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en-gendered.bsky.social
en•gendered
@en-gendered.bsky.social
150 followers 78 following 140 posts
neck deep in pronouns and the water is fine
submissions reopen SEPTEMBER 1st
engenderedlit@gmail.com
engenderedlitmag.com
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en-gendered.bsky.social
"To cut
a coup, yes.

couper les points let us
bathe in the honey.
Let it crystallize in our veins."
- coups des corps, Chantae Bryant

engenderedlitmag.com/autumn2025
coups des corps Chantae Bryant Fat water colored bruises - chins slicked with spittle. Knobbed knuckles against cage bars. Eyes feast on a naked woman who looks like me- no like us. Unfettered, and skin slack around the thighs; reach out and touch her. Pressed bulging bellies against rusted iron. Tongues lapping at the seams pulled taught with virgin thread. couper. To cut, a coup, yes. couper les points let us bathe in the honey. Let it crystallize in our veins. Feast on the body and be sure to devour the womb first. This is consecration. The wine, the bread, the ovaries torn through white skin. Is it your mother who weeps? Gnashed jowls at the gate, the twist of a key. I have long heard the voice of God, I saw him once too. He is the empty form that emerges from my mouth to the phallus. He is the woman, who looks like you and me, call her by name. He is the womb warped and uglied. Threads long cast aside. Come inside and consume more beyond the eyes. Let us sully our bones and play pretend upon this fetid land. The cover of engendered autumn 2025 on a background of dark grey. On the cover is a heavily textured painting by Jude FireSong consisting of layers of colour, first daubed or smeared, and then speckled. Dominant are red, orange, yellow, light blue, and medium blue though purple, green, and pink also make an appearance. Beside and below the cover is the following text: 20 writers, poets, & artists “as I move through the world, people project images of bodies and faces they assign onto me that evoke in themselves desire, lust, joy, disgust, emotions I have no say over. Perceptions against my will. And those images stain my skin and reek. I'm forced every day to carry those stains” Thokozani Mbwana engenderedlitmag.com
November 22, 2025 at 2:53 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
"I lift my stomach, swipe above my pubic hair
fold back the flesh on the top of my thigh."
- Sudocrem, Charlotte Cosgrove

@charlottecosgrove.bsky.social
engenderedlitmag.com/autumn2025
Sudocrem Charlotte Cosgrove I sweep the white paste under my breast Heave the old things up Wipe with my index finger Crescent shapes Like a ghost’s smile or a strange tribe I lift my stomach, swipe above my pubic hair Fold back the flesh on the top of my thigh Like choux pastry, cream my groin. Does this disgust or concern you? Did I mention the mirror in the bathroom? The one I must stand in front of Facing myself. His and Hers Charlotte Cosgrove They slide their trays in for the same amount of time. Twelve cupcake cases lined up -  Neat, ready. They leave them in a bit longer  Now they know what they are doing. His come out fluffy, plump. Hers sag in the middle  The mixture has cooked crispy over the edges. She wore blue check with red shoes Charlotte Cosgrove Dorothy Gale’s clothes don’t match. Nobody told Dorothy: Your shoes don’t match your dress. Was your mother like mine? Did she ever tell you – If your underwear is losing thread  And you get ran over You’ll feel like you want to die.  Did you know they were going to cast A blonde girl? But it didn’t quite fit The look they were going for. The cover of engendered autumn 2025 on a background of dark grey. On the cover is a heavily textured painting by Jude FireSong consisting of layers of colour, first daubed or smeared, and then speckled. Dominant are red, orange, yellow, light blue, and medium blue though purple, green, and pink also make an appearance. Beside and below the cover is the following text: 20 writers, poets, & artists “as I move through the world, people project images of bodies and faces they assign onto me that evoke in themselves desire, lust, joy, disgust, emotions I have no say over. Perceptions against my will. And those images stain my skin and reek. I'm forced every day to carry those stains” Thokozani Mbwana
November 21, 2025 at 5:32 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
"Maybe the clay was fired too soon..."

