Silk and Sinew

 Full details 

SILK & SINEW:

A COLLECTION OF FOLK HORROR FROM THE ASIAN DIASPORA

 

SILK & SINEW seeks to tease forth folk horror rooted in the experience of the Asian Diaspora. From lengths of muscle and vein, ground bones, endless ropes of sinew it is with our bodies folk horror is woven.

 

The history of Asian immigrants and their descendants in regions of the former colonial powers has often been obscured. Our presences and experiences, either go unrecognized, are deemed unimportant, or are regarded with derision. In still other cases, we are akin to an interesting collectable obtained during vacation, discovered, owned, and assigned a shelf for display. For many, immigration has been propelled by war, poverty, and political upheaval either directly produced or coalesced as a by-product of Western Colonialism.

 

Old sins, dark magic, twisted rituals, and beliefs seep forth again refusing to be ignored. The expansive continent of Asia contains myriads of such stories from impossibly ancient roots. But what does “the land” in folk horror mean for people of the Asian Diaspora?

 

It is in the bodies of Asian immigrants and their descendants which the Folk Horror concept of land is carried, intertwined with flesh, an invisible thread of sorrow, fury, and longing, wordlessly weaving into the tapestry of our identities. If Folk Horror is about what is hidden within the land, for the Asian Diaspora, our bodies are the fertile soil of buried sorrow and sacrifice, for we carry it in our very DNA. A tapestry that connects us to the past, our ancestors, our present, and our future.

 

Stories unique to our cultures and experiences as part of and intermixture of Western culture; the intersection of East and West, rooted both in the home left behind/of our ancestors and the home ahead, in our experiences of the present, our hopes of the future. A haunting at the intersection of the past rearing forth into the present (think Iris Shim’s film Umma) in sinister ways.

 

From the porcelain doll in imperial regalia, silent and shelved; the fetishization of Asian women’s bodies; the tragedy of a silk-moth forever pursuing the moon; a child who loses memory of their family upon taking a Westernized name; or the festering wartime shame passed from mother to daughter. What things could be dug up from our fleshy earth? What horrors to behold? What terrible beauty?

 

Open Call Info

Anthology will be broken into segments bringing home the concept of “the body-as-land”:

Soil

Roots

Bedrock

Estuary

Air

Stories should be rooted in the concept of Folk Horror derived from the body-as-land of the Asian Diaspora. What this means is up to your interpretation but should stay true to the project description above. All stories should be horror/speculative fiction.

As an reader and editor I have a preference for moody, horrific beauty/ beautiful horrors, deep meaningful stories, poignant themes, exposing truths, and strong voice. I love work that straddles the literary line.

Length: 3000-5000 words

Pay: 5 cents/ word

Opens-

June 1: Priority submission window for South Asian diaspora writers

June 8-30: Submission window for ALL Asian diaspora writers (capped at 300 submissions)

ONLY when subs open (any work sent earlier will not be read) send work as an attachment to silkandsinewsubs@gmail.com

Shunn manuscript format (only name and email required)

Please include in the body of the email:

1. Which segment you feel the story fits under (Soil/Roots/Bedrock/Estuary/Air)

2. Your preferred pronouns

3. A short (100 word) bio

PS- please be aware there will be limited space as we have several invited authors (whose names we are excited to share soon).

I can't wait to read your work!