Mr. Sexsmith

Leather Scholarship

On behalf of Leatherpage.com, Leland Carina is offering a privately-funded scholarship for research and journalism in the amount of $1,000. This money is intended to cover the flight and hotel for a weekend-long stay in Chicago, providing an opportunity for the recipient to research at the Leather Archives & Museum (LA&M). Any funds remaining after travel costs may be used to further the recipient’s work.

Rick Storer, Executive Director of LA&M, will meet with the recipient to suggest resources that may be useful and provide training on using the museum’s in-house catalogs.

For more details, please see the post on Leatherpage.com: http://leatherpage.com/updates/2012/04/16/leather-community-research-and-journalism-scholarship/

Call for Submissions: Leather Ever After

Call For Submissions:

Leather Ever After

BDSM retellings of classic fairy tales

Editor: Sassafras Lowrey

Publisher: Ravenous Romance 

Deadline: August 1, 2012

Payment: $25 plus a copy of the anthology

Story Length: 2,500 – 5,000 words

Once upon a time, in a dungeon far, far away, you were summoned to join the quest for the hottest and kinkiest retellings of your favorite fairy tales. I’m seeking hot, well-written stories about bondage, power play, sadism and masochism. Think dragon fire-play,  princesses in bondage,  evil step mothers, and happy endings too good to be true. Give me fantasy, or show me the magic all around us, when Prince Charming wins the leather contest with the help of his fairy drag-mother,  Rapunzel is entangled in hair suspension and the little mermaid edgeplays with knives. I’m looking for a strong literary voice and characters with a a diversity of race, sexual orientations and gender identities/expressions.  All characters must be over 18.   It’s time to write a new ending to your favorite bedtime story.

Submission Guidelines: Email submissions in Times New Roman 12 point black font Word document (.doc) with pages numbered of 2,500-5,000 words to  LeatherEverAfter@gmail.com . Please include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), short 50 word or less bio in the third person, mailing address, email, and title of the piece as part of your document.

About the editor: Sassafras Lowrey is an international award winning queer author and artist who came into a gutterpunk leather community a decade ago. Sassafras is the editor of the two time American Library Association honored and Lambda Literary Award Finalist Kicked Out. Sassafras’ first novel, Roving Pack, will be released autumn 2012, an excerpt of which earned hir an Honorable Mention in the Astraea Lesbian Writers Fund for Fiction. Ze tours to colleges,and community organizations across the country facilitating workshops that support LGBTQ and Leather people in telling their stories. Sassafras lives in Brooklyn, New York with hir Daddy, two dogs, and two kitties. You can learn more about Sassafras and hir work at www.PoMoFreakshow.com

Call for Nominations: SM/Leather/Fetish Writing

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
(Columbus, OH) — NLA-International, a leading organization for activists in the pansexual leather community, is now accepting nominations for its annual writing awards for excellence in SM/leather/fetish writing for books, articles, novels, and short fiction first published between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2010. The deadline for nominations is 31 January 2011. Winners will be announced on April 17 at the National Leather Association’s Annual General Meeting, which will be held during Spring Iniquity XX (April 15-17, 2011) in Houston, TX and mark the National Leather Association’s 25th anniversary. The five award categories are:
 
 Non-Fiction Book (Geoff Mains Award)
 Non-Fiction Article (Cynthia Slater Award)
 Novel (Pauline Reage Award)
 Short Fiction (John Preston Award)
 Anthology (Samois Award)

Nominations for the Cynthia Slater Award (non-fiction article) may have appeared in print or online publications (which should indicate a specific date of publication). Eligibility for all other awards (short fiction, novel, non-fiction book, and anthology) requires print publication. If you or someone you know has published a book, article, or story dealing with any aspect of SM, leather, fetish, or kink sexuality please consider nominating it for one of the above awards. Authors and publishers are encouraged to nominate themselves by submitting copies of their work. Nominated works should foster education and promote awareness and a positive image of the leather/SM/fetish community. They should entertain and educate, while building awareness and tolerance of the community and showcasing the talents of its members. There are no submission fees, but the judges will require either three print copies of the nominated work or a digital copy (PDF). Nominations may be sent to the committee chair, Steve Vakesh, at:stevevakesh@gmail.com.

NLA-I has convened an award jury of nine readers, whose number include noted erotic writers and leading community activists. The judges are rotated regularly and their names withheld until after judging is complete to prevent lobbying by nominees. Last year they reviewed more than 100 submissions. 
 
Now in their fourth year, the NLA-I’s writing awards have received widespread appreciation and support. A “leather first,” they have become the preeminent awards for SM, leather, and fetish writing. Past winners include Gloria Brame, Jack Fritscher, Lee “Bridgett” Harrington, Anneke Jacob, Jeff Mann, Jack Rinella, david stein, Cecilia Tan, Claire Thompson, and Alyson Tyler. NLA-I President Vince Andrews hopes that these awards will “continue to recognize, celebrate, and inspire the best in SM, leather, and fetish writing as the NLA celebrates its 25th anniversary.”