Call for Submissions

FERAL: A Queer Anthology Of Primal Desire

We are seeking submissions for a multi-genre anthology titled FERAL, exploring the playful, fearsome, and fertile terrain of what it means to be primal. This collection moves beyond the narrow confines of primal as "hot animalistic sex" to embrace the spiritual, the shapeshifting, and the ecologically entangled.

We are calling in LGBTQ+ voices that engage with:

• The Shadow, Shame, and Power — What emerges when we meet the monsters or monstresses within? What does it mean to inhabit the fullness of our power?

• Wildness & Biodiversity — Queerness as a natural expression of the untamed, the rhizomatic, the unexpected and abundant.

• Liminality & Fluidity — The grey zones, the edge-dwelling; radical resistance and reimagining of liberatory new worlds.

• The Bestial & Archetypal — How do we shapeshift, play, and ritualize our return to embodying our animal self?

• The Sacred & Magical — Primal as spiritual practice, as ancestral memory, as spellwork.

• Eco-eroticism & Intergenerational Wisdom — How does the primal teach us about the desire for aliveness and connection beyond the purely sexual: into the platonic, the collective, the ecological?

This anthology is a home for the generative, the edgy, the fluid, and the fiercely alive. It is for those who know wildness is not a threat—but an ancient, sacred way of belonging and being.

We prioritize submissions that expand the definition of the primal, particularly from BIPOC, trans, disabled, kinky, and neurodivergent creators.

We welcome:

• Poetry, fiction, and hybrid forms

• Personal narrative, mythic storytelling, essays or academic writings that expand our understanding of the primal

• Visual art, ritual instructions, dialogues, or other non-traditional formats.

Come slither and prowl with us. Let the forms change. Let the wild return.

Submitting Deadline: January 15th, 2026

Submission Guidelines: Email 1-4 pieces, totaling up to 18 pages (4,500 words) to feralanthology@gmail.com. Your submission may include a combination of genres such as poetry; short fiction (spec fic; realism, sci-fi/fantasy, speculative, queer futurist, etc.); flash nonfiction or short memoir writing; academic/philosophical essays; or hybrid forms possibly including visual elements. Please also provide the name by which you’d like to be referred to in the anthology, if published; your pronouns; and a brief author bio (~100-175 words).

Format: We prefer Google Docs for all submissions. If you submit a Word doc, we’ll be converting it to read and edit it. We will accept a PDF in cases where special formatting is necessary and not achievable in a doc.

Compensation: If our kickstarter goal is met, each author will receive a copy of the book and a $40 stipend.  If not, we will still publish the book and each author will receive a copy.

Editors: Stina French & Lore Hershey

Publisher Information: Listen To Your Skin Press

Projected release date: November, 2026