PFN – Call for Submissions to Harpur Palate Literary Journal. Theme: “Ekphrastic Work Based on Selections for Ecotopia Visual Art Call”

We will open for submissions of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction from March 1 to April 15.  

Submissions for ekphrastic writing for our special issue: Ecotopia: A Speculative Visual Art & Creative Writing Collaboration will run from February 15 to May 15. The art meant to inspire these ekphrastic works can be found on our home page.

Ecotopia is a themed and interdisciplinary collaborative art project that will be exhibited in a special issue online in 2023. Currently, Harpur Palate is looking for poetic and hybrid ekphrastic responses to one or more of the visual pieces on our homepage, “FLOURISH,” “Horizon,” and “Making Time for the Ocean.”

Ideally, the written works could convey an optimistic, yet realistic, speculation for the deep future, where humans coexist peacefully and sustainably with the more-than-human world. The goal is to foster a cross-disciplinary approach to discussions necessary when locating ourselves and our communities within the context of a pressing global issue, as we share a bright ethos of our futures, while embracing acceptable emotions and conversation norms like hope, excitement, and progress.

Submission guidelines:

• Submit up to 3 poems or hybrid pieces for consideration, no more than 6 pages total, with individual pieces being less than 500 words each
• We define hybrid as any mixture of poetry, prose, drama, or nonfiction
• In the cover letter section of Submittable, please include a third-person bio (<50 words) and your social media handles
• We do accept simultaneous submissions, please send us a prompt note if your work has been accepted elsewhere

This open call for ekphrasis will run until May 15. After this, Cole Depuy, editor of this special issue, will select a small number of pieces to present alongside the artworks on our website.