'Terracotta women' & 'Ain't I' by Ali
engenderedlitmag.com
Terracotta Woman Ali Something has gone wrong. Maybe the clay was fired too soon, Maybe the muscles weren’t entirely moulded to the cast Maybe the sculptor missed the spot between my thighs. Ain’t I? Ali Wrapped inside myself I may finally feel home, Skin skin skin which is mine mine mine. If the ship of Theseus wasn’t built in a day, Let me wake up with splinters in my hands steadily building the muscles around hope. When the nausea subsides I’ll wish for violin hips around which love wraps like a skirt. Lest they see how my hairline tapers, lest they know I’ve no clue how to even use a tampon. Tonight empiricism comes home with me, lying in bed my clitoris feels phallic. The cover of engendered autumn 2025 on a background of dark grey. On the cover is a heavily textured painting by Jude FireSong consisting of layers of colour, first daubed or smeared, and then speckled. Dominant are red, orange, yellow, light blue, and medium blue though purple, green, and pink also make an appearance. Beside and below the cover is the following text: 20 writers, poets, & artists “as I move through the world, people project images of bodies and faces they assign onto me that evoke in themselves desire, lust, joy, disgust, emotions I have no say over. Perceptions against my will. And those images stain my skin and reek. I'm forced every day to carry those stains” Thokozani Mbwana
November 20, 2025 at 6:13 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
The Wish is the Approachable Secret
Jessica Swanson

engenderedlitmag.com
The Wish is the Approachable Secret. Jessica Swanson Suppose we return to April momentarily. Suppose I do not offer the challenge of “We’ll figure it out.” Suppose I do not shake in your arms. Suppose your heartbeat is something other than erratic beneath my palm. Suppose neither of us are nervous. Suppose we do not teeter on the edge of casual. Suppose we lay proper ground rules. Suppose it’s far too late now. Suppose we return to some night in the months before the present. I will not tell you which. They all bleed into each other, but the outcome is always the same. I am left staring after a weak hug, a mumbled promise, a closed door. Even in dreams, you leave me. Suppose I am terribly romantic about it all just the same because there are times when you forget yourself and press your face into my neck or absentmindedly brush the hair from my eyes. Times when you gently trace your fingers down my back and I like to imagine that these are the touches that you reserve for the ones you truly love: slow and devastatingly soft. Suppose I do this to myself when I wish for nothing more than the opportunity to follow the gleam of sunlight across your skin one Saturday morning. Suppose I say, “I understand,” even as I fail to pinpoint exactly why neither of us are honest. Suppose the outcome changes. Suppose I do not tangle my fingers into your hair out of desperate affection. Instead, it is done with the intent to keep you close Suppose after all our pleasantries, you unlock the door, press the key back into my hand and say, “I don’t have to go home. I will stay.” Suppose I do not curl into a ball on the bed and cry. Suppose I do not rationalize my feelings away. Suppose I do not cry. Suppose I did not cry. Suppose you handed back my key. Suppose you stayed. Suppose you stay. Suppose we talk about what we are truly doing to one another. Suppose we have expectations, and we address them in turn. Suppose I check your boxes—however hypothetical. Suppose I look good on paper. Suppose you write something down so I don’t have to do it for you. Suppose I ask you to keep my key. Suppose I get you your own. Suppose these are the things we meant to do from the beginning. Suppose you understand. Suppose you feel the same. The cover of engendered autumn 2025 on a background of dark grey. On the cover is a heavily textured painting by Jude FireSong consisting of layers of colour, first daubed or smeared, and then speckled. Dominant are red, orange, yellow, light blue, and medium blue though purple, green, and pink also make an appearance. Beside and below the cover is the following text: 20 writers, poets, & artists “as I move through the world, people project images of bodies and faces they assign onto me that evoke in themselves desire, lust, joy, disgust, emotions I have no say over. Perceptions against my will. And those images stain my skin and reek. I'm forced every day to carry those stains” Thokozani Mbwana
November 19, 2025 at 3:09 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
are we feeling en*gendered on this beautiful Tuesday?

autumn 2025 is live and ready for your perusal.
poems and essays, collages and paintings, batman and birthing, what more could you ask?

