WisCon Chronicles Vol. 7: call for submissions

I'm pleased to announce that Joselle Vanderhooft will be editing the next volume in the WisCon Chronicles. Here's her call for submissions:

I’m thrilled to announce that I’m editing this year’s Wiscon Chronicles, and even more thrilled to say that this volume—volume seven already!—will focus on disability issues, disability in SF/F/H, and fans with disabilities.

It was an awesome year at Wiscon for disability as far as papers and panel topics were concerned, which means that there really is plethora of ways that this volume can shape up. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

· Write-ups of disability-themed panels (some panels I’m particularly interested in seeing write ups of are Body Acceptance: From All Sides; Assistive Technology is One of My Fandoms; Body Impolitic; Disability and the Final Frontier; Feminist Perspectives on Elder Care; Intersectionalism: It’s Not the Oppression Olympics; Passing Privilege; Addiction in Fiction; Disclosing and Advocating for Your Disability; We’re in Your Classics, Harshing on your Disability Tropes; and Accessibility 201)

· The evolution of disability policies through Wiscon’s history, as experienced by con staff and con-goers

· Essays about fandom by fans with disabilities.

· Essays about inter-disability politics.

· Essays by and about PWD whose disabilities are often marginalized or ignored (for example, invisible disabilities,

· Experiencing disability at Wiscon

· Essays about disability in SF/F/H TV, film, books, and other media in general

Note: Although many people both on and not on the autism spectrum do not consider autism and Asperger’s syndrome to be disabilities, society at large often treats autism as a disability. Therefore, I am very interested in receiving essays by and about autism as it pertains to ableism and fandom.

I will also gladly consider essays, poetry, play excerpts, and short fiction (under 3,500 words, please) that deal with disability, particularly if said essays, poetry, play excerpts, and short fiction were read, presented, or workshopped at Wiscon 2012. (Note, if you presented “Theorizing Vulnerability in Feminist SF,” “The Tribe of Maiden and the Tribe of Monsters,” “Disappearing Natives: The Colonized Body is Monstrous,” or “Darwin and the Digital Body,” I am especially interested in talking with you!)

Most importantly, I truly want this book to be intersectional. Therefore, I’m especially interested in panel write ups, essays, and more written by PWD who are also of color, LGB, transgender or genderqueer, fat and fat-positive, immigrants, non-Christian, and from all marginalized identities. The default PWD isn’t white, male, straight, and cisgender, and I want this volume to reflect that fact.

Have something that isn’t disability-related that you’d like to write up or have written up? That’s great, too! I’d love to take a look at it. While this book is centered on disability, essays that focus on other topics—whether that topic is racism, postcolonialism, or just how kick-ass the Chicks Dig Comics reading was—are very much encouraged. After all, Wiscon, like almost any con, is never “about” just one topic.

Before sending your essay, please query with what you want to write at jo.vanderhooft@(remove this)gmail.com. For ease of sorting, please put Wiscon Chronicles 7 Query: [Your last name] in the subject. I'm asking for queries mainly to avoid, say, receiving 5 different write ups of the same panel or 5 different essays on a very similar topic.

Ultimately, submissions should range from 1,000-3,500 words.

Submission deadline is August 15.

Any questions? Shoot me an email or comment here!

Thanks!

- Jo Vanderhooft