Swakanthey (In Our Own Voice), is Sappho for Equality’s bi-lingual (Bengali and English), bi-annual magazine published in January and June every year on gender sexuality issues. In 2004 the organisation had begun publishing Swakanthey, 500 copies of that first issue was completely sold out. Currently its circulation is more than 3000. Through its long journey, Swakanthey is quite popular a magazine among the general readers, activists, academicians and researchers within the country and abroad. The dissemination of Swakanthey has been quite wide. Starting from academic articles, the newsletter is a concoction of fiction, narratives, poetry, interviews, dialogues, art display, comic strips and articles on sexuality and queer issues. It is one of the most effective tools for advocacy, awareness raising and self-empowerment through knowledge creation and exchange. Disseminating Swakanthey at the Kolkata International Book Fair and other public programs is a strategy to begin dialogue with the common people and it is a tool to articulate expression of the LBT community members. Swakanthey is a movement by itself both in the field of sexuality rights in India and little magazine in Kolkata.
Please go through the following instructions carefully.
We welcome articles, short stories, poetries, short dramas, graphic stories, narrative illustrations, artworks relevant to gender-sexuality. The entries can be in Bengali and/or English. Your creation should not be published anywhere before or not under consideration for publication anywhere else.