engenderedlitmag.com
The cover of engendered autumn 2025 on a background of dark grey. On the cover is a heavily textured painting by Jude FireSong consisting of layers of colour, first daubed or smeared, and then speckled. Dominant are red, orange, yellow, light blue, and medium blue though purple, green, and pink also make an appearance. Beside and below the cover is the following text: 20 writers, poets, & artists “as I move through the world, people project images of bodies and faces they assign onto me that evoke in themselves desire, lust, joy, disgust, emotions I have no say over. Perceptions against my will. And those images stain my skin and reek. I'm forced every day to carry those stains” - Thokozani Mbwana
November 18, 2025 at 2:55 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
ENGENDERED The Wish is the Approachable Secret Terracotta Woman Ain’t I? Sudocrem She wore blue check with red shoes His and Hers coups des corps Winter in the Womb Lost Waters Ursa Minor The Men I Date Love Chess More Than They Love Me monochrome My Journey Through the Battlefield of Venus Maternity iv my dying name mother pen name Supernova HIT LIKE A GIRL the (mis)use of broken things Baby Raise only child indignant resignation Diet Pep-cis, or my relationship to gender is • micro transgenderisms Goldilocks zone/Identity limbo knowledge is connected to the struggle: those who know truly know Tattoos = Gender ? components of a body culled MONSTERBODY UNDERWAY two-toned pitch emerge in which i am more than the sum of my parts November 18th
November 14, 2025 at 5:43 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
ENGENDERED Jessica Swanson Ali Charlotte Cosgrove Chantae Bryant Virginia Wardlaw Tukur Ridwan kathryn dooley Jaeden Lyttle Jude FireSong Ireisha Anindya Meg Mellor Frances Klein abigail klute Steven C. Wright Susie Whittaker Alex Cregan A. Deshmane JC Alfier Kimberly Renifler Thokozani Mbwana November 18th
November 13, 2025 at 6:20 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
ENGENDERED autumn 2025 'The Majestical Roof, Fretted With Golden Fire (Dyptich, B)' by Jude FireSong a textured painting of daubs overlayered with speckles in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple 20 Contributors, 38 takes on gender November 18th
November 13, 2025 at 4:27 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
LAST DAY(ish)
engenderedlitmag.com
Last Day(ish) for Submissions!!! we start reading tomorrow so, if you’re last minute motivated, you’ve easily got till the end of the week. it’s such a fun time to be gendered! all these eyes on our bodies— these fists on our rights— are so fun and chill! our inbox is open for both love and anger; all genres, all genders. pseuds, anons, & pen names are always allowed engenderedlit@gmail.com
October 15, 2025 at 2:14 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
TWO WEEKS
the inbox is closing October 15th
engenderedlitmag.com
en*gendered Summer 2025 cover by Miša Hejná a sketch of a person with their torso comprised of splotches of menstrual blood. text: the inbox closes in TWO WEEKS look back, get inspired deadline: October 15th engenderedlit@gmail.com
October 1, 2025 at 3:11 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
the inbox is OPEN until October 15th
engenderedlitmag.com
en*gendered the inbox is open until October 15th text: the poets have rushed in (amazing!), now let’s get some essays. what do you love about gender/your gender? what irks you? who and what helps you feel more like yourself? gender and athletics. gender and sex. gender and mothers and fathers and friends. gender in this political moment. gender in history. gender role models and icons and rebels. music, movies, and media that hurts and that helps. self-finding monologues. truth seeking dialogues. the one thought that haunts you and won’t leave your head. if you’re unsure, just pitch it. we’re here to help engenderedlit@gmail.com engenderedlitmag.com
September 8, 2025 at 4:57 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
“Magic, above all things, is not an animal.
Jam it in a cage and it will atrophy.
Give it freedom to roam and it will come alive.”
- Alice Scott, Spite
@allyscottauthor.bsky.social

