Submissions should touch of one or more of the following themes:

Time / as a construct + tool / non-western concepts of time / science + history of time / time travel / personal relationships to past, present, future / time dilation / reclaiming time through rest and play

Near-Futurism / science fiction about the next 50 years / speculative design / possible futures / visions + prophesies / radical imagination / shaping change / optimists + cynics welcome

Fiction and non-fiction writing: essays, short stories, poetry, study guides, prophecies, playlists, etc. (3,000 words or less.)

Art and design: Illustration, comic strips, photography, typography, speculative design / architecture / fashion, posters, paintings, collage, film stills, etc.

Submissions must be made digitally (via the form below) on or before May 16, 2022. Authors and artists retain all rights to their work and may submit pre-existing creations.

If you are submitting multiple pieces of work, please send each entry as a separate submission.

(Please do not submit creations that are bound in existing non-compete agreements with other entities.)

It has long been a dream of mine to see more queer, Black, and Latinx voices in sci-fi and in the future.

Many of you know that I’ve been describing myself as a Near-futurist for a few of years now. I believe that it’s time for us to focus on how the world will inevitably change in the next 10-50 years, so that we can begin to shape change actively through radical imagination. Octavia E. Butler continues to be a major inspiration for my personal creative work. On the inspiration for her own science fiction writing, she has famously said,

“All I did was look around at the problems we’re neglecting now and give them about 30 years to grow into full-fledged disasters.” (2000 AD)

And that is a prompt which I write against in much of my work. On my first day of writing, I was walking past the Salt Eaters bookshop and noticed her name chalked on the ground below the quote:

”You got to create your own worlds.”

The cynic in me is strong, but my eyes swam with tears looking at this message that felt like a bendición over this book. Cynicism and critique are important—but they only get us so far. What can we radically imagine for ourselves that is GOOD? How can we return to right relationship with the Earth and each other? Much like the Tower card in tarot, apocalypse might just provide the building blocks for something new, something better.

I can’t wait to see what ya’ll come up with. Thank you for being here, being now.


Forward,

Schessa Garbutt
Editor & CD, Time and Its Travelers