Arriba Baseball!: Deadline for Submissions Extended!

Robert P. Moreira, anthology editor 

VAO Publishing invites submissions to the forthcoming print anthology

We are seeking submissions for a collection of the best Latino/a fiction that both celebrates and complicates the American pastime tentatively entitled, Arriba Baseball!: A Collection of Latino/a Baseball Fiction.

"Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America," wrote historian Jacques Barzun, "had better learn baseball." The first of its kind, Arriba Baseball!: A Collection of Latino/a Baseball Fiction seeks to challenge established paradigms within literary baseball fiction, a genre traditionally sustained by works from predominantly white, male authors (such as Bernard Malamud, Lamar Herrin, Eric Rolfe Greenberg, and W.P. Kinsella), and one which has historically excluded the Latino/a voice and other writers of color.

We invite such fiction (up to 5,000 words) concerning the game of baseball which challenges any and all exclusionary ideologies that have historically delimited the sport, and that meditates on the Latino/a contributions and experiences both on and off the field of play. While climactic home runs and strikeouts are okay, we prefer scoreboards but upside down. We also invite works that confront any of the issues surrounding baseball today, such as (but not limited to) the use of performance-enhancing drugs, queer and female performativity in baseball, the globalization of the sport, and baseball's legacies of white privilege, racism, and male exclusivity in the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, and other countries throughout Latin America where the game continues to flourish.

All fiction must be previously unpublished and of literary quality. Translations and works in Spanish will also be considered. We particularly encourage fiction from Latina and LGBT authors.

Contributors will be paid $25 upon acceptance and a percentage of the net sales over the first two years.

Questions/comments may be directed to baseball@vaopublishing.com.

Please send fiction submissions to vao.submittable.com/submit

EXTENDED DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS OCTOBER 19, 2012

About the Editor: Robert P. Moreira received his MFA from the University of Texas-Pan American in 2010. Currently, he is an English Ph.D. candidate at the University of Texas-San Antonio researching alterity and constructed identities in sports fiction, films, and performance. His fiction, interviews, criticism, and scholarship have been published or are forthcoming in a variety of venues, including Bluestem, Aethlon: Journal of Sports Literature, Storyglossia, Breakwater Review, Emprise Review, Metazen, and the anthologies SOL: Vol. I (SOL, 2012) and New Border Writing (Texas A&M Press, 2013). He is the recipient of two graduate fiction awards from the Texas Association of Creative Writing Teachers in 2009 and 2010, as well as the Wendy Barker Creative Writing Award in 2011. He serves as a Contributing Editor for Dark Sky Books and head intern for American Letters and Commentary.

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MIL GRACIAS: I want to offer many thanks to the Autry for hosting Saturday’s book event featuring several of the authors in Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature (Bilingual Press). As editor of the anthology, I could not have been prouder. The panel included contributing authors Sandra Ramos O’Briant, Estella Gonzalez, Lisa Alvarez, Melinda Palacio, and Michael Jaime-Becerra. All of them have done so much with their literary and teaching careers since the anthology's 2008 publication...it was nice to have them share their news with the audience. Thanks to Sara, Tessie, Maggie and Jasmine of the Autry who made the event run smoothly despite the 100-plus degree heat! And, as always, thank you to those who came to support our reading including La Bloga’s own Michael Sedano, camera always in hand. We sold out of Lotusland, but if you wish to order from the Autry bookstore, please do and I will certainly do what I can to sign the book. And don’t forget to visit the Autry’s website for all of the wonderful activities, films, installations and Latino Heritage Month events...and become a member, too!