Print: kithbooks.com/shop/p/youarenotyourbones
eBook: kithbooks.com/digital/p/youarenotyourbones
You Are Not Your Bones & Lesser Misfortunes Alice Scott cover: Volo, the protagonist of the titular story, stands in front of a window, the moonlight falling across them in the pattern of bones. text: “Magic, above all things, is not an animal. Jam it in a cage and it will atrophy. Give it freedom to roam and it will come alive.”
September 7, 2025 at 2:31 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
given the rising numbers of eyes on our site and the threat to trans people and publishers and resources everywhere, we're looking to expand what we offer. send your art, please. send also your lessons, your struggles and wins.
en*gendered open for submissions the inbox is open until October 15th we’re trying something a little bit different. along with the poetry, fiction, cnf & essays, we want to serve as your indie’s back pages. what tips, tricks, & lessons have you gathered in playing with gender. do you have experience with diy hrt? we would love to share zines (flat page or print and fold). what books/movies/music/shows/blogs/fics have helped you? what’s the single most affirming piece of clothing you own? swimwear for people with a little less or extra, tie tying for everyone. how do you sunblock with beards? you’re holding more experience with gender than you know. think: BULLETIN BOARD engenderedlit@gmail.com
September 4, 2025 at 4:07 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
the inbox is OPEN!!!
you've got six weeks to make an absolute mess of your feelings in there. c'mon c'mon bring it.
engenderedlit@gmail.com
engenderedlitmag.com
en*gendered OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS the inbox is open until October 15th engenderedlit@gmail.com essays • poetry • cnf • flash • short fiction • rants • monologues • reviews • diatribes • artwork • crafts • activism resources • zines • sex, sexuality, disability, & gender related advice and education • diary entries • what i wish i’d said letters • erasures of that one night you sent all those texts • dear john letters • novellas* • micro chaps • template letters to send to your reps/corporations • suggestions for cool ways to come out to your mom • personals • missed connections • book reports • artwork • recipes • more artwork • we will need a cover • we’ve got a thumbtacks and some wall space.... think: BULLETIN BOARD *jk, send those to kith engenderedlitmag.com
September 1, 2025 at 4:01 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
en*gendered reopens SEPTEMBER 1st!
en*gendered we reopen on SEPTEMBER FIRST for essays • poetry • cnf • flash • short fiction • rants • monologues • reviews • diatribes • artwork • crafts • activism resources • zines • sex, sexuality, disability, & gender related advice and education • diary entries • what i wish i’d said letters • erasures of that one night you sent all those texts • dear john letters • novellas* • micro chaps • template letters to send to your reps/corporations • suggestions for cool ways to come out to your mom • personals • missed connections • book reports • artwork • recipes • more artwork • we will need a cover • we’ve got a thumbtacks and some wall space.... think: BULLETIN BOARD *jk, send those to kith www.engenderedlitmag.com
August 24, 2025 at 2:16 AM
en-gendered.bsky.social
who wants to write about how this effects trans women specifically?

I would love to read it in our inbox after September 1st
Tumblr post from tearlessrain 3d ago I think there's this problem where a subset of The Left has assigned a positive moral value to the amorphous concept of kink, but a negative moral value to any individual actual kinks. so you get people gleefully calling themselves perverted freaks but then you scroll down their posts and it's like s&m is abusive and teacher/student roleplay is gross and petplay is basically bestiality and if you don't use a safeword for every scene and check in every three minutes then you're evil and if you wear a collar in the grocery store you're basically committing sexual assault on everyone who sees you. and it's like I dunno man I think you might just be vanilla. which is only a problem because you yourself don't seem to know that. 1,570 notes
August 11, 2025 at 5:39 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
"home me
into the frame
I dream of"
- finally, a use for gender, Siobhan Dunlop

engenderedlitmag.com/summer2025
skimming through surface-level thoughts hoping for something juicy to write all I keep returning to is each instance of girls she we’re all women here tiny daggers cut my skin slice my body if only they could be applied to the right places remove slivers of flesh unwanted hone me into the frame I dream of each word each pronoun each time they could’ve just read my email signature remakes like an artist with a chisel sandpaper a sharp knife applied to gender each wrong creates a little more right I let them say whatever they presume knowing I’m a little more me each time finally, a use for gender, siobhan dunlop
July 25, 2025 at 2:07 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
"if you throw the first brick
I promise I'll be the second one down range"
- Mercy Rei Tanq, Guillotine Talk
@grrlphag.bsky.social

engenderedlitmag.com/summer2025
I am tired of the guillotine talk With no guillotine walk But I am partial to the wood-chipper chatter Every tragedy produces comedy faster than any amount of empathy And all your viral firestorm memes and hottest French revolution takes do is show them what you’ll never actually attempt You know you can’t defeat a hydra with a guillotine, right? But if you throw the first brick I promise I'll be the second one down range Let the tanks roll in Draw out the worst of the ire Those battle tested can take some fire We are mighty We are legion We are fighting To do more than just survive Mercy Rei Tanq, Guillotine Talk engenderedlitmag.com
July 22, 2025 at 1:39 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
Happy Monday!

