What if the roles were reversed and Persephone descends into Hades, searching for her mother, Demeter? What if she finds her, contentedly sipping red wine and eating pomegranate seeds. Nonplussed. She approaches her and says, "Mom, come home." And Demeter replies, "I'm not coming home. Ever." What happens to her then?
On the topic of role reversal - hardly is it ever considered that it could have been a woman who had to undergo the '12 labors' or that Medea might be the one who was after the fleece. Always the 'male' archetype. Really irks me.
I'd like to think that Persephone would return from Hades and embrace her mother's choice to do something for herself for a change. There I go again...projecting.
The Velvet Chamber: An Anthology of Revisioned Fairy-tales and Myth-- A Call for Writers-- is represented by Mullane Literary Associates.
What you will find in this blog
You will find all the information you need to submit a story (sidebar, just scroll down), inspiration for a story, and why we need an anthology of revisioned, contemporary feminist fairy-tales and myth (blog posts). You will also find my story, serialized, "I am Snow White," as an example of how this could work--- and I hope I find many, many dark, funny sexy stories from you. Deadline: October 30, 2010.
Nationally and internationally produced playwright, award winning producer and author for NPR and WBAI. Published in Salon.com, USAtoday.com, dumbonyc.com, by Cleis Press, Seal Press, Heinemann Press. Reviewed in NYTimes, Art in America, Village Voice, The London Sunday Times. MA from NYU.
What I'm looking for
Stories that radically revise stereotypes of "bad women" in the Bible, in myth and in fairy-tales. Stories that aren't afraid to be literary, transgressive, dark, and sexy. Think: Lilith, Medea, the Wicked Stepmother, the Evil Witch, Pandora, Eve, crones, sibyls, fates, muses. Contemporary adaptations are fine. Mythical adapations equally welcome.
The spine: We begin to see these women through another lens.
How to submit
Email story in word attachment to laslugocki@gmail.com Subject line: Submission. Documents should be double-spaced, 12 pt. font, Times New Roman. Paragraphs should be indented five spaces. Bio (necessary) and contact information in the upper right hand corner. Stories should not exceed 5,000 words. Please do not send work-in-progress. Final drafts only.
What Can a Heroine Do? Or Why Women Can't Write by Joanna Russ, in Images of Women in Fiction. Ed. Susan Koppelman Cornillon, Bowling Green University Press; Bowling Green, Ohio, 1972.
Archetypal Patterns in Women's Fiction, by Annis Pratt, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1981
Feminist Alternatives, Irony and Fantasy in the Contemporary Novel by Women, by Nancy A. Walker, University Press of Mississippi, Jackson and London, 1990
Worlds Within Women: Myth and Mythmaking in Fantastic Literature by Women by Thelma J. Shin, Greenwood Press, New York, Connecticut, London, 1986
Changing the Story: Feminist Fiction and the Tradition, by Gayle Green, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indiana, 1991
Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales by Jack Zipes (The University of Kentucky Press, 2002)
Clever Maids: The Secret History of the Grimm Fairy Tales (Basic Books, 2005)
Fairy Tales and Feminism: New Approaches by Donald Haase (Wayne State University Press, 2004)
From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers by Marina Warner (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1995)
Myth and Fairy Tale in Contemporary Women's Fiction by Susan Sellers (Palgrave Macmillan, 2001)
Oh, just hours and hour of more therapy...;-]
ReplyDeleteOn the topic of role reversal - hardly is it ever considered that it could have been a woman who had to undergo the '12 labors' or that Medea might be the one who was after the fleece. Always the 'male' archetype. Really irks me.
right? women don't create language, build cities, win wars or bring home the golden fleece. its total nonsense.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to think that Persephone would return from Hades and embrace her mother's choice to do something for herself for a change. There I go again...projecting.
ReplyDelete