Missing our period

So: we’ve missed our promised get-back-to-contributors date by about three weeks.

Does this mean that the anthology is preggers?

Well, things are pretty far along, just not as far as we’d hoped. To drop the period-patter, November was a very overwrought and illness-y month.

But we’re all feeling better and we should have acceptances/rejections out in the next few weeks..thanks for your patience!

Finally, we got far more poetry and prose than we could possibly use. But it was such a bloody honour to read your work. Thanks for sharing it with us…

Ariel

Naming rights

Renée Cohen sent us the following titles for our as-yet-unnamed menstruation anthology and then ALSO agreed to let us share them with the following proviso: “be forewarned, they are mostly silly.”

Go with the Flow!
Flowing Words, Bleeding Thoughts
It’s That Time Again!
You Mean it isn’t Supposed to be Blue? (like in the TV Ads)
The Red Book
Shedding Our Thoughts and Uterine Linings

Send us your serious suggestions + also your silly ones, please!

244 Submissions!

It’s November 2. I’m glad that this month’s period, that lasted a full two weeks, is finally over.

And, after extending our original deadline two weeks to October 31, I’d glad to say that we’ve received more than 244 submissions to the menstruation anthology.

Two thoughts spring to mind:

1. 244! Yaaaaay!
2. Tanis and Rosanna and I have a lot of work ahead of us, reading and sorting and shortlisting. Glorious/gory work, but work nevertheless.

If you’ve submitted a story or essay or poem or comic or something else altogether, you can expect to hear from us sometime in November.

If you haven’t/couldn’t/wouldn’t submit but are still here, reading this post, how about suggesting a title for the anthology? (I sort of like “Free Bleed.”)

Thanks ever so much!

Ariel

For Ladies in distress, or: offering an extension

* * *

Yesterday, I posted the following to Facebook:

“So: the DEADLINE for the menstruation anthology Tanis MacDonald, Rosanna Deerchild and I are editing is in TWO DAYS. SUBMIT! Or ASK NICELY FOR AN EXTENSION! But: DO SOMETHING.”

And I proceeded to have conversations with all kinds of writers that I admire over the course of the day.

I’d given five or six extensions by bedtime.

This morning, Rosanna and Tanis and I chatted briefly. They’d both had the same day: “YES you can have an EXTENSION + WHOA that sounds like a good poem/essay/story.”

Given that there are probably lots of people we DON’T know in a similar situation, we’ve agreed to offer the extension more widely.

So: the new deadline for submissions is October 31. 

We’re super excited by all the submissions we’ve gotten so far and all the submissions we’ve been promised.

GET WRITING!

We are stronger together…

Seems to me with all this talk of grabbing that it’s a good morning to ask women and non-binary folks of all ages and backgrounds to send Ariel Gordon, Rosanna Deerchild, and me their poetry, fiction, and personal essays about menstruation, its political force, its defiance, its cessation, its unpredictability, and everything else about living in the world as a menstruating person.

I want to send special encouragement for submissions of work from writers under the age of thirty, from writers with First Nations heritage, from writers of colour, from writers living with disabilities, from gender-queer and gender-fluid writers. When the patriarchy rears its ugly head and flaps its garrulous lips, we are stronger together. The deadline is Oct. 15th. Need more time? Email us. 

Please feel free to share.  #redtide #bloodywellright

12 days to submit!

Hey all,

My boobs hurt, so it must be time to remind you to submit to our gory little anthology.

The deadline for submissions is October 15, so this is your last menstruation-themed reminder.

So: submit your period prose, your poetry, your mixed-genre work. Submit your bloody artwork & comics

I’m really really looking forward to what you come up with.

Ariel

Period Piece

Our thanks to poet Lisa Pasold, who shared the link to this BBC article on Norwegian musician Jenny Hval, who included a song about menstruation on her latest album, Blood Bitch.

“‘Don’t be afraid, it’s only blood,’ she reassures listeners over an ambient electronic track.”

 

 

Menstruation episode on CBC’s Out in the Open

The most recent episode of CBC’s Out in the Open with Piya Chattopadhyay focuses on menstruation: “in this episode, we explore how different women from the past and present deal with their periods.”

There are a number of great segments in this episode, including how difficult it can be to get diagnosed with endometriosis, the man in India who developed a system for making affordable menstrual pads, homelessness and menstruation, how Victorian women dealt with their periods, and the musician who free-bled during the London Marathon.

I’ve tweeted at Piya Chattopadhyay that I hope she’ll submit. Couldn’t resist!

So, while you’re working on your pieces for the anthology, have a listen to these stories and get inspired.

Bloody media

Here are some recent articles about menstruation, in case you should need some bloody inspiration:

• New Bodyform Period Ad Uses Actual Blood And It’s Amazing: HuffPo.ca
• Chinese swimmer and media darling shocks fans with personal revelation: NYT
• The (Very) Puritanical Online Censorship of Periods: The Establishment
• How do women handle their periods in space?: CNN
• “Shake S**t Up!”: Kiran Gandhi Talks Stigma: Girls’ Globe

Have I missed anything? Lemme know in the comments.