Call for Hymn Submissions for Publication

Resounding Voices: A hymn supplement to Voices Found

http://womenssacredmusicproject.org/resounding-voices/

Call for Submissions

Submissions Open: January 1, 2023
Deadline: May 1, 2023

For the twentieth anniversary of the hymnal Voices Found,[1] the Women’s Sacred Music Project in partnership with The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada is curating Resounding Voices, a new collection of hymns, songs, and liturgical music by people who identify as women.[2] In our search, we long to address ideas, “which touch our hearts, fire our imagination, and encourage us to action.”[3] Themes may relate to Christian or Jewish religious traditions with or without referring to the Bible or other sacred texts. We also hope to honor the spiritual legacy of Voices Found by connecting with issues of moral justice in our day.

Voices Found, published twenty years ago, was one of the first ecumenical and interfaith hymnals by, for, and about women. It made three important contributions to hymnody: celebrating biblical and other visionary women of faith; expanding imagery for God by challenging masculine linguistic conventions; and acknowledging that a woman’s experience is part of human life. Seeing the feminine face of God allows us to see God’s divinity in women. In your submissions for Resounding Voices, we call on you to fill your hymns with this spirit.  

If works are selected for publication in Resounding Voices, applicants will receive an honorarium of $250 for each previously unpublished text or musical setting ($500 for both music and words). We also welcome submission of previously published hymns for inclusion in this collection, but no honorarium will be provided for these. The finished collection will be published online by The Hymn Society and The Hymn Society will own the copyrights to submitted materials unless a composer/text writer chooses to retain copyright, in which case, the honoraria for previously unpublished works are reduced to $125 and $250.

The deadline to submit materials is May 1, 2023, but writers are encouraged to submit material as early as possible. Applicants will be notified by July 1, 2023 if their work has been chosen. The entire collection will be published by November 15, 2023.