Tongues Untamed: Creative Responses to Religious Trauma

Call for Proposals

About

The editing team of Tongues Untamed: Creative Responses to Religious Trauma, a multigenre/multimodal anthology, invites creative responses to religious trauma from a variety of perspectives, lived experiences, and religious backgrounds. 

Recent years have seen an abundance of memoirs and other nonfiction works dealing with the specific kinds of trauma that emerge from high-control religion. Discussion of issues such as spiritual abuse, systemic racism, scrupulosity, and the life-altering effects of purity culture have brought to light the myriad ways religion can hurt instead of heal. 

As the United States continues to deal with the ever-growing threat of religious extremism, addressing and engaging with these issues is more important than ever. 

This call is open to all types of writers and artists with experience in a high-control religious setting. Tongues Untamed: Creative Responses to Religious Trauma seeks fiction, memoir, creative nonfiction, visual art, poetry, and multimodal works that grapple with the effects of religious trauma. 

All entries (fiction included) must be informed by the author’s religious background.

Proposal Guidelines

Submit a proposal (500 word max) for your piece detailing the following:

  • Genre/modality

  • Nature of religious affiliation

  • Summary of piece with brief excerpt (for example, your opening paragraph)

  • Brief bio (including links to published works and/or website, if applicable)

  • Email proposal as a PDF or .doc attachment to tonguesuntamedcollection@gmail.com 

Proposal Deadline: July 1, 2025

Final Submission Lengths

After proposals have been vetted and contributors have been chosen for next steps, final submissions should fall within the following parameters:

  • Written pieces: Double spaced for written, narrative style pieces: Limit to 15 pages (roughly 2k words)

  • Images or Poetry: Poetry, artwork, graphics, collage, photography, multimodal works,: Limit to 5 pages

Editorial Team

Cait West (author of Rift: A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy), Dawn Burns (Michigan State University, author of Evangelina Everyday), Bree Straayer (Michigan State University), Rachael Price (Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College), Becky Cooper (Western Michigan University)