Sikh Women’s Love Anthology: Submission Call

We believe at the heart of each Sikh American woman, there are multiple love stories that inhabit the mind, body, and soul.

Artist: Rupy Cheema Tut

This one is for you dear Kaurs!

The first ever Sikh Women’s Love Anthology is being created and your voices are needed.  This groundbreaking anthology will be a compilation of love stories written by and about Sikh women living in North America and will be published in the form of memoirs, creative non-fiction stories, and creative essays.

Sikh women have an incredible history of powerful and inspiring narratives – often heard through our oral tradition.  This project is a way of documenting these narratives and providing a space for women in the Sikh community, connecting with one another to dialogue and document the complexities and nuanced experiences of love as we see it.  Love can take many forms – “through lovers holding hands, singing a shabad, eating a good meal to nourish one’s body, hiking an unknown terrain, traveling a new country, holding a sick child close, fighting for civil and human rights or even embarking on the journey to falling in love with ourselves as women and human beings, spiritual beings” [from guidelines].  Love is at the core of our very existence as Sikhs.

This is a wonderful opportunity to pave the path for Kaur voices that we do not often hear.  Sikh women who are dedicated to their families, their faith and their activism and manifest their love in dynamic ways.  Yet their stories go unheard. Documenting one’s story provides for self-reflection and is “an act of resistance against social, cultural, media, and political forces that want to define women as less than humane“. This is an important way to chronicle narratives for future generations of Sikh American women and men.

Click below the break for submission details.  For further information and full submission guidelines, please email sikh.lovestories[at]gmail.com.

SUBMISSION RULES:  Work submitted must be non-fiction and autobiographical.  Author must self-identify as a Sikh and American or Canadian woman.

WORD COUNT: Word count for submissions must be between 1500 – 4000 words, double-spaced.

DEADLINE:  Final story draft due by December 15th, 2012.

DETAILS: Please send your commitment to submit in the body of your email to sikh.lovestories[at]gmail.com by September 15th, 2012.  Please remember to include:

• Name  (full name)
• Age
• Location
• Contact information (e-mail address/phone number)
• The themes that will shape your narrative  (one to two sentences)
• Please indicate if you want editorial support for this writing process.  The editorial support is optional.

Final submissions do not guarantee publication, but our project is committed to honoring every woman’s story. 

CONTACT:  Please email sikh.lovestories[at]gmail.com for questions.    

THEMES: Some potential themes are listed below.

1. The love story with oneself.
2. The love story between you and Waheguru.
3. The romantic Sikh love story.
4. The love story(ies) within a Sikh family.
5. The love story with the world and humanity.
6. Love stories expressed in humorous or engaging ways.

The guidelines end with this beautiful quote by poet and philosopher, Professor Puran Singh,

Love in the Sikh framework is “Ajar Vastu,” a thing that cannot be absorbed; it tends to overflow the banks of the heart.  Love is the simple, inmost state of life, which depends on no outward condition of life.  As the seed is to the pine tree, love is to the true woman.  The latter is the whole of it in stuffy of growth, leafage, blossom, and fruitage.  Love has hands and feet and it works.  Love is called “Ajar Vastu,” a thing that cannot be absorbed; it tends to overflow the banks of the heart. 

For a copy of the full guidelines, please contact sikh.lovestories[at]gmail.com