Call for pitches for our first print anthology!
Deadline: March 15 2026
Is My Love, Love?’ is an anthology project co-created by feminist writers, artists, and organizers that explore the possibilities of love as liberation practice, and worldmaking.
Our question is an invitation to reimagine and re-articulate love. Is it affirming, honest, freeing? Does it transcend constructs and borders? Does it inspire new and imaginative futures? How do we actively create loving practices? We chose to anchor these collective explorations with questions because as Sara Ahmed reminds us, “To live a feminist life is to make everything into something that is questionable”
We believe ‘love’ has survived, and continues to survive, many attempts at co-option. Forces of capitalism, heteronormativity, religions, brahmanical patriarchy, colonialism, and more have attempted to remake love in their image. They dictate who can love whom, how, how much, when, and under what circumstances. We are told that love is best realized between individuals and not collectives; must be sanctified in religious ceremony; must abide by gendered and casteist rules; that it expressed with shiny stones, materiality and sometimes violence; that love for living trees, rocks and rivers is uncivilized; that as an emotion it stands in opposition to reason, and cannot be trusted; that it is extractive, not abundant; that its physical, mental, spiritual expressions are somehow separate and must remain partitioned, and contained.
The narrative we are given about love may be tightly spun, but rebellious threads get through. When practiced as a radical, intentional force, love becomes a process of unlearning, a dismantling of the toxic, oppressive scripts we’ve internalised about who deserves love, how it should be expressed, and what it must cost us. To love in a way that unlearns is to question everything we’ve been taught (about desire, worth, power, and belonging); to disrupt conditioned behaviors (self-sacrifice, possession, punishment); and to reconstruct relational ecosystems (beyond domination, extraction, and fear).
Some of our deepest thinkers and activists from James Baldwin to Audre Lorde, Dr. Ambedkar, bell hooks, Mahmoud Darwish, Gloria Anzaldúa, Meena Kandasamy and many others speak and write of love, not only as a romantic or sexual embodiment but as a force for self and collective liberation. Loving activists such as Savitribai and Jyotiba Phule show us how love in action can build new worlds beyond religious, brahmanical, and patriarchal restrictives and prescriptives. We often remember James Baldwin’s words: “The world is held together, really it is held together, by the love and the passion of very few people.”
In its power, love becomes dangerous to power. Because it resides where power cannot, in surrender. Through this collection of stories we want to unspool our conditioned understandings of love, to remake them, and to celebrate loving rebellions. Some of the questions we’re curious about are:
- What does love mean to you?
- How do we unspool from the idea of love as commodity and control?
- How does love power movements, imagination, and world-making?
- When love, sex and sexuality are deeply politicised, controlled and surveilled, what does it mean to be free?
- What does softness as a practice look like?
- If love is predetermined as ‘unconditional’ how can we negotiate conditions? Who gets to determine conditions and who doesn’t?
- When is refusal a loving path?
These questions and curiosities are ultimately driven by a thirst for a more loving world, for authentic connection, and foundational solidarity building. If this is what you think about, strive for, and work towards, we would love to hear from you.
Pitch Guidelines
We are open to pitches for writings, oral stories, art and illustration, poetry, interviews, photography and photo essays, and other nonfiction narratives.
- Anyone from anywhere can pitch for this call
- You can pitch using the google form here with a summary of your idea, preferred narrative method and short bio
- We are only accepting pitches for work that has not been previously published
- If your pitch is selected, we will work with you on a timeline for the full submission.
- Selections will be published in a print anthology and paid $100 USD, equivalent in local currencies
- In recognition of the risks people may face when submitting personal work, you can submit with an anonymous name, or email us at loversanthology@gmail.com to explore processes that support confidentiality
Get your pitch in before March 15th 2026, we can’t wait to read your ideas!
Editorial Team
- Vijaya Chikermane: Vijaya is a feminist killjoy, researcher, and the founding editor of Writing Women
- Mariyam Haider: Mariyam is an independent writer, researcher and spoken word artist, with works focused on gender, identity, and culture. She is the producer and host of ‘Main Bhi Muslim‘ podcast. Her poetry and writings have been published in Mekong Review, Kontinentalist, Scroll, Asian Review of Books, Jom, among others.
- Rawan G. Agha: Rawan is a writer, poet, researcher, and visual artist exploring intersectionality, feminism, and decolonisation across art, culture, and politics. She co-authored “Amen to Kufiyah,” published in Cultural Heritage in the Fashion Industry (Taylor & Francis). She also co-founded Egyptian Millennials Magazine (2019–2023), amplifying emerging Egyptian creative voices.
- Fouziya Tehzeeb: Fouziya is a freelance writer and narrative practitioner. She is exploring children’s storybooks as medium to document critical issues.
- Bhumika Saraswati: Bhumika is a lover, she is also a filmmaker and a journalist
- Shazia Salam: Interdisciplinary artist and programme curator infiltrating public space and urban memory
- Aishwarya AVRaj: Aishwarya is an independent non-fiction writer, media practitioner, educator, literary activist who works with the decolonial anti-caste feminist lens and the praxis of critical philosophy
