Boyfriend Village is Black Warrior Review’s online edition, released once and sometimes twice a year.
In March 2018, BWR chose to rename and reconfigure its online issue in honor of Zach Doss, who had passed away unexpectedly. Zach was a dedicated BWR Editor and a brilliant writer of queer, fabulist, surprising works; Boyfriend Village has become a special haven for such writing and much, much more.
In honor of Zach’s bold vision and legacy, Boyfriend Village seeks to be a fully accessible space for unusual, boundary-pushing literary content, especially work from the margins, work that makes exciting use of digital platforms, and work that other well-established journals might overlook. We hope that with the increased online presence Boyfriend Village allows, we might provide a larger platform for underrepresented aesthetics and writing communities. Work found in Boyfriend Village resists and challenges notions of “the page” alongside other extraordinary pieces you might expect to find in the print issues of BWR.
Every issue of Boyfriend Village has a new Online Editor, who selects a new theme and keeps the village refreshed and moving forward, even as it honors a vital part of BWR history.
All Boyfriend Village contributors are paid for their work.
2024 Boyfriend Village: More Than One Boyfriend
Black Warrior Review is seeking submissions of all genres for our eighth edition of Boyfriend Village: More Than One Boyfriend.
There’s a misconception about writing being a solitary pursuit. Even as a singular author working with a single piece of paper at a desk with only one chair, you have to ask: who provided the ink? How many people were involved in making the desk and the chair? How much history of production, engineering, mathematics, government, and philosophy is behind this single moment? More Than One Boyfriend seeks to correct this misconception by encapsulating the ways in which writing, like everything else, is a communal pursuit.
This might mean work authored by more than one person, yes, but also any work that is informed by more than one practice, more than one medium, more than one language, more than one voice, and more than one piece of art. It means ekphrastic work, erasure, reiteration, and bilingual writing. It means writing in conversation with and incorporating visual art, music, and interactivity; art that moves more than one of the senses. It means intersectional writing from writers with multifaceted backgrounds, whose work speaks to more than one mode of being. Writing that highlights more than one experience, more than one point of view, more than one voice, more than the one perspective we’re used to hearing the story from. Writing about the collaborative spirit; writing that tells the reader that they are more than just one.
More Than One Boyfriend asks for work that is more than itself.
This year’s issue is helmed by our first collaborative team of Online Editors, Darby Power & Jaric Sarmiento! Find out more about this dream team, and their vision for this year’s Boyfriend Village, on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and Mastodon.
Submissions are open between April 1st, 2024, and May 1st, 2024. While themed, this is open to interpretation. If you think your boyfriend(s) might belong in our village, don’t hesitate—send them along!
There is one submission category for all genres. We accept fiction, poetry, nonfiction, hybrid, visual and multimedia art, as well as sound collage, video, games, and more. For graphic, audio, and visual work, if Submittable accepts the file type, so will we! Color images are welcome. If submittable doesn’t accept the file type, feel free to email us at onlineeditors.bwr@gmail.com.
You may use your cover letter to tell us as much or as little about yourself & your work as you like. Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Though we welcome submissions of all forms of art, the following are general guidelines on length: For prose, under 7000 words is preferable. For flash (pieces under 1000 words), you may include up to three pieces. For poetry, five poems or less is ideal. Again, these are just guidelines; they’re here to give you an idea of the typical length we’re willing to accept. For submissions that can’t be measured by word count, just keep in mind how much time is needed to fully engage with the work. We suggest that you look through past issues of Boyfriend Village as a guide on what would be an appropriate length to submit.
AI Statement: Work that has been created in any part with the assistance of AI tools is not eligible for submission or publication.
There is a $3 submission fee. Submission fees are used to compensate contributors. If you need a fee waiver for any reason, please email us at feewaiver.bwr@gmail.com to request one.
See more below:
- Zach Doss’s Grace Paley Prize-winning collection Boy Oh Boy from Red Hen Press
- BWR print issues 42.1 and 42.2 edited by Zach Doss
