CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS — UNFINISHED STORIES
Reading period open September 15th-November 15th
Note: Extended Deadline of December 1st
Note: Extended Deadline of December 1st
Through the lens of a kaleidoscope there is no "normal:" new fragments come into focus, reconfigured to tell a story that already existed. History, then, is not a thing of the past, and this moment is not one that will pass—it’s a folding over of time, bursts of history bubbling up into the present, a kaleidoscoped view of how we got here.
For our inaugural issue, our theme is UNFINISHED STORIES, which might apply to this political moment, but also to your composition or form, or a personal experience. Send us works which resist completion, narratives whose endings we don’t or can’t know yet, or which begin with pre-existing conditions. Send us a finished story about an unresolved issue, or an unresolved story about a finished one. A torn up drawing. An essay about a memory lost. A memory about an essay you never wrote. A complete collection of sutured thoughts. An incomplete collection of unraveled poems. A collage of found objects. A song about the unrequited. A multi-media piece that didn’t convert right to a PDF. Interactive fiction. A list of petitions. Send us your unfinished, your abandoned, your fragments.
For our inaugural issue, our theme is UNFINISHED STORIES, which might apply to this political moment, but also to your composition or form, or a personal experience. Send us works which resist completion, narratives whose endings we don’t or can’t know yet, or which begin with pre-existing conditions. Send us a finished story about an unresolved issue, or an unresolved story about a finished one. A torn up drawing. An essay about a memory lost. A memory about an essay you never wrote. A complete collection of sutured thoughts. An incomplete collection of unraveled poems. A collage of found objects. A song about the unrequited. A multi-media piece that didn’t convert right to a PDF. Interactive fiction. A list of petitions. Send us your unfinished, your abandoned, your fragments.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: Because we encourage cross-genre and undefinable work, we offer two ways of measuring the parameters of your piece: by word count, and alternatively, by the time needed to engage with your work. We accept submissions that (loosely) fit the parameters below or requires about 20 minutes of reading/listening/viewing/etc.
- Up to five pages of poetry and/or up to 3000 words of prose (in a single work or combined total).
- Visual, video, sound, interactive & multi-media: up to 3 works per submission and up to 20 minutes combined time of engagement. While we look forward to the many visual interpretations of this issue's theme, we are also specifically excited about visual art that represents the magazine's title, KALEIDOSCOPED, to publish as our website's cover art.
- Work must be previously unpublished.
Please email your submission to kaleidoscopedmag@gmail.com with the following:
- Your name & the title of your work(s) in the subject line
- Work in PDF format (if possible)
- A short biographical statement, and one sentence on what it means to kaleidoscope (interpret freely)
To keep this publication free & accessible, there is no submission fee for sending in your work. However, please consider an optional donation of $3-$10 to the local San Diego organization Native Like Water, whose aim is to "prepare Indigenous youth and adult volunteers in science, outdoor education, conservation, composition, wellness, and cultural self-exploration." Find more information about this organization at https://www.nativelikewater.org.
Through the support of UCSD's Arts and Community Engagement Fellowship, we are excited to be able to offer a small compensation of $20 to each artist whose work is chosen for publication in our inaugural issue.
UC San Diego is situated on the unceded territory of the Kumeyaay nation.
