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We’re scant weeks from the crowdfunding campaign to fund our next general imprint anthology, Scholarly Pursuits: A Queer Anthology of Cozy Academia Stories! We’re delighted, today, to share our cover art by the unbeatable Liz Lee Illustration!

Transforming the core settings of “dark academia” to be cozy and snug, Scholarly Pursuits features 22 delightful, charming science fiction and fantasy stories set at colleges, universities, libraries, and other places where people pursue academic excellence – and all feature queer characters! From field research shenanigans to cooking adventures, from space-station education departments to eldritch libraries, our awesome authors have brought their vivid imaginings to life in this collection, and we can’t wait to share it with you! You can learn all about our contributors by reading up on their contributor biographies.

This campaign launches in mid-July. Make sure you follow our Kickstarter pre-launch page today to be notified when it goes live!

Our Patreon backers can check out teasers and more right now! Consider becoming a backer today for access to our backer blog and many other awesome benefits!

(by the way, psst… the art is wrap-around…)

Once Upon a Time… Scratch that—RIGHT NOW: the artist applications for our newest, folktale-themed anthology are open!

Our Queer Fanworks Inspired By… anthologies take classic public-domain works and give them the queer makeovers they (and we!) deserve. For this, the fourth anthology in the collection, we’re focusing on queerifying folktales and fairy tales. Specifically, we are asking creators to choose a folktale or fairy tale with personal significance, and then make it queer. So bring your personal faves and your inspiration, and fill out an application showing us what you can do and telling us what you’d like to do next!

This is a paid arting opportunity; artists will be asked to complete one full-page (A4/210 mm x 297 mm), full-color piece, and we may have space for some artists to complete more than one page and/or short comics. Base pay is $50 per page, with the potential for raises up to $400 per page depending on our success during the eventual crowdfunding campaign.

Want to learn more?

• rules and guidelines
• FAQ
• schedule
• sample artist contract

Applications close on July 15th, so don’t hesitate and join us! Ready to apply?

• If you’ve never done art for a past Duck Prints Press project —-> use this form
• If you’ve done art for a past Duck Prints Press anthology or merch item —-> use this form

Interested in writing for this anthology? Unfortunately, author applications are only open to writers already involved with Duck Prints Press. Sorry! If you’re on our private Discord server, be on the lookout for the announcement with sign-up forms there.

Interested in buying this anthology once it’s available? Make sure you follow us on social media and/or sign up for newsletter so you hear the latest!

Eager to see how this project develops, read sneak peeks and see art previews, and more? Back us on Patreon! Patrons also selected this anthology theme – you can have a say in our future anthology themes, too, just by backing us at any level!

1. What are you currently reading?

• What Fresh Hell is This? Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities, and You by Heather Corinna: my Libby loan on this ended with me about 50% through, so I've moved it to paused. I'm actually a little dubious on how helpful I'm finding it but meh. I put a new hold on it and I guess I'll decide if I'm gonna keep going when I get it again.
• Babel by R. F. Kuang: finally started this and am kinda kicking myself for waiting so long to start it.
• XXXHolic Omnibus vol. 3 by CLAMP: started this yesterday, not much else to say.
• 天官赐福 manhua vol. 3 by 墨香铜臭: I've been waking up obnoxiously early this week, which has at least had the positive effect that I've managed to read a chapter of this a day the last few days.

2. What have you recently finished reading?

• A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine: ended up with decidedly mixed feelings about this. I have the kind of frustration toward it that I usually get toward things I feel were so close to being fantastic but missed in little ways.
• Kaiju No. 8: Exclusive on the Third Division by Keiji Ando and Naoya Matsumoto: this is a light novel canon-insert between events shown in some of the novel volumes. Ultimately pointless, but I like this 'verse enough that it was nice to get to spend more time with the characters.
• Ogi's Summer Break vol. 2 by Koikawa: (modern BL, gender nonconforming mc) I reserved judgement on this after volume 1 but now that I'm done with the duology... this was a mess.
• Is This the Kind of Love I Want? vol. 1 by Kouki: modern BL with an established relationship between a gay man and a "straight" man. I'm always here for characters who are solidly adults. I'm hoping the second vol. wraps things up nicely (I've got a hold on it on Libby).
• Kaiju No. 8 vol. 13 by Naoya Matsumoto: of course grabbed this as soon as I saw it at the local library and finished it within a few hours.
• Witch Hat Aterlier vol. 9 by Kamome Shirahama
• Renegade Girls by Nora Neus: cute historical wlw that I was judging harshly on a few points up until I found out the main characters were both based on real historical figures. So like. It's just history that middle class white women took the mantle that should have belonged to others, sigh.
• The Science of Ghosts by Lilah Sturges: very interesting ghost story with a wlw trans woman lead that I was enjoying until the end. I seem to have stumbled on a run of "main character has to give up everything they enjoy doing/have poured their passion into for the sake of a partner" stories. This is my third in like two weeks. Ugh.
• Yona of the Dawn vol. 14 by Mizuho Kusanagi: I'm almost out of volumes the library has (again) and sigh.
• FANGS vol. 3 by Billy Balibally: (modern vampire BL) there's no volume 4 yet and I take that as a personal attack.
• Demon Slayer/Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 18 by Koyoharu Gotouge
• Blue Exorcist vol. 1 by Kazue Kato: this was recommended to me on Tumblr after I put up a post asking what I should read. I was kinda meh on it, honestly; there are no more volumes of it available from my libraries at this time and I think I'm fine with that.

3. What will you read next?

I'm leaving on a family vacation next Tuesday, which involves flying across the country, so I'll probably get a lot of reading done. I'm debating what to bring, honestly, as lots of books will be heavy but not having anything in print will mean I rely too heavily on my phone and the battery might not last. I'm leaning toward bringing either Lip and Sword or the first couple volumes of Yuwu. For graphic novels, I've got three from the local library I want to finish before we leave (Rainbow vol. 2 and vols 2 and 3 of What did you eat yesterday?). On Libby, I'm decently caught up right now - nothing due in the next week - so idk. Oh, also, I have Go Luck Yourself by Sara Raasch on Libby, with the plan of reading it during the trip, and a couple other novel holds likely to come between now and then. (Yes, I will be bringing about 4x more books than I can possibly read in a week).

The Kickstarter campaign to help us make stickers, magnets, key chains, earrings, washi tape, and lanyards out of these ten sweet, playful dragons ends July 2nd at 1 p.m. Eastern time!

As of yesterday, we’ve hit our first stretch goal, too – now, all backers will receive their chosen dragon(s) as digital files for personal use, as well as getting all the merchandise they’ve bought. Learn more about this project with art by Florilège, with dragons made based on 10 different Pride flags, by visiting our Kickstarter now.