LGBTQI+ Cipher Press opens submissions for new queer voices

New indie publisher Cipher Press has announced its #newqueervoices open submissions for queer writers identifying as trans, gender non-conforming, working class and as writers of colour.

The press launched earlier this year, with the aim of championing LGBTQI+ writers in the UK and beyond, and recently received funding from Arts Council England.

Cipher releases adult fiction and creative non-fiction, publishing three to four books a year, and has specified the open submissions may include substantial unfinished manuscripts, as long as they are "queer, and fit somewhere within the literary bracket".

Submissions are open to both agented and unagented authors.

Jenn Thompson, co-founder, said: "We launched Cipher Press with a clear mission — to find and publish the queer stories we feel are missing from bookshelves. To us, that means publishing books by writers who are further marginalised within the LGBTQI+ community such as trans and gender non-conforming authors, queer writers of colour, and queer working-class writers.

"We're of the mind that it's up to us as publishers to try and find new stories by new writers, rather than expecting them to find us — especially writers who feel disempowered or excluded from the usual publishing processes. Our ACE grant will help us do exactly that. At the moment we're campaigning to get word of our submissions window to as many writers as possible."