MWC Press seeks contributions to a literary anthology titled These Interesting Times: Surviving 2020 in the QC.
What did you survive in 2020? What disasters—personal, communal, national, global—can you bear witness to? Sure, 2020 brought us the COVID-19 pandemic, a derecho and flooding, massive public protests along with economic insecurity, and a bitterly contentious election. But your disaster doesn’t have to have the most devastation or the highest body count.
We want to hear what was going on in the shadows, what may have been invisible to the mainstream news. Whether you were an essential worker or trapped in lockdown, on the front lines or dealing with something else entirely, tell us what you grappled with in 2020, and what you learned from it. We seek strategies for survival, testimony to resilience, witness to loss, and antidotes to despair.
Anyone who resides or works within the within the six counties that the MWC serves (Rock Island, Henry, and Mercer counties in Illinois and Scott, Muscatine, and Clinton counties in Iowa): Send us your work by January 31, 2021.
- Prose: For fiction, essays, or creative non-fiction of up to 4,000 words: Email a double-spaced attachment in 12-pt font in rtf or docx format. Include identifying information, including name, phone number, email, and mailing address, on the first page.
- Poetry and hybrid or mixed genre pieces (3 poems or up to 1500 words): email an attachment in pdf format. Include contact information in the email.
- Visual art: Send an image or photograph in black and white, minimal 300-dpi resolution along with a caption, creator credit, and contact information in the text of the email.
Email submissions <at> mwcqc <dot> org. Include a brief cover letter and 100-word bio.
Legacy Book Press will provide contributors with a copy of the finished book. A portion of profits from the sale of the book will be donated to organizations in the QC area that support recovery and disaster relief services. The MWC is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation dedicated to supporting the literary arts and its creators.
We want to hear your story!
If you have a terrific story but want help writing it down, use this form to contact WOTA and we’ll get you in touch with an editor.
Writers on the Avenue 