“I’m currently soliciting creative nonfiction for an anthology; its working title is Growing Up Churched: Young Women Writers on Life, Faith, and Being Raised Evangelical. I’m looking for personal essays in the 3000-5000 word range, narratives centered around this theme. Please pass this call for submissions on to any writers you may know who might be interested in contributing to this project. I’m looking for essays about growing up evangelical that break the mold.

Most of the memoirs out there about growing up evangelical either end up fitting the formulas “wasn’t life awful and, boy, I’m glad I escaped the church” or “wasn’t life awful and, boy, I’m glad Jesus saved me.” I want essays that don’t fit these formulas, that tell surprising, fresh, unique stories. My hope is these essays will be both narrative and reflective in some way, whether they’re funny or disturbing or grateful or angry. Also, a lot of writing about evangelicals focuses on men, hence the gender bias for this project.

A note: I’m working with a loose definition of “evangelical” here. If a writer grew up Mennonite or Reformed or Methodist or encountered evangelicalism later than childhood, her work might still fit this anthology. The more diverse the stories, the better!

Writers: If you’re interested in the anthology and have an essay that you think might work, send it to me ASAP by e-mail at growingupchurched@gmail.com. I’d love to look at your piece and see whether it might fit into this project. If you’re interested in contributing the project, but don’t have anything on paper, drop me a line to let me know. Then send me a draft of your essay by December 31, 2006 (this date has been extended). This date is going to be the preliminary deadline for submissions.

And please, please do pass this message on to any writers you think might be interested.

In sum, here are the basic guidelines:
Personal essays in the 3000-5000 word range about growing up female and evangelical.
Contributors should be in their 20s or 30s.
Deadline: December 31, 2006.
Send the essays to me by e-mail at growingupchurched@gmail.com