About the ‘Future sex’ edition

Overland is seeking fiction submissions for a special online edition themed around ‘future sex’, to be edited by Michalia Arathimos. We are looking for stories that engage with what our changing sexualities look like, both now and in the future.

We think of sex as primordial and innate, but it is both the target of market strategies and highly mediated. The inventions of virtual reality, sexbots and realdolls have broad implications. Dick pics, sexting, Tinder and Grindr have revolutionised the hook-up and, by extension, our sexual moralities. Alternative communities find connection online, where before there may have been nothing.

A perfect example of what we are looking for is a narrative thread from Krissy Kneen’s An Uncertain Grace, in which a man relives a sexual experience he had with a student, but as that student, via a virtual reality sex suit. Another example is ‘Sister Company’ from Julie Koh’s collection Portable Curiosities, in which a woman who works as a writer of erotic simulations, circa 2030, discovers the dark side of android therapy.

We don’t need your narratives to be dystopian, or futuristic, however. Any stories that deal with unexplored aspects of how we approach sexuality now are of interest. And anything that explodes taboos or investigates the intersections of permission and desire would be welcome, too.

Contributors for this edition will be paid $150 per story.

Submissions close 11.59pm, Monday 14 January. The special issue will be available online in mid March.

About the guest editor

Michalia Arathimos has published fiction, poetry and nonfiction in Westerly, Landfall, Headland, JAAM, Best New Zealand Fiction Volume 4, Sport and Turbine. Her debut novel, Aukati / Boundary Line, was published by Mākaro Press in 2017. She is currently Overland’s fiction reviewer.

Guidelines for submission

Stories can run from flash fiction to longer short stories, but the maximum word length for submissions is 4000 words.

Kindly note: writers may submit no more than two stories for consideration for this special issue.

Submit your story as a:

Current Overland subscriber? Submit your story here.

Not yet an Overland subscriber?  Submit your story here.
(Remember, you can support Overland by becoming a subscriber.)

Read one of our previous fiction editions

Dave Drayton – False documents issue

Anna Spargo-Ryan – Our hour issue

Linda Godfrey – 230.5 Autumn fiction

Mandy Beaumont and Craig Bolland – The Idea of Women issue

Ben Walter – Anti-/dis-/un-Australian fiction issue

Rachel Hennessy – 219.5 Winter fiction

SJ Finn – 213.5 Summer fiction

Image: Marco Verch / flickr