Category: Editorial

Reckoning 5 Submission Call – Poetry

For Reckoning 5, I’m looking for poems which move in concert with fiction editor Cécile Cristofari’s call for work that spotlights the moments of environmental beauty we’re living in right now, holding close to our hearts, or carefully cultivating in the back corner lot twice a day, on the way to and from the streetcar.

The little seed you’re carrying around, waiting to replant. The spaces cupped full of joy in motion. Something holy in your pocket; a little-god reminder of why we do the work and what’s worth working for. That which is coming. That which has been quietly growing all along. That which is beautiful amidst the noise—all seen through the lens of environmental justice.

I have a soft spot for formal poetry done in a way where your voice slips free, but would love to see your free verse, translations, little epics, concrete poetry, speculative poetry, all the things I couldn’t even think up right now to list, and most importantly, the unique texture of your own voice.

If you’re working in a form or tradition you aren’t sure I’ll culturally grasp: please, tell me about it in your cover letter. I’ll ask the followup questions necessary to meet you halfway.

I will consider exceptional work that falls slightly outside of the theme or spins it in unexpected ways as long as it stays firmly centred on the topic of environmental justice.

Up to five poems per submission welcomed, and thank you in advance for your work.

Read the full guidelines and submit here. And Cécile Cristofari’s call for fiction and nonfiction is here.

Reckoning 4 Submission Call – Poetry

I welcome poems that address our fiction editor Arkady Martine’s call for stories about “the relationship of humans to the built environment,” but more than that I seek poetry that moves beyond rant and beyond the obvious (i.e. oil spills are bad). I want to be surprised by form, content, and language. You can disappear your ego entirely or write from the personal, as long as it’s searingly so, visceral, I want to feel something.

Speculative poetry? Absolutely. Narrative? If it still surprises. Rhyming? You can try, but it must feel organic. If it brings your idiosyncratic understanding of the world as a consequence of humanity’s relationship with the earth, and brings something new to form or content, I’d love to see it.

Read the full guidelines and submit here.

Reckoning 4 Submission Call – Fiction/Nonfiction

For Reckoning 4, I am specifically seeking works which address the relationship of humans to the built environment: the city as organism; climate-changed urban spaces; architecture as environmental in/justice; the point of contact where human alteration and ecological alteration touch; fantasias of density and of absence; blurs between organic and inorganic forms, places, and persons. Etcetera.

I am primarily looking for fiction, but am also interested in creative nonfiction on the above theme. A speculative element is preferred, but not necessary, for fiction. I will also consider work that falls outside the theme if it is otherwise deeply compelling and fits Reckoning’s general guidelines.

Read the full guidelines and submit here.