Procreation is not always the inevitable, infallible consequence of sexual intercourse we were all warned of in our school sex-ed classes. Many of us have discovered, the hard way, that it takes far more than a quick roll in the hay to bring sperm into successful contact with egg. And yet more of us have discovered that a positive pregnancy test doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be bringing a baby home in nine months time. Fertility problems, miscarriage and stillbirth are incredibly common, and yet more often than not these are pains that we carry with us in silence.
After suffering the heart-breaking miscarriage of our first much longed-for child, and our subsequent struggle to conceive again, I wanted to seek comfort in the accounts of others who had been through similar experiences. I trawled the internet, but found that much of the available material was either too medical, or too sentimental, in tone to truly chime with my emotions. I wanted to hear stories that reflected the anger, sorrow, emptiness, fear, jealousy, bitterness and resignation that I felt. Maybe there was a dark humour to be found, maybe there were stories of relief or liberation, lessons to be learned from fertility failure? Maybe there were thousands of other versions of this story, different ways of confronting the baby-shaped hole that exists in so many lives? And maybe there were others out there who were also seeking the same thing?
This anthology seeks to collect together an abundance of voices on issues of infertility, miscarriage and stillbirth, in the hope that this will provide a source of comfort, insight and inspiration to the many others out there living with their own baby-shaped hole.
Submissions guidelines
1) You can forward your submission as an attachment (word doc or rich text format only please), or within the body of an email (babyshapedhole@googlemail.com), and you can submit as many pieces as you like.
2) As all proceeds from the anthology are to go to The Miscarriage Association (reg. charity: 1076829) and The Infertility Network UK (reg. charity no: 1099960) we regret that we are not able to offer remuneration for published entries ~ sorry.
3) Submissions can be in the form of prose, poetry or dramatic text. Sketches/cartoons are also welcome.
4) Copyright will remain with the author.
5) The anthology is scheduled for publication in 2009 via Lulu Publishing. As this is a ‘publish on demand’ facility we regret that we are not able to offer contributor copies, however we are looking into the possibility of offering a purchase discount for contributors.
6) There is no strict word limit ~ your piece will be as long as it needs to be in order to say what you have to say. However, in order that we may include as many contributions as possible, and therefore as wide a variety of experiences as possible, it is preferable for prose/dramatic text pieces to be under 2500 words, and for poems to be under 50 lines.
7) Entries may be edited for publication. Where possible we will try to agree any changes with you in advance (minor spelling / grammar / formatting amendments aside).
8) Please help to spread the word: mention Baby-shaped Hole to your writing group, on your blog or website, to your friends. Men have fertility issues and lose babies too, so tell your partners, male friends and writing colleagues. We want to give expression to as many voices as possible.
9) If using real names please obtain permission from the relevant parties beforehand.
10) Please get your submission(s) to us by 29th December 2008. We hope to announce the successful submissions by 31st January 2009. If an insufficient number of suitable submissions are received we regret that the anthology will not proceed.
11) If you wish to receive our occasional newsletter, keeping you up to date with the development of the anthology, please send an email to babyshapedhole@googlemail.com with ‘MailingList’ in the subject line. Your email address will only be used in accordance with the data protection act and will not be supplied to any third party or other organisation.
12) Requests for anonymity/pseudonymity will be respected.
13) If your submissions is successful, and you wish your email address or website / blog url to appear with your entry please state this.
14) We aim to be as flexible as possible. If you have any queries regarding any aspect of the anthology, or if you have a piece that you’d like to submit that doesn’t appear to fit within the guidelines please email us and we’ll try our best to assist.
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