My Body, My Words (#MyBodyMyWords) is an exciting new project featuring writers of varying age, gender, and identification, who have come together to reclaim what it means to be beautiful. 

You can either submit to our longform submissions or a #MyBodyMyWords in 140 characters for publishing on social.

Submissions close October 1st.

The Scope:

Our goal with this anthology is to contribute in a thoughtful way to the ongoing body image/body identity conversation by gathering a chorus of strong voices and asking them to tell the story of their bodies.

We hope to bring this project and this anthology to social media and to educators, so that we may reach those people in every corner of the globe who are suffering in silence, who feel alone in their struggle for identity, who feel betrayed by their body, those who desperately need to redefine “beautiful.”

After you submit, contribute to the social conversation using the hashtag #MyBodyMyWords and we’ll share/RT you: After you submit, share our publishing call via Twitter at @MyBodyMyWords

Now, let the writing begin.

The Prompt:

I have loved my body, feared my body, hated my body, and have changed my body. My body has been lusted after, scorned, chastised, punished, and revered. My body is innately female. Moving with the tides, softening against the rocks of an ever-changing coastline. My body is woman. But, my body has never had a say in the matter.

If your body could talk, what would it say? What does it want? What voice would you assign the vessel in which you love and breathe?

**We are looking for stories/personal essays about your relationship to your body between 500-1000 words. Whether that be a story about the shape and size of your body, an illness that has claimed your body, an act of violence committed to your body, or the greatest love your body has ever known. We are looking for stories of sexuality and identity. Who are you without your body? Does the shape of the vessel determine its contents? We are looking for stories of love and lust, or waiting and weight-ing. Who has loved your body? Have you?**

These guidelines are general, we know. We want to see where you go with this theme. Interpret this prompt as widely as you’d like. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Amye Archer & Loren Kleinman, Editors