Southwest Contemporary is now accepting pitches for our next print issue—themed “Radical Futures.”
As a companion to our Spring-Summer 2024 issue, Living Histories, Radical Futures will explore how our actions in the present will shape the future to come. What values will we carry forward? What should we discard?
In envisioning radical futures, artists lead the way by questioning long-held belief systems and challenging the status quo. Art can communicate radical approaches to reorientation, transformation, and regeneration. Art provokes exercises of the imaginary, reveals future pathways, and builds new worlds.
In this issue, we ask, what is the future of art, design, and culture? Who are the artists and thinkers who are envisioning those futures? How will systems and institutions change, evolve, or be abolished? How are artists in the Southwest region imagining rural and urban futures, issues of land and water, decolonization and Indigenous sovereignty, technology and media, ecology and environmental justice, and other topics vital to our future?
From utopian to dystopian, these kinds of radical imaginings help us better understand the challenges and struggles of today and what we might do to overcome them. Radical futures tug at the roots of the structures and systems in place, revealing their interconnections and loosening their grip. Radical futures uproot determinism and despair—and hold up the possibility of a new world.
Ideas we seek to explore include:
- Indigenous futurism.
- Latinx / Border futurism.
- Black / Afro-futurism.
- Queer futurism.
- Utopian / dystopian discourses.
- Rural / urban futures.
- Food futures / water futures.
- Ecology, climate, and geopolitical futures.
- Capitalist realism / economic futures.
- Tech futures: AI, AR, VR, surveillance, and privacy.
- Place-knowing, Querencia, hyper-local movements.
- Short-form speculative fictions and fantasies.
Types of articles we will consider include:
- Reporting.
- Features.
- Creative essays.
- Studio visits / artist profiles.
- Interviews.
- Cultural criticism.
- Short fiction.
- Experimental text-based works.
- Food and drink / travel writing.
- Reviews (exhibitions reviews should be timely and therefore do not need to adhere to the theme).
Pitch submission guidelines:
- Pro tip: Read our pitch guidelines before you submit!
- New to Southwest Contemporary? If you haven’t yet written for Southwest Contemporary, please share 1-2 writing samples in the “link” or “attachment” fields in the pitch submission form. Writing samples need not be published.
- New to arts writing? Please pitch us anyway! We seek a diverse range of voices, perspectives, and rhetorical styles. We believe both established and aspiring writers are capable of making valuable contributions to SWC, and our goal is to empower each writer to hone their writing skills and cultivate their own unique voice.
- If your pitch is accepted and SWC commissions a story, you can expect to work closely and collaboratively with arts editor Natalie Hegert throughout the editorial process.
- Fees: All contributors are compensated, and articles commissioned for print will be paid according to article length and type (essay, feature, review, etc). The fee will be agreed upon at the time of commission, and typically range from $100 to $500.
Timeline:
Deadline for Radical Futures print pitches: May 6, 2024.
Deadlines for drafts: fall between June 3 and July 15.
Issue published: September 6, 2024.
Questions? Contact Natalie Hegert, arts editor, at natalie@southwestcontemporary.com.