We are OPEN for Submissions through July 22, 2024
for the Fall 2024 Issue #15 – Harmony

 

Our Mental Health Awareness Writing Contest
is also scheduled for the Fall 2024 Issue #15

 

General Guidelines

We seek previously unpublished, creative, and high-quality work in the form of poetry, creative nonfiction/essays, fiction/short stories/flash fiction, scripts and digital media (photography, drawings, podcasts, and short films). Patients, students, family members, caregivers, nurses, physicians, healthcare consumers, artists, mental health providers, physical therapists, writers, clergy—all of us will be patients one day and all are welcome to submit work. We are especially looking for content from vulnerable populations and those who care for them; content that connects us with every community, makes us feel something, helps us see illness, wellness, health, or the healthcare environment differently, and inspires equality in healthcare and the world.

Theme Guidelines: Harmony

Harmony in health or healthcare is a wonderful thing when it occurs. Finding that physical and mental equilibrium where mind and body are in sync are those periods in our lives akin to flow–we feel great, we are thinking clearly and everything is going well. How much our lives are spent in harmony with ourselves? With those we love? What does the search for physical harmony look like for you? For someone you love? Or the search for harmony in our mind? How does illness–physical or mental–leave us in disharmony?

For providers: What does harmony in the care you deliver look like? In the relationships with your patients or colleagues? In working with care teams or trying to implement new technology to deliver advancements in care? What does cultural harmony look like in healthcare?

These are the stories in all forms–creative nonfiction, short stories, poetry, film, photography and digital art–we are curating for Fall Issue #15.

 

Mental Health Awareness Writing Contest

We are once again hosting a Writing Contest in our continued effort to destigmatize mental illness by raising awareness and empathy through stories in all forms. We will offer an award in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Your contest entry can use Issue #15 theme of Harmony, but you are welcome to send what you have been working on related to mental health and feel is contest ready.

As always — the canvas is yours to paint with the words and images that ring true to you! We look forward to seeing what our audience of writers, patients, physicians, psychologists, patient advocates, artists, and healthcare consumers have to say! Every one of your stories matter to us. We are listening!

As always, we aim for the highest literary and artistic standards.

All Submissions are made through Submittable.

 

Genre Guidelines

Poetry

Please submit a maximum of three poems at a time. If you submit more than three, we can only read the first three.

Fiction

Please submit short stories no more than 4,000 words in length. Flash fiction, up to 1,000 words, is welcome and encouraged. Submissions should be double-spaced in 12pt Times Roman or other serif font with 1″ margins. We will look at excepts of longer works on a case-by-case basis; please query us with a description of your project before submitting if greater than 4,000 words.

Creative Nonfiction

Please submit nonfiction pieces no more than 4,000 words in length. Submissions should be double-spaced in 12pt Times Roman or other serif font with 1″ margins. We will look at excepts of longer works on a case-by-case basis; please query us with a description of your project before submitting if longer than 4,000 words.

Films

Please submit links to your short films for review, and up to five minutes in length.

Other Media

We welcome submissions of photography, podcasts, and other media. All digital media will should be hosted by the creator, and shared by a link. Photography and still images can be attached to submission in a .jpg file sized suitable for web upload on WordPress.