on November 1, and throughout the month of November we’ll be featuring a number of LGBTQ-friendly organizations on our website in our “Website Spotlight” section (on the front page). We’ll also be linking to articles of relevance in the “Headlines” section. If you know a website or blog you think should be included as a Spotlight or Headline, email us a link and tell us about it!

We’re very excited about this issue, and are working hard to make it our best one yet. Our purpose in deciding to use this theme in an issue is to help develop and encourage the conversation around queer speculative fiction. Please help make it even better by telling people about it!