Heather Marie Davis-Jones, When They All Flew Home larger version

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: THE FREE ISSUE

TEA PARTY magazine (www.teapartymagazine.org) seeks submissions of fiction, poetry, photography, visual art, comics, interviews, and feature articles for its upcoming issue #18, to be published in June 2009. Our theme for Issue #18 is THE FREE ISSUE. What does FREE mean to you? How does FREE speak to our investment as individuals and as communities, and what meaning does remain FREE in our society at this particular point in history? What isn’t FREE but should be? What do you give away and what’s been given to you? What would you like to be FREE of? What’s considered FREE to the public? How do you spend your FREE time?

Send us your FREE verse poems (we encourage you to defend the use of free verse). Send us your free-form writing (and explain how white space is being used). Send us your free-space art and writing (and detail if art can exist in its own space devoid of other considerations). Send us your art made from found, FREE  objects. Send us your unique photos that include the word FREE in them. We welcome other ways you can think of to relate to this theme. Surprise us!

What does FREE mean to you? What words or associations does it conjure? Here are just a few possibilities:

Political Freedoms
Incarceration
Local, national,and world economies
Public space
Found art and poetry
Hitchhiking
Free hugs
Free resources
Free housing
Music sharing
Acts of kindness
Free time
Free will
Health care
Free education
Guerilla media
Volunteering
False freedom
Cost vs. value
Oppression and liberation
Airwaves and the Internet
Immigration
Free advice
Stewardship and responsibility
Commodification
Etc.

Email works to by Friday, March 20th, 2009.
Be sure to include “FREE SUBMISSION” in your subject heading.

 

THE NITTY-GRITTY

Cover Price: Yes, Tea Party #18 will be The FREE Issue…but as a non-profit arts and culture enterprise, we regret that we are unable to live offer the magazine at no cost. One of the reasons for this is that we value our contributors’ time and work highly, and our compensation policy is important to us!

Honorarium: Tea Party pays an honorarium of $10 to $50 for all work accepted. Each contributor receives three copies of the issue, as well as an invitation to the magazine release party. Some contributors from each issue will have the opportunity to read their work at this event.

 

WHAT TO SEND US

FICTION: Send one double-spaced, typed story up to 5,000 words. Make sure your name is on each page. Translations of original works welcome.

ESSAYS: Send one double-spaced, typed essay per submission up to 5,000 words. Essays should relate to the theme through an arts and/or culture lens, preferably with social/political analysis, while still meeting the guidelines for strong feature writing. (i.e. doesn’t make the mistake of being too complex, abstract or losing sight of human stories).

POETRY: Send 3-5 poems per submission (no more than 10 pgs total). Translations of original works welcome.

ART, PHOTOGRAPHY, & COMICS: Send 3-5 images of high resolution (at least 300 dpi) and either sent as a TIFF or EPS files only (no JPEGs, PDFs, GIFs, PSDs, or indexed color files). Visual works must also be publishable in black and white or in a sepia color format (not full color) so the higher the contrast the better. Please make sure all images are in grayscale (no RGB, CYMK files, no rich black). Be aware that images created in some programs automatically are color files, even if they LOOK black and white.

REVIEWS: Send 1-2 reviews (up to 5,000 words/each) of books, visual art, plays, music, theater, and dance performances that address the theme. We’re also open to other types of reviews.

INTERVIEWS: Send 1-2 interviews up to 7,000 words/each with an artist, writer, or activist who has developed a substantial body of work, and is considered a major innovator or visionary in their field. We also especially welcome interviews with a homeless of formerly homeless artist or writer, as well as interviews with interviewees from an underrepresented community (i.e. incarcerated, veterans, and so on).

 

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR WORK

We prefer e-mail submissions. Please send as an attachment or pasted into the body of an e-mail. Be sure to include your name, mailing address, e-mail address and phone number on the cover letter, as well as your name on each numbered page. Include a brief bio (50 words or less) with your submission. Please address your submission to Nágila Manfrim at . Snail mail: If you have no computer access you may send submissions to the following address: Attn: Tea Party Magazine Submissions, 1925A Eleventh Avenue, Oakland, CA 94606. Enclose a SASE for our response (include additional postage if work is to be returned). We do not return unsolicited work. Reports on submissions within 6 months. Though we prefer previously unpublished works, we do consider previously published work as well as novel excerpts. Simultaneous submissions are fine if you give us 2 months of lead time before submitting the same work somewhere else. Clearly mark envelope to the appropriate genre editor's attention (e.g. “Fiction Editor”).

Theme: Each issue of Tea Party is devoted to a new theme and so the submitted works must address the special theme for the upcoming issue in order to be considered. Feel free to include a brief explanation as to how you see your work addressing the upcoming theme of “FREE.”

Sample Issues: If you have never read Tea Party before, we strongly suggest you look at an issue before submitting work. Sample back issues are $5, e-mail or call us and we’ll send you one.