CALL FOR ENTRIES
For Anjuman 2024-25
The Annual Magazine of Hindu College Queer Collective
Theme: Queer (Re)Imaginations: Writing Resistance, Building Resilience
“I shall create! If not a note, a hole.
If not an overture, a desecration.”
—GWENDOLYN BROOKS, “Boy Breaking Glass”
They are aware/ that, on long journeys,/ each bears the other,/ whirring,/ stirring/ love occuring/ in the middle of the terrifying air.
—JAMES BALDWIN, “Munich, Winter 1973 (for Y.S.)”
Queerness is a territory of tension, constant change and reconstitution, of going beyond and going against; it is a rupture in the illusions of stability in identity, institutions and spaces. The discursive limits of queerness are points from where new ways of being and becoming bloom. Queer, then, isn’t a stable identity to inhabit; it revolts and resists, unsettles and upends, refusing to ‘be’ in a zone of repose and conformity. There are multiple ways of being queer and queering. However, what runs common through all these various manifestations is an uncompromising support for those who are pushed to the margins, oppressed and deprived. Queerness thus radically re-imagines the social and the way it’s organised, positioning emancipation for all as the force that guides its energies. It lays bare the inconsistencies sustaining any claims of certainty, naturalness and normalcy; it reads the normative critically, interrogating what is taken for granted, illuminating that which is excluded and charting alternate possibilities.
The inaugural edition of HCQC’s Anjuman (अजंमुन) is an attempt to chronicle the several ways in which queerness, queer bodies, and queer perspectives create and embody new, unique imaginations and reimaginings. We envision it as a polyphonic gathering, a mosaic of voices, an anjuman of pain and infinite joy, of grief and unfaltering resilience, of desire and longing, of rage and vulnerability, of memories and boundless hopes, a space that is fiercely ours: a space where universal meanings, ideas and identities are challenged, critiqued and subverted; where normative scripts of (but not limited to) gender and sexuality are written anew, and where alternate subjectivities are explored and articulated. Because queerness not only implies a departure but also multiple arrivals: a coming-together of the varied potentialities that (de)construct ways of living and loving, that refashion the past and the future, the private and the public, in a radical disruption of heteronormative spatio-temporal hegemonies. A coming together that, through gestures of refusal and reclamation, through limp wrists and unabashed struts, unequivocally announces its coming: we’re here.
We are interested in documenting what a queer vantage point– one of tension, fluidity and intersectionality– does to our societies, social institutions and societal processes; documenting how the raging anti-normativity that enlivens queerness reconfigures our understanding, and experience, of family, friendship and feeling. We wish to register how the moments of disruption that queer bodies produce can also create new spaces, vocabularies and imaginaries.
In this endeavour of ours, we refuse to pin down queer/ness/ing to a specific, coherent set of conceptual tools, frameworks and methodologies. There is, we believe, no ‘right’ way of being queer or doing queerness (perhaps, but not necessarily, with the exception of being transgressive and non-normative). This refusal to draw a boundary marking the limits of what queer is, might constitute a moment of disorientation, confusion, and loss. But it is precisely in these moments, that we wish to find new directions of meaning-making and knowledge production – directions that are situated but also ambitious. At its very core, Anjuman is an invitation to an archive of hope, resistance and resilience; for it is about worlds we are too afraid to imagine, desires we are too ashamed to admit and joy we are too intimidated to snatch.
We welcome submissions in forms of poems, short fiction, creative nonfiction, book reviews (under 1200 words), academic essays (under 1500 words), opinion pieces (under 1500 words), photo essays, and long-form articles, among others (under 3000 words). The submissions should speak to our theme in interesting and inventive ways, some of which we ourselves might not have envisaged. Please find below a list of potential themes that contributors can explore,
● Queer Erasure in Historical Narratives
● Queerness, Resistance and Emancipation
● Subversive Queer Art and Discourses
● Queerness and/in Everyday Life
● Queerness and Belonging
● Queer Feelings and Affect
● Queer Solidarities
● Queer Sociality
● Queerness and its Meaning
● Queerness and Empire
● Queer Utopias
● Caste in Queer Spaces
● Queering Disability
These are by no means exhaustive, contributors are encouraged to explore other ideas that may be relevant to our theme.
Guidelines
1. Submissions are open to everyone.
2. The deadline for submission is 28th February, 2025.
3. Contributors should mail their entries to hinducollegeqc@gmail.com with the subject line “Entry for Anjuman– Your Name”. Contributors are expected to mention their name, institution, course, whatsapp number and year of study in the body of the same mail. Contributions are to be sent in Google Doc format with open edit access.
4. For creative pieces, contributors are expected to provide a write-up of about 50-100 words explaining their piece and how it speaks to our theme.
5. Contributors will be informed whether their piece has been accepted or not within 5 working days, after a preliminary reading. The editorial process shall begin thereafter.
6. We accept entries in all languages.
7. The editorial board will be screening each piece for plagiarism and AI check. Thus, make sure you avoid them.
In case of any queries, please feel free to drop a text on 9311435833 (Pratham) and 85272 19621 (Anshu).
We can’t wait to read your submissions!
Satrangi Salaam 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️,
The Editorial Board