Events

Desiderium: an intense longing for something, especially something lost; from the Latin verb, desiderare, “to long for;” the great-grandfather of the word, desire.

We want to see work so raw and full of life that it practically bleeds – work so fresh and unique that it changes the way we read.

The SWANA region is often referred to as “The Middle East.” This terminology is Eurocentric and homogenizes a vast region that consists of people of diverse histories, ethnicities, cultures, religions, and languages. We’re seeking work that deconstructs social categorization - racial, gender, nationalist, religious, and sexual categorizations placed upon those deemed other by imperialism, colonialism, and militarization.

Games can be board games, cards, puzzles, sports, quizzes, lawn games, role-playing games, etc.

In a world grappling with environmental and social crises, Indigenous knowledge systems, rooted in harmony with nature and community, offer invaluable perspectives.

We’re looking for your most ambitious, imaginative writing on any touchpoint within this theme, whether it’s the childhood games you played, the songs you can’t leave behind, the seeds you plant in the daylight, or the secrets you whisper in the dark. 

We encourage you to imagine as widely as possible, and to write with honesty and abandon. What does ‘liberation’ mean to you? What does it look like? How do we know when we have it? Are we ever truly free?

Do You See Us As Being Instruments Of Unity, Change, Or Citizens Of Action, Fighting For Human And Environmental Rights?

We Could Almost Touch It, aims to amplify the voices of women and delve into the state of women since the 2016 presidential election. Work must cover at least one of the themes: women's rights, losses since the 2016 election, and what will turn things around.

How do we engage in the present while thinking about the future? What is possible, probable, and/or preferable when we think about our world tomorrow?

Just as self implies other, the seen implicates the unseen. Much can be seen and understood, but there is an ever-vanishing horizon, and the other, and the unseen, call into this future.

"Then followed that beautiful season . . . summer . . . Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light, and the landscape lay as if new-created in all the freshness of childhood."
     ---Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Don’t sugarcoat it. We want the messy parts of mom life, and the parts you love, too. Or maybe you don’t want to be a mom or aren’t able. We want those stories too. The struggles that have come with it, or the freedom.

Instead of inhaling the refreshing air of Spring, let us take a moment to rebelliously hold our breath, then inhale the sinking feeling in the air. After all, things grow in the dark, too.  

We are seeking prose and poetry that captures the warmth and nostalgia of fields bathed in amber light, as well as the longing, transience, and beauty that lie beneath their glow.

Up to three previously unpublished poems may be submitted, but they must be LGBTQ+ themed.