just femme & dandy

a lit mag for & by queers+ on fashion.

just femme & dandy is a literary & arts publishing project for and by the LGBTQIA+ community on fashion. We offer a space in the literary & arts world that previously didn’t exist, and aim to celebrate the queer, trans, non-binary, and intersex community, who have long since coded ourselves with how we adorn and dress our bodies when it has been dangerous to identify solely with words. Until recently, we could only find a handful of models within popular culture and the public imagination to inform our own aesthetic choices, and so the styles (and art) we don and make operate as a patchwork quilt, collaged together with vintage and thrift store finds, our sister or mother’s lipstick and gowns, our father’s neckties and waistcoats.

We offer a space for the LGBTQIA+ community, but one that centers underrepresented and marginalized writers and artists. Just as we transcend the lines between gender, sexuality, aesthetic, & style, just femme & dandy offers a home for works framed by the interests of fashion and style rather than aesthetic genre, and we fully encourage and expect works that blur the lines between the written and the visual, the still and the moving. just femme & dandy embraces all the layers of hybridity that push against the tensions that pressure us to conform. Nothing is off limits. To get an idea of what we accept, think of the following, and beyond: poetry, fiction, nonfiction, comics, illustration, drag, dance, video, film, photography, tutorials, interviews, reviews, listicles, thinkpieces, commentaries, historical investigations, and so on. When we say nothing is off limits, we mean it.

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For the last four years, we have published our artists on our website and printed the first two issues of our magazine. As we consider the varying issues challenging the sustainability and ethical practice of both print and online literary magazines, we have felt the need to re-envision the platform, form, and model we publish from—one that remains true to our mission to move away from the institutional model of litmag publishing. That being said, we have decided to drastically shift how we offer the work of the artists we publish.

Starting in the fall of 2024, we have decided to launch the just femme & dandy mixtape. Rather than a traditionally printed or online magazine, the just femme & dandy mixtape will include broadsides, zines, stickers, and other separates packaged within a 12x12 vinyl dust jacket. The first just femme & dandy mixtape will include a curated selection of pieces from the first four issues and the second mixtape will include a curated selection of pieces from the most recent three issues.

We will continue to publish video work on our Vimeo channel, which will remain linked on our website, as well as featured interviews.

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just femme & dandy is an anti-racist, pro-Black space. We prioritize submissions from artists of color. We seek work that addresses fashion and style as it relates to the lives of people who are LGBTQIA+, including but not limited to bodypositivity and fatpositivity, mental illness, neurodiversity, chronic illness, disability, non-binary, intersex, artists with intellectual & developmental disabilities (IDD), and transgender lives.

Please check out our new call for submissions!

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We want to make it abundantly clear we stand with Palestine and Palestinian resistance. just femme & dandy confirms its commitment to the Palestinian-led call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS), including a commitment to adhere to the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACB) and its guidelines. The BDS National Committee (BDS), including PACBI, is committed to freedom of expression and as such rejects, on principle, boycotts of individuals based on their opinion or identity (such as citizenship, race, gender, or religion). Learn more at bdsmovement.net/pacbi.

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This project was previously funded by BIPOC Arts Network and Fund.

This project is funded and supported by Critical Minded, an initiative to invest in cultural critics of color cofounded by The Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Ford Foundation.