The Transfeminine Review

Have a valuable perspective to add to the conversation? Do you know an obscure piece of transfeminine literary history that you think other people should know too? Are you an industry professional, an author, or an aspiring writer who’s looking for a byline? We’re interested in hearing from all of you. Pitch us your ideas!

Please note that all editorials for the time being will be on a volunteer basis only. I’m not making any money from this website – anything I pay would come out of my own pocket, and that’s not something I have the resources for right now. If we start a Patreon or something in the future, that might change, but for the moment, submitting an article would be unpaid work. I know there are a lot of trans writers out there who’ve got big ideas, and not a lot of platforms where they can share them and actually reach an audience where they can be heard. It’s one of my primary goals for this website to platform under-represented voices in trans publishing, so if you’ve got something to say about trans fiction and you’re interested in working pro bono with an editorial team to help get it out into the world, we would love to hear your ideas!

• What kind of articles are you looking for? The primary goal of this blog is to document the work and positionalities of transfeminine people within the publishing industry. That means that we’re primarily looking for article pitches about tropes, trends, genres, and publishing history. If you absolutely love an obscure book that most transfemmes have never heard of and you’ve got something interesting to say about it, we would be happy to hear that too. We are much more likely to greenlight your article about underground zines from the 1980s than we are your thinkpiece about Nevada. We would prefer articles about books written about transfeminine authors, but recognize that there are a lot of adjacent topics that might be of interest to our readers, including but not limited to transmasculine and non-binary fiction, depictions of transfemininity in cis fiction, and current topics and issues that affect the transfeminine community. What we’re not looking for is an article that essentially reads “Here’s how <insert-white-cishet-literary-classic> shaped my trans identity.” We’re also not interested in posting autobiographical content. Personal experience can be a great framing device, but the core point of the essay’s gotta be about trans literature or the publishing industry, not yourself. This extends to authors, no matter how well-known or famous.
• Are there any other constraints? We’re not going to publish anything NSFW. We’re also not going to publish fiction. That doesn’t mean we aren’t interested in the more taboo, erotic, or historically discriminated elements of trans fiction. However, it needs to have a SFW slant so we can publish it on this site.
• What would the editorial process look like? If you’ve got an article idea, first you’ll send us a pitch via email. If I greenlight the pitch, we’ll talk more about what your ideas are and how you want to cover them, what types of texts you would cite, etc. If we like what we hear, we’ll ask for an outline, then do another round of discussion and critique before we send you off to write the article. I work in very close collaboration with a community of people who have been talking, thinking, and researching throughout this whole project with me, and it’s a very collaborative intellectual project – we want to work with you to develop your ideas! If you’re not open to having a chatty group of well-educated trans women spitballing over every point you’re making and coming up with a bunch of cool new ideas, you probably won’t enjoy working with us very much lol.
• How do I submit an article idea? Great question. We are looking for article pitches, not for pre-written articles. You’re welcome to send in an article that’s already been written, but unless it’s been published already and you’re just interested in having it reprinted for a more concerntrated trans audience, we’re probably gonna take it through the editing process anyway. If you want to send an article pitch to us, please submit a summary of no more than 500 words to thetransfemininereview@gmail.com. In that summary, please include the topic of the article, any major texts you would want to discuss in the article, and a brief description of why you’re interested in the topic and why you think other trans readers might be too. Be aware that we’re definitely not going to greenlight every pitch we get – I’m only one person, after all.
• What about republishing/republished articles? We’re in total support of it! The Transfeminine Review won’t ask for anything but the rights to print the article on our website. All guest authors will retain full rights to publish or print wherever else they might please.
• I want to have my traditionally published essay/academic article/book review/industry update content on the topic of trans(feminine) literature republished on your website for exposure/a broader audience/public accessibility. Awesome! Shoot us an email and we can chat about how to fit your work in.

That’s about all for that. We’re interested in hearing what you come up with! Again, if you’re interested, you can email us at info@thetransfemininereview.com or message us on one of our various socials.