Call for Submissions on Theme of Clothing: Prairie Schooner

Writers are invited to submit their poetry and prose for a special portfolio centered on the theme of clothing in the winter 2019 issue of Prairie Schooner, guest edited by myself, Adrienne Christian.

What we wear (and what we don’t wear) is a highly political act. For example: 

 

--A lonely woman may be wearing her sexiest lingerie because a handsome man has escaped from the local prison, as is the case in Sandra Alcosser’s “Maximum Security.”

 

--A young black girl may be wearing a dry bathing suit because blacks aren’t allowed in the pool, such as it in Lauren K. Alleyne’s “Variations in Blue.”

 

--Or, a gentleman may put on his wife’s wedding dress as a Halloween costume, only to discover he likes himself in women’s clothes. He likes himself with smooth calves, teased tresses, lipstick, and mascara. So is it in Michael Waters’s “Wedding Dress.”

--You may also consider Rita Dove’s “The Bistro Six,” Richard Blanco’s “Looking for the Gulf Motel,” and Natasha Trethewey’s “Letter Home.” 

 

I am looking for pieces that tell tender stories and also feature fashion and clothing in some significant way. Please send up to five pages of unpublished poems or ten pages of prose, along with your contact information and a three-line, third-person bio, to me at

christian.adrienneATrocketmail.DOTcom (Change AT to @ and DOT to . ) 

 

The deadline to submit work is June 15, 2019.

I look forward to reading your work.

Most sincerely,

 

Adrienne Christian