Call for short form fiction and creative non-fiction, art, stories, photography, interviews, philosophy, essays, histories, memoirs, and more.

Due: 10 January 2018

Breath is a thing and an action, it is atmosphere and oxygen, asthma, emphysema. Breath is sighing and choking, halitosis and singing, breath is suffocation and flatulence. Breath is what makes us float or sink. Breath. Respiration, energy, ecology, meditation, resuscitation, atmosphere, condensation. We take breathing for granted—but it is a remarkable gesture, for to breathe is to be alive. Awareness of the breath allows us to observe ourselves, and perhaps to become aware of the spaces between body and spirit, nature and culture, self and other. Breath pervades everything we do but is impossible to capture. It indicates how we are feeling; if we are stressed it becomes shallow. If we are tired it morphs into a yawn. By its nature, breathing is the basis of all human and many non-human activities. We save lives when we resuscitate. We speak and sing with breath. 

Now take a breath…

This book will explore breath and breathing in all their intricacies. Like previous Trunk Volumes, it will be a compendium of art, photography, fiction, essays, history, and poetry. As well as artists, novelists and scholars there will be work by astronauts and deep-sea divers. The volume will be the third in the award-winning Trunk volumes, which have included Hair (2009) and Blood (2012).

Please lodge your submission by completing the online submission form, click below.

Submission Process

We receive literally hundreds of submissions. We are not able to respond personally to every submission as we recognise the huge effort that goes into your creative work, however, Trunk is a labour of love and a project that we devote our spare time to, so thanks for your understanding. We will only contact you if we want to include your work. If you have not heard from us please assume that your submission was not suitable for this volume. Trunk is assessed by Boccalatte Publishing’s advisory board and submissions are peer-reviewed.

We only accept digital submissions.  

Fees

Trunk is a non-profit project—revenue from each volume is used to fund the next volume. Taking this into account, we are not in a position to pay contributors. However, you will receive a complimentary copy of the volume.