A spectrum of thanks to Jonathan Kemp and queerguru for the glowing review of CLOSET CASES: Queers on What We Wear by Megan Volpert, up today!

Kemp says, "These are tender, painful, playful testimonies to the power and importance of clothes for queers. . . .From the significance of a flashy tie being worn in a classroom to the sexual semiotics of lesbian body hair, from leather man drag to cowboy boots – the topics are as diverse as the queers depicted in the photos wearing the item of clothing or outfit being written about. . . . Fashion becomes crucial in the expression of or experimentation with the ‘self’ in all its radical complexity and its paradoxical and often contradictory gestures. The selves on proud display here are all hard-won: if our bodies are battlefields then what we wear is sometimes battle dress . . .”

Read the full review HERE.

CALL FOR ENTRIES

**Submissions are open MAY 1 through JULY 15, 2019 for Closet Cases: LGBTIQ Writers on What We Wear by Megan Volpert.**

ABOUT: As a verb, "fashion" is exceedingly queer. Our queer community learns to fashion its identity out of the clothes we wear, the costumes we choose, the fabrics we desire--and the statements these make. No other community of people allows clothing to serve as such a primary, dominant marker of subjectivity, both individually and collectively. And we don't simply permit it; we rely upon it. Queers communicate through what we put on our bodies.

So this is not merely a "fashion book." It's a collection of artifacts that testify to the power of fashion as a verb, to the complex and lovely strategies that govern what we do in the LGBTIQ community to build authentic selves that are both comfortable and seen.

SEEKING 75 QUEER WRITERS, ANY GENRE. Each contributor will get a two-page spread with photo of their clothing and accompanying text explaining its significance. This full-color book will be published by Et Alia Press in spring 2020.

MORE DETAILS AND SUBMISSION PORTAL at meganvolpert.com.