The myth goes, a King could not choose an heir and so challenged his sons to a boat race: the first son to touch the soil with his hand would win the throne. One brother stood at one ship’s bow and the other at the other; one brother’s bow pressed toward the shore a hairsbreadth quicker, while the other brother bid his time. One brother raised his hand in victory, and at the last moment, the other brother cut his own hand at the wrist and flung it onto land.
The Red Right Hand has long been a symbol of violence and selfhood, of conquering and abjection to continue one’s legacy. We are interested in agency and in the stories not of the people who conquer, but those who must cut their own hands off to be heard. What story have you been telling and at what cost? What agency do we have over the hegemony of language, of narrative, and of form and how can we reach across what divides us?
We are interested in the queer, the untold, the toothed, and the refigured. We are interested in play and in formal risk. We are interested above all else in the prose, poems, and stories that come from marginalized voices, and in prose, poems, and stories that surprise us for their invention and their stake. We want the stories that were taken from us, that were told about us: we are here to tell our own.
We editors are only here to ask more questions, to close the gaps that divide us. Instead, we want you to read these as letters. We want you to answer.
Gina Alexandra is an amateur human, but an expert wolf. She is a current MFA candidate at UCSD. Her work has appeared most recently in DIAGRAM journal. A selection of her work can be viewed here: Heirlooms
Loretta McCormick is a sixth-year PhD student at UWM. Her books reviews and creative work have recently been published in Deaf Poets Society, Angel City Review, decamp Magazine, Betwixt, agape, and elsewhere. A selection of Loretta’s work can be viewed here: Unbecoming
Sean Pessin is a small press enthusiast who has lived in Los Angeles his whole life. He earned a B.A. and M.A. in English from California State University, Northridge (where he teaches), and an M.F.A. from Otis College of Art and Design. He is the founding coeditor of agape: a journal of literary good will and editor-at-large for Magra Books. His work has appeared in Interfictions Online, The New Short Fiction Series, Liminoid Magazine, and is always fabulous and strange and queer. A selection of Sean’s work can be viewed here: My Boy Adjusts His Brightness
Contact us with questions and submissions: editors@redrighthandpress.com
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Cast Your Hand Out to Sea.
RED RIGHT HAND PRESS 