Stories from the Polycule: a call for submissions

With her book The Polyamorists Next Door out for six months now, sociologist Elisabeth Sheff is working on her next book project: Stories from the Polycule: Real Life in Polyamorous Families. She has just put out a call for contributions:

Are you a member of a poly family and willing to share your story (anonymously) with the world? Consider writing a brief entry for an upcoming edited book. Submissions can range anywhere from a few sentences to 10 pages long, depending on the age of the submitters, the format they select, and how much they have to say. You are free to submit essays, short stories, poetry, drawings, and photographs, or whatever else you can think of. All submissions will be anonymized, so no one will know who you are when they read the book.

If you wish to submit something or have any questions, please contact Elisabeth Sheff at drelisheff (at) gmail.com.

Topics you might consider include (but are not limited to):

Small Children
• Draw a picture of your family
• What is the best thing about being in your family?
• What is the worst thing about being in your family?
• What do you think about your family? The adults in your life/your parents’ partners?
• Any cute stories or quotes the adults in your life remember you saying about your family?

Older Kids and Teenagers
• Do you tell your friends, kids at school, teachers, or other adults about being in a poly family? Why or why not?
• What do you think about your parents’ partners?
• Can you talk to your extended family members (like grandparents and aunts or uncles) about being in a poly family? If yes, how does it go? If no, why not?
• Do you think you will have polyamorous relationships when you grow up? Why or why not?
• If you have tried dating at this point, how did it go? Was it monogamous, poly, or something else?
• Are you happy your family is poly, or do you wish they were monogamous (or something else)?
• Some people think polyamory is bad for kids. Do you agree or disagree, and why?
• How did you find out that you lived in a poly family, and how did you feel when you first found out? How do you feel now? Why?

Adults
• What relationship do you have with the children in your life?
• How do you think polyamory has affected your family?
• How did your family get together (ie. How did you get started in polyamory, what is your family like now, and how did it get that way)?
• What are the best things about your poly family? The worst?
• What is one of the best things that have happened to your family? The worst?
• Some people think polyamory is bad for kids. Do you agree or disagree, and why?
• Have you experienced any discrimination because of your status as a member of a polyamorous family? What happened, and how did you deal with it?
• Why have you split up with partners in the past, and how did it go? Why do you have the partners you do now?
• Do you have any advice on how to do polyamory “right” or pitfalls to avoid? Ways to do poly “wrong?”
• Did you come out as poly to your kids? Family of origin? Friends? At work? Why or why not?
• If you are not the biological parent of a child (something Sociologists call a social parent) in a poly family, but have a close relationship with that child – how does it go? What does the child call you? What do you do together? How are you treated in public? By other family members?

Elders
• Do your adult children know you are poly? If yes, how do they react? If no, why not? How do you keep it hidden?
• Please describe your poly family and how it came to be.
• What are the benefits of being poly now? When you were younger?
• What are the disadvantages of being poly now? When you were younger?
• Looking back, what do know now about polyamorous family life that you wish you had known when you were younger?
• Some people think polyamory is bad for kids. Do you agree or disagree, and why?
• Are you out as polyamorous to your friends? If yes, how do they feel about it? If not, why not?
• Have you experienced any discrimination because of your status as a member of a polyamorous family? What happened, and how did you deal with it?

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