STORYTELLING IS ONE OF THE OLDEST AND MOST ACCESSIBLE TOOLS USED TO SHARE CULTURE AND EXPERIENCES OVER GENERATIONS.
But telling our own stories, and sharing our own experiences in our own words, is also a means of empowerment and self-affirmation – especially when our voices have been marginalized for as long as we can remember.
shifting traditions – call for submissions
You do not live in the same environment that you were born into. Your surroundings have changed, your body has changed, the way you are perceived, the way you are treated, the way you perceive and treat yourself is subject to constant change.
Whether you’ve stayed in the same place, but the political system, and family relations, or the climate changed around you, or whether you live with the memory of a place or situation you have left a long time ago or just yesterday – there are certain aspects of past and present within you or shared with the people around you that come together in harmony, struggle, or somehow don’t come together at all. They are traditions in transition.
With this call for submissions, we want to explore moments and places where these shifts in traditions take place and how we deal with them. We’re asking questions like:
How and why do you hold on to certain traditions and cultural aspects and disregard others?
What is dear to you and why?
How do you re-appropriate, mix- and match?
(How) do you experience power structures affecting this?
Are there certain topics or rituals that you feel you can’t question at all?
Are there certain things that are not there anymore but you wish would come back?
We accept fictional and biographical work. Submissions can be written, short stories, poems, drawn, photo essays, made into a film, song, or installation. Please get in touch if you have a certain idea, but are not sure if it fits the topic or if the form will work.
TQU WANTS TO HIGHLIGHT VOICES THAT ARE AND HAVE OFTEN BEEN SILENCED. YOU’RE ESPECIALLY ENCOURAGED TO SUBMIT IF YOU HAVE NOT PUBLISHED ANYTHING BEFORE. SUBMISSION IS FREE OF CHARGE AND WE ACCEPT UP TO THREE SUBMISSIONS PER PERSON.
Reprints are okay, so are anonymous submissions. You can submit your story at any time as we publish stories all year around. After July 31st we will simply shift to a different topic.
Call for submissions was open until December 31st, 2019.
A selection of the best stories from Shifting Traditions and OUR_STORY will soon be republished in physical form.
