A couple months ago Greg Bechtel and I were supposed to be working on stuff for Tesseracts Twenty-one but we’d become distracted and were instead talking about Candas Jane Dorsey and the advice we’d received from her over the years. For both of us, she’d told us precisely what we needed to hear exactly when we needed to hear it. Possibly, in my case, more than once.

During my conversation with Greg I was struck by the fact that for years and years–decades, really–Candas has offered advice, encouragement, education and been a mentor to writers, editors and friends. She has worked tirelessly both inside publishing and outside of it, doing what she can to fight the good fight and stand up for what she believes in. She’s given so much to so many and I wanted to give something back.

After talking with her partner, Timothy Anderson, we decided the thing to do would be to create an anthology of stories (and poems) that celebrate Candas–her life and her work.

We tried to keep this anthology a secret from Candas while still soliciting contributions from people in her circle. Do you know how difficult it is to keep a secret from Candas? It’s freaking tricky! There were [Top Sekkrit] emails, whispers and plenty of abbreviated conversations at conventions, lemme tell you! In the end I gave up — and so today, on Candas’ birthday, I’ve decided to lift the veil of secrecy and share this with the world. And with Candas.

Happy birthday, Candas!

 

We’re calling this anthology Prairie Starport: Stories in Celebration of Candas Jane Dorsey and I would like to invite you to contribute to it.

And here’s the thing — I’m not asking you to ‘submit’ I’m asking you to ‘contribute’. I’m not accepting or rejecting works for this anthology, I am collecting them. Similarly, I’m not going to be editing the works sent to me — I’m much more of a compiler than an anthologist for this project, because everyone who wants a chance to contribute and honour Candas should be able to, no matter where they are along their publishing journey.

 

What to send me:

• A story or poem of any length up to 7,500 words long formatted in something resembling standard manuscript format
• A short description of how the story/poem relates to, was influenced by, or is otherwise connected to Candas, her writing or her mentorship.
• A short bio (written in the third person) of no more than 100 words long.

Contributions should be emailed to me at rhonda.l.parrish@gmail.com before Valentine’s Day 2018. That is, before February 14, 2018. Please use the words ‘Prairie Starport’ in your subject line to maximize the chances of it getting filed in the correct place.

Reprints are welcome and encouraged.

Payment to contributors is a token payment of $1, an electronic copy of the completed anthology and the option to buy physical copies at a 50% discount.

All the profits from this project will be donated to a cause Candas cares about. Nothing has been finalized yet but, the money will be going somewhere other than my pocket and all contributors will be kept in the loop as that aspect of the project develops.

Any questions or concerns should be addressed to me at the above gmail address.

Note: If we receive too many submissions to fit into a single paperback one of two things will happen. Either all the stories will be included in the electronic version of the book and a select number in the paperback or, if there are enough to fill two physical books, all the stories will be included in the electronic version of the book and we’ll have ‘Volume 1’ and ‘Volume 2’ in paperback. This decision will be solely at my discretion but I will keep all contributors in the loop.