WordsFestZine 2022

Welcome to the WordsFest Zine!

Bridging Divides: the Wordsfest 2022 Zine

2022 Call for Submissions:

Museum London offers a gathering place at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi, or “Antler River,” a site of regional identity and Indigenous history that symbolizes divergence and convergence. The Words Festival takes place on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Chonnonton (Neutral) peoples, not far from where some of Upper Canada’s earliest Black refugees arrived after fleeing slavery in the United States. The Huron-Wendat peoples also have a history of living in this territory. In the London area, there were Treaty 6 London Township, Treaty 7 Sombra Township, and Treaty 21 Longwoods.

The river’s forks are a traditional meeting place where tributaries converge, a place to gather and reflect on forces that divide our communities, to listen to the land and water, while forming a future vision that bridges divisions between different ways of knowing and navigating our world.

The Wordsfest Zine seeks to encourage a multidisciplinary engagement under the broad concept of bridging divides. The pandemic has brought into focus the importance of the arts for our social well-being. And yet, the COVID-19 pandemic also presented the need for social justice initiatives and ideas that challenge racism and promote equity, diversity, and inclusion.

The Wordsfest Zine invites submissions of poetry, prose, artwork or hybrid pieces (surprise us!) that aim to reimagine the idea of resilience as we confront what divides us. Impress us. Reassure us. Challenge us. Teach us new ways to see the world we inhabit and the future which will soon be our present.

All submissions should be under 500 words and graphic art should be no more than two pages. Submissions are due 13 November 2022.

Visit the Words Festival Website: http://wordsfest.ca/

Send submissions to: wordsfestzine@gmail.com