Between Realism and Imagination: Building Queer Worlds

The accumulation of crises and their intensification since 2019 have imposed many realisms that, at times, seem inescapable. We attempt to break free by trying to find different answers and alternative readings that would resist economic collapse, pandemics, climate change. This call, a continuation of the first dossier on “Leaving Systems: What Alternatives?,” seeks to leave the norms of living and writing behind, by drawing other utopias and possible/speculative realities.

How do we create space for queer futurities amidst worsening crises? As alternatives seem to fail, or play into the system’s encroaching power, how do we recover and rebuild as commons? Where to go with our rage and anger? How do we let go of individual survival in favor of resistance and solidarity?

This dossier is largely devoted to visual materials, such as drawings, graphics, caricatures, and comics, in addition to short films, podcasts, poetry, prose, testimonies, and texts. We are looking for content that is creative, imaginative, and collaborative and participatory at the same time, so that the utopias envisioned are rooted in our material realities.

The deadline to submit complete work or to send a proposal is Thursday, October 20, 2021. The dossier is slated for publication in November 2021. After that date, we will be accepting submissions on a rolling basis.

We encourage submissions in Arabic, and can also accept texts in English, French, and Spanish. In light of our commitment to extend our transnational work, we also welcome contributions from South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia/the Pacific, among other contexts of the South.

To submit, please send your contribution to submit@kohljournal.press as a .doc or .docx file, with “Submission Dossier 2” as the subject of your e-mail.

If accepted for inclusion, please note that your paper will be translated to a second language by our team.