The lovely people at Trans Bare All are celebrating their 10th anniversary this year. Normally I would just point you at their website, but they are dealing with a little malware issue at the moment so I have just linked to their Twitter so you can see who they are. This is what I wanted you to read:

We want to mark the occasion by creating a book of art and writing that reflects some of what TBA is all about, and, as it is all about our community, that means we need you.

We are welcoming submissions of original writing and art on the theme of TBA and gender (perhaps what TBA means to you), or on gender alone, and we actively encourage not only those of you who regularly write or create art, but also those who might need a little encouragement.

You can write in any form you wish (poetry, prose fiction, life writing non-fiction etc) and, if your submission is accepted, you will have the chance to work with an editor to polish your piece for publication in the book. We are also welcoming submissions of visual art that explore the themes above – please see below for image specifications.

The workshop plan below will guide you step by step towards a piece of life writing with a creative approach, and you can also use these workshop exercises to generate ideas for a visual art piece.

Submission eligibility:

• Following the TBA age limit, you must be 18 years or older by the submissions deadline
• You do not have to have attended a TBA retreat or party before
• You do not have to live in the UK

Submission guidelines:

• Please submit your original work to book@transbareall.co.uk
• You must include the following in your covering email, as it helps us understand our community better and make our work more accessible:
1. the name you want your piece published under
2. your gender
3. your ethnicity
4. if you consider yourself to have a disability (no need to state what it is)
5. your age on the submissions deadline
• Deadline for submissions is 11.59pm Friday 8th February 2019

For writing:

• submit your piece as a fully compatible Word document, or .txt if .doc is not possible
• 2000 word limit for prose (fiction and non-fiction)
• 80 line limit for poems (including stanza breaks), with maximum 60 characters per line (including spaces)

For visual art:

• Submit your piece as a high quality JPEG or TIFF file that is
• Sized for A5 publication, so 154mm x 216mm portrait, with no important images within 15mm of each edge as these may be trimmed off in print
• 300dpi (dots per inch) so it is at print-quality
• If text is incorporated into your piece, please ensure that it is legible at A5 size
• Please contact us if you need more detail about image requirements

FAQ:

• You can submit more than one piece of writing or art or both, and, if selected, our editors will choose their favourite piece for the book
• Submission does not guarantee that your piece will be included
• All submissions will be notified of our selection decision within eight weeks of the deadline. Please be patient – we are volunteers!
• if you want your piece attributed to ‘anonymous’ then please state this clearly in your covering email
• All accepted submissions will undergo an editorial process with our editors and designer
• All submissions must be free from publishing restrictions for the next two years. If your piece is currently published or under consideration elsewhere, please contact us to discuss.
• As we are an unfunded volunteer-run organisation, unfortunately we cannot offer a fee for accepted submissions; however, all contributors will receive a copy of the finished book!

There you go. Obviously a charity project, but hopefully some of you will take an interest. Good luck if you do.