NO CONTACT: AN ANTHOLOGY ABOUT FAMILY ESTRANGEMENT

Deadline to submit: March 9, 2025

Are you estranged from family? Do you have a story to tell about it? Jenny Bartoy, editor of the anthology NO CONTACT, forthcoming from Catapult (April 2026), is seeking personal essays and flash nonfiction about the following topics:

1. Estrangement from family members (including in-laws) due to politics. What caused the rift and how have you managed it and moved on? 
2. Estrangement from family members as it connects to estrangement from land, culture, and/or ancestry. How did these estrangements parallel or exacerbate each other?
3. POV of parent estranged from children, due to divorce, legal system, addiction, or other reasons. Essay should be focused on the experience of estrangement (less than on the reasons) and the work done toward healing and repair.

Estrangement is a multi-faceted and complex topic, and we know that many writers have a poignant story to share. At this time, please submit only writing focused on the above topics. We are looking for immersive stories, deeply rooted in the unique details of your personal experience.

We encourage writers from underrepresented and marginalized communities to submit their work. 

Submission guidelines:  We welcome flash nonfiction and personal essays, only about the three prompts above. We seek original work, not previously published. 

• Word count limits: 100-500 words for flash nonfiction; up to 1,500 words for personal essay.
• Please send your submission to estrangedpeace@gmail.com by March 9, 2025. 
• Include a short bio.
• Specify the prompt to which you're responding: 1, 2, or 3 above.
• Paste your text in the body of the email. 
• We will not accept AI-generated content. 

You will receive an automated response to confirm receipt. We will contact writers whose work we're considering for inclusion by April 1. All contributors will be paid a fee (minimum $50 flash nonfiction / $100 essay).

Thank you for your interest! We look forward to reading your work.

This anthology has a new title: NO CONTACT: 28 WRITERS ON FAMILY ESTRANGEMENT. You may have seen the book deal announcement and previous communications about this collection calling it BROKEN FREE. The new title is meant to be more descriptive and commanding. We're excited about it!

NO CONTACT: 28 WRITERS ON FAMILY ESTRANGEMENT is a collection of personal stories about the experience of cutting or losing contact with family, edited by Jenny Bartoy. This anthology features original work by Domenica Ruta, Anna Qu, Michelle Dowd, Kristen Millares Young, and Emi Nietfeld along with other acclaimed and emerging writers.  

The purpose of this anthology is to share nuanced experiences of estrangement, written beautifully, in diverse voices. According to research, up to 27% of Americans are estranged from at least one family member. This reality affects over a quarter of our population, yet estrangement can be a source of great shame: rarely discussed and often stigmatized. The perspectives in this anthology will bring connection and validation to readers who have experienced estrangement, and will foster understanding and empathy in those who have not.  

Contributors write about the causes and decision-making for their estrangement. But emphasis is given to the experience of having cut contact: repercussions, grief, anger, relief, hope. Writers share the discoveries they made, the trauma they processed, the voice they found in severing contact with family or in having contact severed with them.  

Anthologized pieces consider how culture, race, politics, religion, gender, and/or sexual identity, or factors like mental illness, addiction, or intergenerational trauma might affect or compound estrangement. Cutting ties is marginalizing in itself; how does it exist in juxtaposition with other forms of marginalization? Extricating ourselves from the grasp of a toxic or abusive family member or system can feel impossible — how does the experience of estrangement empower us? Estrangement can also stem from abandonment, rejection, irreparable grievances, or moral or ethical disagreements — sometimes a combination of these factors. Often it epitomizes an essential and devastating incompatibility between family members. How does estrangement break or free us?