BTL Issue 11
Blood Tree Literature's Issue 11: Brevity is here! Thank you so much to our incredible contributors, and to our phenomenal featured artist Dumas Haddad. Check out all the amazing writing by Kelly R. Samuels, Rachael Peckham, Brian Benson, Adrianna Sanchez-Lopez, Tim Stiles, Jordan Nishkian, Samantha Stiers, Lawrence Bridges, Nkem Chukwumerije, Scott Russell, Ash Good, Hugh Findlay, Sara Dovre Wudali, Frances Klein, Aaron Sandberg, Scott Wiggerman, Matt Gulley, Sarah Peecher, Mel Sherrer, Chase Garner, Mark Henderson, and Fredric Hildebrand. This is a stunning issue and we’re so honored to share all this wonderful work with you!
We are also all fired up to announce the theme for our December 2022 contest: bodily autonomy. It is with particular passion that we have chosen this as our focus for Issue 12. The recent attacks on reproductive choice by the United States government not only hurts, angers, and scares us immediately, but threatens the future of bodily autonomy, women's rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, and racial and class protections nationwide. As America slips further into the past, we understand how every day can feel like a balancing act between rage and apathy, a basket of pebbles rocks accumulating bricks atop our heads as we’re expected to hold steady, to keep calm and carry on, maybe even do a little live-laugh-loving while we’re at it.
How could we? There’s the senseless and deliberate violence alike, the concurrent rise of Christofascism and leftist passivity, godforsaken inflation and the increasing possibility of a Handmaid’s Tale dystopia, coming to a planet near you! As writers, what are we to do in a time where our screams for justice and progression continue to fall on deaf ears? More specifically, as people with uteruses, how do we even begin to process the abolition of Roe v. Wade?
We want Issue 12 to champion resilience of those who bleed, encourage ferocity, highlight hope, evoke change. Give us a glance at life through your lens or that of someone familiar: words written from the fetal position, on your knuckles raised in the air. Stories that transcend state and country lines, stories felt in the gut, writing that bleeds. Fiction, poetry, hybrid, and nonfiction that you choose to share.
Reminder that BTL is best viewed on a laptop or desktop screen. We're aware of some technical difficulties with images and spacing on mobile, and are working to have everything optimized as soon as we can!
XOXO
Kylie