Other Covenants: Alternate Histories of the Jewish People

sarahcakes613:

hero-israel:

Historian Thomas Cahill, author of The Gifts of the Jews
(Knopf, 1999) claimed that the Jews invented the very concept of
history. They were the first, he said, to perceive time not as an
endless circle of life, death and rebirth, but as the flight of an
arrow, on a linear path to somewhere from somewhere.

However, what if time is not one arrow, but a volley
of arrows? What if there are other timelines, other histories, other
Jews? Would they still have a covenant with the one God? What would have
become of their triumphs? Their defeats? Their suffering and their
successes?

Award-winning author/editors Andrea D. Lobel and Mark Shainblum propose to answer this question in Other Covenants, the first-ever anthology of Jewish alternate history, to be published by ChiZine Publications in Fall 2019!

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

• Submission window: August 28, 2017 at 12:01 AM Eastern Time to Sunday, Feb. 4, 2018, at 11:59 PM Eastern Time.
• Open to submissions by authors of all backgrounds, from anywhere in the world.
• Please do not submit by email. We will accept digital submissions only via the Moksha submissions system at https://chizinepub.moksha.io/publication/other-covenants.
• Stories must be in the alternate history genre and must be clearly relevant to the theme of the anthology.
• Length: 500–15,000 words. There are
  relatively few spots for stories at the high end, so please query first
  if you think your story will go long.
• Preference will be given to stories
  previously unpublished in English, however, we will consider previously
  published stories on a case-by-case basis.
• NEW: Also open to poetry submissions. Original
  poems on theme. No more than 2 pages (8.5 x 11) in length. (Maximum word
  count set arbitrarily to 2,000 words as system won’t allow max lines or
  pages.) No need to double-space.
• Submissions may be made in English or French. Author is responsible for translations into English after acceptance.
• English-language translations of
  stories from other languages (published or unpublished) are welcome, but
  we can only accept submissions in English or French.
• Multiple submissions welcome; up to two stories maximum per author, sent under separate cover.
• We prefer no simultaneous submissions, please (we promise to respond promptly).
• Initial responses (rejections, holds,
  and rewrite requests) within 30 days of submission; final responses no
  later than 30 days after the deadline.
• Payment is 8 cents per word in Canadian funds. (SFWA qualifying after exchange to US funds).
• File formats accepted: .docx, .doc, or .rtf.
• Formatting: indented paragraphs;
  italics in italics (not underlined); Canadian spelling; use # (or other
  unambiguous symbol) to indicate scene breaks; no headers, footers, or
  pagination; no outlandish formatting, please; full contact info (name,
  street address, email, phone number) and word count on the first page.
  That said, don’t fret too much about formatting; good fiction is what’s
  most important. (Correct spelling also counts.)
• Please include a cover letter with a brief author bio, title of story, and full contact info, including street address.
• Please do not summarize or describe the story in the cover letter.
• To be published by ChiZine Publications in Fall 2019.
• Rights: First World Rights, including
  audio and translation rights. (NOTE: CZP has a foreign rights agent who
  will be presenting the anthology in foreign markets.)
• NOTE ON PSEUDONYMS: we will only
  publish one story per author, even if you write under several names;
  please use your real name on all correspondence and indicate your
  pseudonym in the cover letter and on the byline of the story itself.
• NOTE ON SUBJECT MATTER: Any book
  dealing with the Jewish people, Jewish history and Israel will, by
  definition, be controversial. We welcome controversy and politics, but
  don’t forget that this is a fiction anthology. Telling good stories
  takes first, second and third place. Submissions that grind axes loud
  enough to drown out the story are unlikely to be accepted.
• Questions or queries: othercovenants@gmail.com. Please don’t submit stories via email, as noted above.

A WORD ABOUT THE ALTERNATE HISTORY GENRE

Other Covenants is open to
authors of every background, and for those of you who may not be
familiar with alternate history, here’s a quick thumbnail sketch of the
genre.

