Women have always written in all forms, while their writings have been out of the publishing spectrum for long. They write on their sofas, in kitchens, in the gardens, on the train, bus, airplane, when walking, when sitting under the sun. They write as they do the daily chores, as they sing lullabies, and as they listen to men all around.
In the history of all forms of writing–scientific, literary, everyday correspondence–it has taken a long time to recognize women’s writings; and in the twenty-first century, we still observe gendered discrimination in the authorization of what is considered valuable in scientific and literary terms.
The 5th issue of Feminist Asylum: A Journal of Critical Interventions welcomes a specific form of women’s writings, letters. Letter-writing is not new as a way of women publicizing their voices, especially in times of physical, intellectual and psychological isolation. The development of gendered hierarchies in knowledge production, and in the history of ideas points to letter writing as a crucial epistemic space in which women have articulated their everyday experiences, negotiated relationships within and beyond the domestic sphere, reflected on political life, and involved in intellectual work.
Letters between women come in many facets: 1. ordinary accounts of family life, concerns about financial matters–personal, familial, general– and information about the recent developments in the country; 2. intellectual correspondence; 3. gestures of solidarity between women in isolation; 4. documents of friendship, love, and compassion.
Across their many forms, women’s letters promise spaces for feminist friendships, whether fictional or non-fictional styles. They offer alternative spaces for telling the stories of everyday life, writing herstories, interfering with the history, without the authority of capital letteri or grand narratives.
Submissions may include but not limited to:
Women’s letters as parts of herstory, challenges to history, witnesses to everyday lives in isolation–such as sickness, disabilities, imprisonment, displacement, exile, (forced) migration=, academic works on women’s letter-writing, and visual works that speak in letter forms.
Deadline: July 15, 2026