Call for Submissions: Writing from the Future
Clambering across
The stony incline and snows
Collected on high
While the mewling squeals
Of the bindings on the skis
Perturb the silence;
I am reminded
Of a day spent lumbering
Across a lunar sea,
The grey and white dance
Of shadows, just another
Kind of quiet.
— Murasla-dan, Grasp and Claw, poet of the Second Exodus, from the Islamic diaspora, author also of Comings and Goings
∞
Imagine you have survived the ecological crisis of the next hundred years, and you are writing as if you were of that era about the state of things. Or you are a poet writing about the worlds humans occupy thousands of years from now, after we have started to inhabit distant planets.
In my science fiction saga, I have imagined and “created” ten poets writing from various epochs sprawled across the future. One example is given here. I invite you to do something similar. The exercise is challenging. You have to worldbuild and then write in the context of that worldbuilding in a compact way that lets us glimpse your future as well as the perspective of the writer. Your future could be dystopian or it could be something more hopeful, or something exceedingly strange. This is visioning of the best sort.
I propose a limit of 1000 words, although I am not a stickler for rules, and as deadline, March 31st, 2024. Think about writing a short biography of your writer from the future, as well.
Visit our Submissions page to submit your work.