"focus on quitting this job..."
- nat raum, poem for the woman who says including transmasc people in "women's" issues isn't relatable to her personally
@gr8earlofhell.bsky.social

engenderedlitmag.com/summer2025
this is a focus group. focus on identifying five things i can see, four i can touch. focus on the cursor as it slides over the camera button, switches it off. focus on the way she says i hope you don’t take this as offensive, but after i say the menopause website we’re all looking at doesn’t feel trans-friendly. recalibrate; losing focus. don’t focus on the way i feel, the way she doesn’t realize she swatted me down like an attack helicopter would fall if struck by such a blow. don’t focus on all twenty people who said nothing and kept talking about the hot pink web design. focus on the talking-to your boss says is coming for her. focus on the email from your other queer coworker sending love from her gay little corner of the world. focus on quitting this job in a few months, anyway. this is a focus group—focus on collecting my gift card compensation. focus on a future without cis nonsense. nat raum, poem for the cishet woman who says including transmasc people in “women’s” issues isn’t relatable to her personally engenderedlitmag.com
July 21, 2025 at 2:48 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
"We broke up Saturday evening but kept having sex through Sunday afternoon"
- Early Womanhood, sterling-elizabeth arcadia
@selizabeth.bsky.social

engenderedlitmag.com/summer2025
Mar was the first partner to buy me flowers. They were, after all, my first relationship since coming out as transfemme, and the first person to say that they were both a lesbian and attracted to me. Only a few of the people I’ve dated since have ever given me flowers, and Mar remains the only lesbian—the others have all been trans and emphatically bisexual. [....] Mar wanting me, dating me, especially as a lesbian, was affirming. The sex we had, though, was complicated. At least, it was complicated for me. Early Womanhood, sterling-elizabeth arcadia www.engenderedlitmag.com
July 15, 2025 at 5:46 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
"Call it forgetting,
how life creeps behind
call it a prank."
- Nick Newman, from 'Laundry Poem'

engenderedlitmag.com/summer2025
are you a man or a fallen log? decay flakes rust-orange, pith and pulp to paprika powder, chunks sloughing off like clementines you can’t carry much of this world. from 'Laundry Poem' by Nick Newman engenderedlitmag.com
July 11, 2025 at 9:08 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
Mercy Rei Tanq, For the Clocky Girls

@grrlphag.bsky.social
engenderedlitmag.com/summer2025
And remembering that When my chest is too heavy for the heaving When the air in my lungs grows stale and depleted I am, at my very least - a pile of catastrophes pulsing and thrumming on the floor But I am still a fucking human being I am real For the Clocky Girls, Mercy Rei Tanq engenderedlitmag.com
July 10, 2025 at 1:23 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
"The Great Blight of Yates County, New York"
Wilhelmina "Billie" Sainwood
@billiewrites.bsky.social

engenderedlitmag.com/summer2025
And now nothing will grow here. Not even grass. Every seed in the Earth spits back out yellow and hard as bones or black as bruises. Every tuber and root sinks into the soil tight as dogs’ jaws and doesn’t come up. The soil is wounded and abused and unwelcome. So nobody plants. Billie Sainwood, The Great Blight of Yeats County, New York engenderedlitmag.com
July 9, 2025 at 2:04 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
“So no. I can't stop thinking
the big shit. I can't take a second
to relax, turn my brain off. I can’t stop
writing, even when I’m not
writing. I’m naked,”
- Danielle Tamara Schatten,
Simulacring Myself
@danielleschatten.bsky.social

engenderedlitmag.com
engendered Summer 2025 cover: Period Bloatedness by Míša Hejná  line drawn legs, head and shoulders of a person are bridged by splotches of menstrual blood. text: “So no. I can't stop thinking the big shit. I can't take a second to relax, turn my brain off. I can’t stop writing, even when I’m not writing. I’m naked,” - Danielle Tamara Schatten, Simulacring Myself engenderedlitmag.com
July 8, 2025 at 2:38 PM
en-gendered.bsky.social
deceptively painful, @fiendfull.bsky.social's Queering the Furniture Building Experience speaks to the lost so many trans people are feeling. we're building futures, they're changing the rules.
are there any stereotypes about non-binary people building furniture? all I know is that I know some cis people who are good at building furniture and I don’t know about the prowess of trans people, as good as we are at buying blåhaj in ikea, because none of the trans people I know or follow online talk much about their abilities in flatpack furniture. I guess there’s other things we’re talking about like fundamental human rights and petty drama, but I’d like to know if I’m meant to be good or not at building flatpack furniture Queering the Furniture Building Experience Siobhan Dunlop.
June 24, 2025 at 1:39 PM