Special Issue: Where Are the Children?

Call for Submissions: “Where Are the Children?”
Deadline: August 1, 2018 (11:59pm PST)

This special issue of Queen Mob’s Teahouse seeks poetry, video poems, fiction, flash fiction and creative non-fiction pieces related to the theme of “Where Are the Children.” Over the last couple of weeks the world has heard and read accounts of the more than 1,500 undocumented children that have been separated from their families across the U.S./Mexico border and the many others that have been locked in cages. Since then, social media has erupted and demanded that the U.S. government reunite the children with their families, take action, stop these incarceration practices and find the missing children.

However, this abhorrent practice of separating children from their parents is not new. Political leaders, dictators, governments, and even every day oppressors have been doing this for centuries all around the world. From the creation of Native American boarding schools and young black children sold away from their families during slavery to Jewish concentration camps, separating families has long been a tactic used by the oppressor to maintain power and control over the oppressed.

In this special issue we are asking for your poems, fiction, flash, creative nonfiction, musings, and rants, related to the theme of where are the children, child incarceration and the separation of families. Please interpret this as literally or creatively as you’d like. You are welcome to choose any era, instance, or historical reference point as your inspiration. We seek work that deals with both the trauma and the joy––the joy experienced by these families before separation and/or incarceration, or upon reunification. We welcome work that is experimental and perhaps even deals with future worlds,(ie. Afrofuturism) dystopias and/or utopias where creative solutions to this problem have been found or imagined.The more unique the submission, the better.

We are especially interested in publishing work by writers of color, writers who identify as LGBTQIA+, disabled, and immigrants themselves. We look forward to your submission!

Submission Guidelines:

Please submit to: jasminne@queenmobs.com

Deadline: August 1, 2018 (11:59pm PST)

Simultaneous submissions welcome. Do not submit more than ONE entry per category. Only unpublished pieces will be considered.

In the body of the email please include:

  1. One paragraph describing your submission- Title(s) of piece(s) submitted, brief context, and word count (unless it’s poetry/video poems)
  2. Short bio- including previous publication history.

Submit work as an ATTACHMENT:

Poetry: Please submit between 3-5 pages of poetry, in one single Word document.

Video Poems: Please submit 1 video poem (mp4) 5 minutes or less. Please submit the text of poem with your submission. If you include images or music that is not your own in your video poem, please be sure to credit the photographer/artist(s).

Fiction/Creative Nonfiction/Essays: Please submit 1 piece of 2,000 words or less, double spaced Times New Roman Font as a Word document.

Flash Fiction/Creative Nonfiction: Please submit no more than 2 pieces 500-800 words or less. Double spaced, Times New Roman Font in one single Word document.

*Submissions that do not adhere to the guidelines will not be considered*

Submit a comment