Call for Pitches: Geez 45, Time Being
Credit: John Fraissinet
Deadline for pitches: November 7, 2016
We need to live into a different way of being on the planet. Our sense of time is too easily stretched and strained according to the demands of a work day or the perpetual trials of feeling productive. Or, if we’re under-employed or elderly, our days and moments may seen useless when measured with a capitalist clock.
Calls for non-fiction pieces (see description 1. below)
We invite pitches dealing with any of these and related questions:
• How do you live your day and avoid feeling like a loser if you lack productivity or “appearances of success”?
• How does your “unproductive” life actually fit well into a post-fossil-fuel future?
• Is a back-to-the-land, hobby farmer always working, or are they living the dream?
• What can we learn from the rhythms of a monastery or convent?
• How do you spend your time? Wait, maybe that is a capitalist question! In what problematic ways do we equate time with money, equate progress with profit.
• What are the merits of delayed gratification? For example, why would you still grow flowers/vegetables, when you can buy them at the store? Why would DIY seed-saving be better than big-box, garden centre savings?
• What is life like in an anti-capitalist time zone? A good answer to this question could calm our soul, inspire alternative communities, and provide avenues of resistance against this world’s divisiveness.
• “The promise of technology was that it would make us masters of time,” said Harold Schweizer, author of On Waiting. “It has, ironically, made us into time’s slaves.”* What role, if any, does technology play in helping us engage with time?
• What can you write on one of these topics?
– Device-free retreat
– Taking time, making time
– Attention spam
– Power of boredom
– Virtue of laziness
– Slowness is prophetic
– Waiting
– Dwell well
– Jesus said, “Don’t worry about tomorrow…” WTF!
– Multi-tasking, multi-problems
– Flow moments
– Mindfulness and social justice
– Eternity is here, now what? (comedic entries welcome)
– You pray, iPray
Calls for flash non-fiction (see description 2. below)
Describe where you were and what you were doing when you felt a magical time. Was your sense of time muted as you sat deafened next to the wet roar of a giant waterfall? Did you feel a connection to everything, for a minute one afternoon while cross-legged on your mat in year five of your yoga regimen? When did you taste a different kind of time? Tell us in 50-350 words.
Notes about submissions
We want long-form journalism, personal stories of transformation, short bursts of feelings, nuggets of insight, and inspiration. Pick your aspect of the topic and expand with personal experience, researched wisdom, or spiritual insight.
In a great pitch, you describe the story, explain how it’s a perfect fit for Geez, list the sources you’ll consult, and state why you’re the best person to write it (see contact info and deadline below).
1. Longer non-fiction pieces, length: 650 or 1300 words:
We’re looking for creative non-fiction essays, investigative articles or research-based pieces on the topic above. While a reference to your personal experience is welcome, readers need wisdom from other sources as well (interviews, books, articles, theologians, social-justice activists, academics, and moms and dads). Pitches should be one page, touch on the wider context of your topic and name at least one other source you will be consulting. Here’s a request: Please think of yourself as a Geez contributing editor. Ask yourself, What would readers who are social-justice oriented and at the fringes of faith want to read on this topic? If your pitch is accepted you’ll usually have three to four weeks to complete the piece.
2. Flash non-fiction, length: 50-350 words:
These are short, personal experiences or insights. Your piece should capture a moment that illuminates a larger issue or convey a feeling familiar to us all. This is a chance to bring hope, insight, emotion, and connection to readers. Think of it as a snapshot with words.
3. Photos/illustrations:
Consider the topic above and send original photographs (i.e. you took the photo) or illustrations that provoke or pacify, animate or incite. Or, if you know of a photographer or illustrator who can deliver an awesome photo essay or series of drawings and is willing to get big play in a premium little magazine for a modest honorarium, please pass this pitch along.
Tips for pitches:
The Geez project is a discussion among people of faith seeking social justice. Our readers and writers express this through art, activism (a creative critique of those in power and the structures that keep them there, the promotion of alternative practices that subvert such powers), contemplation and a “more-grounded, interconnected” approach to living.
Additional info
Before pitching, please read our guidelines for writers.
Ideally we would like to respond personally to every piece of correspondence we receive. But given the number of submissions we receive – and having tried to respond to all – we realize it is just not possible. If you do not hear back from us within six weeks assume that we were unable to use your submission.
Deadline for pitches: November 7, 2016
Send pitches, manuscripts and images to
Geez editor, Aiden Enns
email: stories [at] geezmagazine [dot] org
mail:
Geez magazine
400 Edmonton Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2M2
Canada
*Note: The Harold Schweizer quote is from Ron Alsop, “Instant Gratification & Its Dark Side,” Bucknell Magazine, July 17, 2014.
Image credit: CC, “Commute Zombies,” New York, NY, by John Fraissinet via Flickr
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