South Asian Pantheology: Stories from the Spiritual Margins

South Asian Pantheology: Stories from the Spiritual Margins will be edited by Oghenechovwe David Ekpeki, Rimi B. Chatterjee and Mary Ann Mohanraj

Call for Submissions Deadline: March 31, 2024

Do you have stories that go beyond the realms of the physical world? We, the editors, are asking for your spirit-fiction.

This volume will explore the theme of Indopantheology, analogous to the Afropantheology of Oghenechovwe Ekpeki’s Between Dystopias: The Road to Afropantheology, published October 2023 by OD Ekpeki Presents, as an installment of the Pantheology projects

For us, South Asian pantheology maps the realm of the spiritual imagination, comprising all soul-matters from the most worldly of dreams to the most numinous of visions. If that is what you wish to explore, then this call is for you. We want stories from the wilder thickets of the spiritual world, the old places, the cultures and peoples that have been looted, disrespected and forgotten.

We want tales of the vast borderlands between life and death, where dreamers walk and ghosts and gods converse. Too often it seems that, in our current age of bigotry, exploitation and violence, the ‘spiritual’ is wielded as a weapon, designed to shame and exclude anyone of whom the wielder does not approve. We want to showcase stories that stand against this trend, and that go beyond the traditional binaries into the slippery truths of the shadow realms.

The focus of this volume will be on South Asia and its many spiritual streams that defy the categories of organised religion. So, we are willing to accept spirit-stories from anyone in the wider South Asian world. Please note that there are volumes currently in progress for other geographical regions with relations to South Asia, such as Africa, the Caribbean, etc.

We see this as a decolonising project, since the spirit world has historically been hijacked and weaponised by oppressors of various hue. We believe that new storytelling can cure this wound. And we especially want stories from, and about, people who are on the various spectrums: gender, neurological, mental and physical.

Send us your seers and pirs, your witches and babaylans, your mad sages and desperate seekers, your theras and apsaras, your saliks and your sadhaks.

Timeline, rights and compensation: Please submit your story by March 31, 2024, to indopantheology@gmail.com. We are looking to publish by September 30, 2024. There is no formal word limit, but we would prefer stories below 10,000 words. We pay a flat rate of $100 per story, payable within three months of the date of publication, for exclusive world English print and ebook rights for one year from the date of publication.

What we don’t want: 1. Creative non fiction. Tales of real-life spiritual awakening belong in a different venue. 2. Gratuitous cruelty and abuse, obviously that’s a hard no. 3. Rehashings of existing stories without creative input. Please do not submit straightforward retellings of the epics or other sacred texts. 4. Previously published work. Stories must be new and unpublished. 5. Anything in which AI has any input. All work should be created by your own human brain

This anthology will be co-published by OD Ekpeki Presents, the first Pantheology imprint, as a part of the larger body of Pantheology projects. OD Ekpeki Presents is an imprint of Jembefola Press, which has published projects which have won and been nominated for the Hugo, Locus, World Fantasy, British Fantasy, British Science Fiction, and other awards. It’s run by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and you can contact him for collaborations on any of the pantheology projects here.