This special issue of Sinister Wisdom is dedicated to honouring the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival

It celebrates MWMF as an embodiment of radical feminist separatist collaboration, transformational self-defined autonomous spaces, a commitment to sisterhood and matriarchal culture, and a musical city sprung from the earth for one week in the woods.

The guest editors will curate a diversity of womyn’s voices, values, traditions, and experiences of MWMF as it has changed and connected generations. We will explore what MWMF has meant to so many womyn, document its chronology, and commemorate the power of this unique community.

The guest editors are seeking submissions from writers and visual artists intimately connected with MWMF. Writers can submit poems, personal essays, short stories, oral histories, interviews, plays, and other original writing of no more than 5,000 words.

Visual artists can send up to 5 paintings, drawings, photos, or other original artwork in black and white. Artists may submit one image in colour for cover art consideration. All writing submissions should be in .docx, and for art, please use .jpg, .gif, or .tif (300dpi). We encourage vendors, performers, festival-goers, facilitators, workers, and womyn from all races, ethnicities, sexualities, ages, abilities, religions, and gender identities to submit.

The guest editors want to preserve each submitter’s voice; however, where applicable we will be adhering to Sinister Wisdom publishing guidelines, which follow the Chicago Manual of Style. If you are not familiar with these guidelines, please contact the editors, and we will assist with any questions you may have.

The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2016; however, early submissions are encouraged and appreciated. Please email [email protected] with any questions.

Please make your submissions here: greensubmissions.com/519/sinister-wisdom-mwmf-edition/index.php

About Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (1975–2015)

“The Festival [took] place on 650 acres of remote Michigan woodlands, with options ranging from a solitary deep-woods camping experience to a fireside urban site with neighbours from around the globe. [. . .] In those woods you [found] diverse and dynamic performances, interactive workshops, healthy foods, clean air and the most amazing sense of community, friendship and fun. Part music festival, part community happening — the experience of Michigan [was] based upon an essential participatory ethic that enriche[d] the experience of cooperative living. Community. Celebration. Common Ground.”