Press Announcement / Call for Submissions
For Immediate Release April 15, 2004
Call for Written & Photographic Submissions – please post & circulate!
Eagles across America: True Stories of Leatherbars
Editor Ron Jackson Suresha is collecting material for an anthology of nonfiction and fiction writing, and photography, Eagles across America: Leatherotica Stories. Extended deadline: November 1, 2004.
Eagles across America, conceived of as combination leatherman travelogue and kink-cult-community postcard album, will contain dynamic, strongly crafted personal stories combined with grassroots leather history. This anthology will feature anecdotes, nonacademic narratives, and images from a wide spectrum of gay/bisexual/trans men and leatherfolk, whether from isolated incidents or over time, in the Leather/Levi-oriented bars named “Eagle” (or with “Eagle” or “Falcon” in their name) located in many USA and Canadian cities (see list below). This collection will include stories about Eagle bars reopened, reincarnated, and indefinitely closed, or changed over time from a previously Leather/Levi /BDSM/ Bear business and community space into something else.
Stories may be written from the perspective of bar owners, staff, or patrons, and may range across themes and experiences: the evening you walked into your first gay bar, a night when you scored big on the back patio, a festive but moving afternoon memorial with entertainment, an evening that started off well enough but ended up with your head in the head. Not primarily historical writing but personal history, lively chronicles of how your experience of the bar – your relationship to it, your relationships in it – has grown and evolved.
Some fictionalization is allowed to protect identities and increase drama, but stories should be essentially nonfiction. Describe the patrons, the staff, their accents, their bodies, their clothes, their scents and accents and tattoos. Stories should provide, in context of the narrative, extensive local color and an observant introduction to the community. Include genuine décor details to instill a real sense of place – but don’t write just the physical description of the bar, its interior layout and traffic flow. Show how the business is situated in its neighborhood, city, and community. If the bar is a main leatherbar for your region or state, show how leatherfolk, bears, bikers, etc., from elsewhere relate to the bar as a community focal point.
Edited by Ron Jackson Suresha: Author of Bears on Bears, and Editor of Bearotica, Kink, Bear Lust, & Bi Men.
Atlanta, GA • Baltimore, MD • Boston, MA • Calgary, AL, Canada • Charleston, SC • Charlotte, SC • Chicago, IL • Columbus, OH • Dallas, TX • Detroit, MI • Ft. Lauderdale, FL • Guerneville, CA • Hartford, CT • Indianapolis, IN • Las Vegas, NV • Long Beach, CA • Long Island, NY • Miami, FL • Minneapolis, MN • Manhattan, NY • Montreal, QC, Canada • New Orleans, LA • Phoenix, AZ • Pittsburgh, PA • Portland, OR • Providence, RI • St. Louis, MO • St. Petersburg, FL • San Antonio, TX • San Diego, CA • San Francisco, CA • San Leandro, CA • Seattle, WA • Tampa, FL • Toronto, ON, Canada • Washington, DC • Also considering: Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Barcelona, Spain; Madrid, Spain; Stuttgart, Germany; Vienna, Austria
Guidelines (please read carefully): Send all materials by post – no initial electronic submissions accepted. Electronic formatting to be provided by author/photographer after acceptance. Submissions must be typed, preferably in monospaced font, double-spaced, on white 8.5×11 paper. Length: 3000–5000 words; query first for longer pieces. Include your full address, phone number, email address, word count, and one-paragraph bio sketch in cover letter. Please include email address or SASE for acknowledgment of receipt of material. Publisher and publication date to be announced. Contributors will receive copies of published work and one-time fee. To query at any time, include name of bar, bio sketch, and scope of article. Extended Deadline: November 1, 2004. Complete, latest info: http://www.suresha.com/writing/calls/neagles.php .
Photos: Contributors may send as many as five (5) photographs of the bar (interior, exterior, staff, patrons) along with their stories. Medium-resolution prints and color copies are acceptable. Attach to the back of each photo a separate typed sheet with the photo description, your name and city, your phone number and email address, and photographer credit.
Submissions: Suresha, POB 3355, Providence, RI 02909-0355; queries only: mail@suresha.com.
Complete info: http://www.suresha.com/writing/calls/neagles.php
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Ron Suresha
mail@suresha.com
http://www.suresha.com
