News — genre fiction

Last week, a lesser-known flash fiction contest went viral due to its refusal of LGBTQ material. The contest rules were then updated to clarify, but they remain antagonistic toward LGBTQ stories.

There are plenty of flash fiction contests that do not prohibit LGBTQ stories, and some that actively seek them. NYCMidnight, which begins every July, is one I personally have done, and I submitted...

Over at Bitopia, author A. M. Leibowitz discusses bisexual erasure and classification issues for bisexual charactesrs in straight or gay works.

If I want to read queer lit, I want to know it fits in that category, even if it’s space cowboy or urban fantasy or dystopian futuristic or sweet romance. My issue, though, is all the people being rendered invisible by categorizing something based on which two people are in a relationship. Bi erasure happens when we label books as “gay” or “lesbian.” Those are identities, not romantic pairing labels. A bisexual man is not automatically gay because he’s...