We’re pleased to announce a global call for submissions for a multimedia anthological book of “Blackness, Queerness, and Nature” (working title) co-edited by Erin Sharkey and Grace Anderson. With this anthology, Erin and Grace, seek to compile a collection that is a testament and reflection of how Black Queer communities across the diaspora live in relationship to nature. We welcome submissions across mediums that interrogate consider, imagine, reimagine, detail, and illuminate the way our communities commune with the Earth.
“Blackness, Queerness, and Nature” will be a rich and varied collection of personal and lyric essays, fiction, poems, photographs, oral histories, meditations, recipes, songs, stories, and experimental writing about the experiences/vision/love/erotics/connections of Black Queer folks and nature/environment/Earth/earth, water and cosmos. With this project writers will have the opportunity to reflect on the significance of nature in their lived experience and speculation, hopes, pessimism, and imagination. This anthology will ask, what does the light of Queer Black life illuminate? Possibilities ? How does our shine allow for all of these other things to shine? How have we created fertile ground for others to survive?
Call for Submissions
“Blackness, Queerness, and Nature”
Co-Edited by Grace Anderson and Erin Sharkey
Meet the Co-Editors
Erin Sharkey
photo credit: Wordsworth / Penumbra Theater
Erin (she/they) is a writer, arts and abolition organizer, cultural worker, and film producer based in Minneapolis. Sharkey edited the anthology, A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars, published by Milkweed Editions. Erin has an MFA in creative writing from Hamline University. They served as producer of film projects, including Sweetness of Wild, an episodic web film project, and Small Business Revolution (Hulu), which explored challenges and opportunities for Black-owned businesses in the Twin Cities in the summer of 2021. Erin teaches at Minneapolis College and with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop (MPWW)/ReEntry Lab.
She has received fellowships and residencies from the Loft Mentor Series, VONA/Voices, the Givens Foundation, Coffee House Press, the Bell Museum of Natural History, the Jerome Foundation, and the Black Seed Fellowship from Black Visions and the Headwaters Foundation. Sharkey is a steward cooperative member of the Fields at Rootsprings Retreat, a land-based Cooperative stewarding space for the healing and development of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) artists, activists, healers, and community centering Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Queer (LGBTQ) folx in Central Minnesota.
Learn more about Erin.
Grace Anderson
photo credit: Bethanie Hines
Grace Anderson (she/her) is a writer, imaginary, and world-bender curating at the intersection of queerness, resource mobilization, climate & environmental justice, and Black dignity & imagination. She created The Lupine Collaborative, a literary organization advancing environmental and climate justice by abundantly resourcing Black women, non-binary, and transgender writers to dream, ideate, write, and build toward a liberatory future. Previously, Grace c0-directed PGM ONE, an organization for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color gather, learn, heal, and collaborate on US-based environmental movements—charting a path toward environmental justice and collective liberation.
Grace is currently getting her MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing from The New School and is an alum of Storyknife Writers Retreat, Philoxenia Black Writers Retreat, and Rockland Residency’s Inaugural Black Artist Cohort, and Seeds of Solidarity: A Retreat for Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color Climate Writers.
Learn more about Grace.
About the Publisher
Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Milkweed Editions is a nonprofit independent publisher of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry who believes that literature has the potential to change the way we see the world. Milkweed’s books include You are Here by Ada Limón, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, A Darker Wilderness by Erin Sharkey, Startlement by Ada Limón, Aster of Ceremonies by JJJJJJJerome Ellis, Bluest Nude by Ama Codjoe, and World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil.
Overview
We are seeking submissions from Black Queer folks from across the diaspora to share their work through the following mediums: personal and lyric essays, fiction, poems, photographs, oral histories, meditations, recipes, songs, stories, and experimental writing. We encourage you to reach out if there is a medium that we didn’t include but is of interest to you.
Seeding: What has been?
History & Ancestry
Traditional Recipes
Folklore
Historical Maps
Precolonial History / Critical Fabulation
Rooting: What is?
Queer Adventurers
Healing Practices
Stories told through patterns of the natural world (bee patterns, swamp & animal adaptations, etc.)
Herbalism
Alternative economic models
Afro-Indigeneity
Fallowing: What needs to be left to rest? To recover?
Tending to our grief
Spirituality
What do we need to leave alone?
What is rest?
Existing models of collective care
Compost / Rupture / Death: What has or will end?
Living in & through the end times
How do we grieve?
Mourning
Harvesting: What is to come?
Abolition & World Building
Science & Speculative
Dream Writing & Emerging Paradigms
Visions & Illustrations for the Future
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to identify as Black AND Queer? Yes. We are deliberately and delightfully curating an anthology for and by Black Queer folks.
How much are contributors paid? Accepted contributors will be paid $1,000 for their submission.
When will I know if I was selected? Spring/Summer 2026
Will selected contributions be edited? There will likely be a few rounds of feedback with the co-editors and contributors. You will be able to hone your piece before publication.
When do you plan to publish? We’re aiming for mid to late 2027
How long should submissions be? They can vary in length. For longer pieces, a max of 5,000 words (10 pages).
Do you accept submissions that aren’t in English? We’re open to submissions in other languages and might be limited in our ability to translate up to standard.
If my submission isn’t accepted, will there be other opportunities? Likely! We are thinking about & working on identifying opportunities to publish the work that doesn’t go into the book. We will reach out for permission before publishing elsewhere.
Deadline: Rolling with a final submission date of March 1, 2026
Please direct any questions to submissions@thelupinecollaborative.org