Call for Submissions

The ART TRANSPARENT Foundation, PRO PROGRESSIONE and the Women’s History Museum Zambia, in the framework of the project DECONFINING, are launching a call for submissions for an intercontinental anthology:

Narratives of Closeness and Distance from Central-Estern Europe and South-Eastern Africa

Editors: Urszula Markowska-Manista & Natasha Omokhodion-Kalulu Banda

By bringing together 8 artists, scholars and practitioners from Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Czechia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia who search for common points and connections in intercontinental history, memories, art, science and fine literature, we are searching for innovative ways of looking at what is near and far, while exploring the world of Central and Eastern Europe (i.e. Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia) and South-Eastern Africa (i.e. Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia).

We invite authors who feel close to these contexts and who express themselves in and through various, new forms of presentation. This anthology hopes to develop a more comprehensive understanding and theorization of the connections and distances in experiencing, thinking and telling about closer and more distant worlds whose places and spaces reveal their artistic, scientific and literary potential. We are looking for unique narratives that de-orient, decolonize and bring knowledge and practice closer.

We invite the following submissions: personal essays, counter-stories (fiction and non-fiction), memories (part of the diary), academic articles, re-told fables and tales.

Themes: Deconfinement. Closeness and distance – exploring spaces and places, past, present and future, between South-Eastern Africa and Central and Eastern Europe. Borderlands, reading people’s experiences, showing the potential and the meaningfulness of things, new dimensions of rituals here and there and “in between”. Discovering tacit, indigenous, regional knowledge as a bridge to mutual understanding. Knowledge at the intersection of art and science as a step towards a reading of shared meanings.

Submission Criteria:

• Language: English
• Submissions must reflect the theme
• Characters count: 54,000 (including spaces and punctuation marks)
• Format: Microsoft Word, Times New Roman 1.5 spaced, 12-point size. The title of the text should appear at the top of the first page followed by the characters count. Every page must be numbered. Do not put your name anywhere in the document. 
• Only one submission per author is allowed. Submissions are accepted only via email. Entries should be sent to opencall@arttransparent.org
• As an attachment to the e-mail with the application, a file with the required personal data should be attached, including such information as your legal name, country of residence, age and contact details.
• Entries must not have been previously published. 
• Entrants agree as a condition of entry that the anthology publishers may publicize the fact that their text has been entered, longlisted, or shortlisted for publishing.
• By submitting an entry, the author agrees to its inclusion in the anthology should it be selected by the editors, and to work with the editors to prepare the story for publication.
• By submitting an entry, the author attests that it is their original work and grants exclusive global print and digital rights to ART TRANSPARENT. Should the entry be longlisted or selected for publication in the anthology, the copyright remains with the author. 
• The decisions of the editorial team in relation to the selected entries are final and not subject to appeal.
• Shortlisted writers will be expected to submit their pictures and other information necessary for publicizing the prize on social and other media. 
• The winners will be expected to take part in publicity activities, including social media, whenever possible.
• The authors of the texts selected for publication will receive a remuneration of EUR 500 gross.

Rules and regulations

Eligibility

• You must be a citizen of, or reside in, any of the following countries: Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Czechia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia
• You must be over 18 years old at the time of submission

Submission deadline: full text 25 May 2023

→ Download application form