Fray 3 will be a special double-issue on life’s two most inescapable themes.

Sex & Death

  • We’re open for submissions of true personal stories, articles, and artworks.
  • Submissions can focus on one or both themes – don’t try to cover it all!
  • Look for non-obvious interpretations. Use your imagination. Surprise us.

Illustration by Frank Barbara.

Ideas we’d love to see in the issue:

Sex: Prostitution, one-night stands, secret kinks, first times, orgasms. Death: Prison death row, euthanasia, mortuaries, cemeteries.

Writers: We’re looking for:

  • True Personal Stories – Don’t tell your life story, just pick one moment and tell it. Stories must be true.
  • Feature Articles – Pick a subject related to one or both themes, investigate, and report back with your findings.
  • Interviews – Find someone with relevant experience and do an interview.

Use as many as words as you need. Fray stories have been as short as 300 and as long as 3,000.

Artists: We work in two ways:

  • Standalone Art – Think about the themes and do your thing. Painting, illustration, photography &8211; it’s all welcome. If you need inspiration, find a story from your life that involves sex or death. To submit, email a print-resolution JPG to the address below.
  • Story Art – We match artists with stories to illustrate. To be considered, email us with a selection of your work and tell us what kind of stuff you like to do. We’ll try to find a story that’s right for you.

The Fine Print: Contributors retain all rights to their work. It’s okay to submit stuff that’s been published elsewhere, so long as it’s okay with the folks who published it. Unfortunately, we cannot pay for submissions, but we will send you copies and thank you profusely. This call for submissions will end on 1 January 2009.