We are making some big ch-ch-ch-changes over the next year, including building a new website, so some info may not be updated during our changeover. If you have inquiries that have not been answered or are seeking info that is out of date here, please email us at alt.current at gmail dot com. If you are waiting on submissions that have not yet been answered, we are terribly behind and short-staffed, but we *are* still reading through and answering everything.


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• Diversity & Marginalized Writers •

What We Stand For
We here at Alternating Current Press reject the hateful rhetoric of the current presidential administration. We reject travel bans and legislation meant to target people of certain cultural backgrounds, races, identities, or sexual orientations. We believe that diverse voices and diverse literature make the world a better place, can teach compassion, and can end biases. We want people to stop being afraid of Muslims. We want to build a safe space for LGBTQUIA+. We want own voices, and Native Americans to have oil-free water, the poor to have access to being heard, and people to stop being shot for the color of their skin. We’re just a small press; we can’t do much. But we believe that we ALL can do more than we’re doing, so as of now, we’re doing all we can. It’s more important than ever to take a stand.


What Steps Are We Taking to Make a Difference?
•We only publish a few books per year, but we vow to make sure at least one of those books is by a woman and/or person of color.

•We have an LGBTQUIA+ Editor (Amanda Jean) who makes sure we have a couple pieces of work per month featured on The Coil that were written by LGBTQUIA+ authors (even if not necessarily about LGBTQUIA+ topics). If you are an LGBTQUIA+ author and would like to have an article, personal essay, booklist, column, story, or other literary piece featured on our daily lit journal, please find Amanda on Twitter and let her know! Find out more about what we accept on The Coil here.

•We are working on anthologies that specifically showcase marginalized voices with new perspectives. Our current, fee-free open calls* are for Retell It Like It Is: Classic Fairytales Retold by People of Color and On Being LGBT+ in Rural Areas and On Being LGBT+ in the Deep South.

•We are working on putting together a new reading series for marginalized writers to come to our Boulder, Colorado, headquarters as visiting authors, for residency purposes and to read at our many bookstore, university, and auditorium spaces. More information on the new reading series will be available here shortly. If you are interested in being an author, supporting this cause, hosting in Boulder or surrounding areas, or anything else, please email us.

•In addition to the reading series, we are beginning a virtual mentoring series for marginalized voices. People with experience in a certain literary field can opt to mentor a marginalized writer, and help him succeed. Alternating Current will be granting one mentoring fellowship per year to a marginalized voice, and our editors will help with everything from query writing to editing to workshopping to finding submission opportunities that fit the author’s pieces. More information on the new mentoring fellowship will be available here shortly. If you have expertise and a little time to offer, no matter how brief, and are interested in mentoring a marginalized writer, please email us.

•As of January 2017, we now officially pay all writers for their work on our press, from a single poem to a booklist on our online journal to a full manuscript. While this is not specifically directed at marginalized voices, it is important for us to let you know that we put our money where our mouth is, and that we value your words tremendously and don’t just want to exploit them to hit some quota. We want to pay you for your work.


Recommended Reading for Diverse Voices: Anthology Series
This is our annual anthology series where guest celebrity writers of color, or successful marginalized voices, hand-select their favorite pieces by other marginalized voices to collect in an annual volume used in universities and book clubs for diverse reads. Guest editors for this series are selected by invitation and have at least one published book of acclaim. If you are interested in finding out more about the series or in being a guest editor, please email us.


Year-Round Free Submissions for Diverse Voices to All Categories
We have a year-round*, fee-free diversity category to accept and consider submissions from People of Color, LGBTQUIA+, Minority Ethnic, and Native American writers in any genre, on any topic. All marginalized voices can submit material once per month to our free category, and all pieces are still eligible for our writing awards.


Microgrants for Marginalized Writers
We are offering a unique platform that could potentially help hundreds of marginalized writers. Microgrants for Marginalized Writers are small grants or literary packages given by individuals or small presses or businesses to some portion (or all) of the marginalized writing community. Anyone can give a grant for a minimum of $100 per year, and a giver can include dedications, naming the award in honor/memory of someone, photos, logos, etc. The only stipulation is that all applications are free for writers to apply, and all work is read blind. Our hope is to have one place where marginalized writers can go to submit to tons of different opportunities at once, where we can all come together to support voices that need to be heard. You, YES, YOU!, can give a microgrant, and we will do as much or as little of the work for it as you choose. If you can afford to give $100 per year to help someone else in need, please follow the link below or email us. And if you are a diverse writer, visit the link to see if anything applies to you. Alternating Current gives three microgrants annually: the Still I Rise Grant for black or African American women/women-identified writers, the Oblaye Award for Great Plains or Midwestern Native American writers, and the Unsilenced Grant for Muslim American women/women-identified writers.




**Please note that we have an overall monthly cap on the amount of free submissions we can take in through our Submittable portal, so we occasionally have to close free portals before the end of the month if we hit the limit early. If this is the case, and the portal is currently closed when you try to access it, please just bookmark us and come back on the first of the next month!