A popular sub-genre of speculative fiction, alternative history weaves
fictional narratives into the “what-if”s of the past, and explores the
infinite number of historical roads not taken in the past, present or
future.

The Collins English Dictionary
defines alternative history as “a genre of fiction in which the author
speculates on how the course of history might have been altered if a
particular historical event had had a different outcome.” According to
Steven H. Silver, an American science fiction editor, alternate history
requires three things:

1. A point of divergence from the history of our world prior to the time at which the author is writing
2. A change that would alter history as it is known
3. An examination of the ramifications of that change

Although alternate history is related to
counterfactual history, it is distinct from it. The latter term is used
by historians to refer to the academic, non-literary, question “what
could have happened if …”.

Now please don’t take the above as
prescriptive or proscriptive. We understand that boundaries are vague,
definitions are fuzzy, and the distinction between an alternate history
and a counterfactual may be entirely in the eye of the beholder. But
whatever voice you write in, please keep in mind that first and foremost
we are looking for stories about characters.

Also, though alternate history originated as a sub-genre of science fiction and fantasy and may incorporate tropes like the many-worlds theory, parallel universes, time travel, mysticism and magic, these are not
requirements. Use them if you want to, don’t use them if you don’t. The
only speculative element required is the break from history as we know
it, and the effect of that break on the Jewish people.

THE KIND OF THEMES WE MIGHT EXPLORE:

Please don’t take these as prescriptive
or proscriptive either, the whole canvas of Jewish history is open to
you—Biblical, historical and mythological:

What if • the Holocaust had never happened?
What if • Joseph’s brothers had not sold him into slavery in Egypt?
What if • The State of Israel had been established in Uganda? Or Germany?
What if • Jesus’ followers had not broken with Judaism?
What if • The Jews had proselytized their faith door-to-door for a thousand years?
What if • The Romans had not destroyed Jerusalem and the Second Temple?
What if • Judaism became the dominant Western religion, but was
riven by conflicts between the Temple priesthood and reformist rabbis
who put the Torah and prayer before Temple ritual and sacrifice?
What if • The Spanish Inquisition had never occurred?
What if • Napoleon had not smashed down Europe’s ghetto walls?
What if • The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were reality … in some other universe?

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Andrea D. Lobel has been a writer and editor for over a decade, winning two awards for her work.

An ordained rabbi and university
lecturer, she holds an M.A. in Religious Studies (McGill University),
and a Ph.D. in Religion (Concordia University), specializing in the
history of religion and science, astronomy and religion, celestial
mythologies, calendars, magic, and religious authority in Judaism, as
well as in the Hebrew Bible and its ancient Near Eastern context.

Her book, Under a Censored Sky:
Astronomy and Rabbinic Authority in the Talmud Bavli and Related
Literature, is forthcoming from Brill Publishers in 2018–19.

Mark Shainblum was born
and raised in Montreal, where he and illustrator Gabriel Morrissette
co-created the acclaimed comics series Northguard and Angloman with
Gabriel Morrissette. Northguard has recently been revived by
Chapterhouse Comics in Toronto.

In addition to writing comics, Mark has published science fiction in various magazine and anthology markets including On Spec and Island Dreams: Montreal Writers of the Fantastic. As an editor, he co-edited Arrowdreams: An Anthology of Alternate Canadas with John Dupuis in 1998 and Superhero Universe: Tesseracts Nineteen in 2016 with Claude Lalumière.

Mark shared an Aurora Award with John Dupuis in 1999 for Arrowdreams, and in 2016 he was inducted into the Joe Shuster Awards Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame.

Mark and Andrea live in Ottawa with their daughter.

HERE. FOR. THIS. Mark’s anthology Arrow Dreams is one of my fave alt history anthologies and Angloman is a gem of Anglo Montreal history.

Other Covenants: Alternate Histories of the Jewish People