OPEN CALL: SOLARPUNK
FIRST ANTHOLOGY ZINE
“You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere,” writes Ursula K. Le Guin. Climate crisis, alienation through capitalism, a push to the right, and bleak outlooks for the future are current notions that dominate our everyday. Notions, which are often portrayed in fiction as well. Think about dystopias or post-apocalyptic art, I’m sure much of it will come to mind. Be it Mad Max (1979), 1984 (1949), The Road (2006), for instance. Think now of utopias in popular culture. Sure, some might come to mind, think Star Trek: Voyager (1995) or Kogonada’s After Yang (2021). Nonetheless, dystopia overweighs utopia. We, therefore, have decided to focus our first thematic anthology zine on the genre of: Solarpunk!
Submit
What we want is simple: We want hope. We want revolution. We want a future that is green, sunny, full of diversity. Stories that seek and project the unconventional; that worships beauty and utopia. If anything, make us, the reader, feel. (Confused? No worries, on the next slide you will find resources that define Solarpunk and are bound to inspire you!)) We are looking for 6 stories. They should be short stories with a maximum of 3000 words and should be written in English, German, French, or Luxembourgish. The authors of which the stories have been accepted will receive a payment of 50 euros, as well ass two copies of the anthology. The story will be printed and published online on the website. Additionally, the story will be edited in corespondance with the author, of course. The submission deadline is the 20th of April. The zine will be published at the end of the year. The jury are the Aner Welten founders: Sandy Heep and Cosimo Suglia. Please follow the formatting rules on our website. You can find them here. Ready to submit? Awesome, follow this link to go to the submition portal.
Solarpunk
Not familiar with Solarpunk? No problem! Cosimo, for instance, has recently written what Solarpunk is in his introductory essay: Solarpunk: Optimism, Utopia, and Futurism - Genre Summary. Just to be clear, all of the definitions, Cosimo’s included, are not prescriptive of what the genre exactly is. It is a young genre, and while, yes, there are commonalities, definitional discussions happen constantly. And this is good. It challenges the prescriptiveness; it influences the genre, shapes it, and makes it essentially fluid. And so does writing or producing in said genre. Your art adds to the discussion and shapes it. That is why we encourage all of you to keep to your voice and style and raw emotions. Give us your narrative. Tell the story you want to tell. Please bear this in mind while going through the next links! - Solarpunk: Against a Shitty Future - Solarpunk – die sonnige Therapie gegen Endzeitstimmung - Solarpunk Magazine - Solarpunk Storytelling Showcase by XR WORDSMITHS
Reader
Yes, you the reader are also asked. Considering that we are doing this on a voluntary basis and this is very much a non-profit, we need financial help. This applies especially when it comes to paying professional copy editors and printing. We pay writers out of our own pocket and donations. We have therefore decided that we will realize this project on a funding basis. We have set up a donation page, where you can get more details and have a look at the benefits! You can find the donation page here.