Submission Guidelines
SINK is not currently open for submissions. Below is a theme summary of our upcoming fifth issue, 'Rest.' We will not respond to submissions outside of our submissions window.
NOTES ON THE THEME
We approach much in life with our eyes closed, but rarely because we are resting. Fatigue is the lynchpin of our society. We are driven, relentlessly, towards the unreachable finish line: wealth, productivity, success. Artistry. Prodigy. Genius. Innovation. As creatives, we are often compelled by a commercial or remunerative imperative, the desire to make our art stand out in an increasingly individualistic world.
Deprogramming grind culture is a colossal undertaking. It is linked inextricably with white supremacy, heteronormativity, the nuclear family, patriarchy, ableism. It is also a trauma, one so profound and so recurrent that it has become entrenched in our sense of self and being. But we are not what we produce.
It is as Audre Lorde wrote: “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
If the body is our politics, then pursue body liberation. Sleep with your friends in your arms, your hands encasing them. Nap with your cat under your chin so that you are roused by the tickle of its fur. Erect a hammock and daydream in the open air.
Artist, activist and theologian Tricia Hersey approaches napping as a form of resistance against oppressive structures, and as a form of performance art. In her book Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto, she espouses a “gospel of rest”, a “red brick through the glass window of capitalism.”
A revolution founded on dreams. An uprising built on slumber. Liberation is respite. When we have time to rest, we have time to picture the world we want to fashion for ourselves. We have time to give voice to our fantasies. Or we have time, simply, to render our own way of being.
Have a languorous sleep. The kind that you can afford to dip into and out of again as a receding tide in a hot, shimmering summer. Fall into your dreams and let them shape your world into something unseen, something unseeable. Sleep for so long that you become intertwined with the harvest.
We want your pieces about rest. We want the things you made in the throngs of burnout, desperate to find your spark again. We want the art that you made as a form of rest and recovery. We want the work that helps your audience to feel restful. We want the pieces that make you feel connected to yourself. Not your “best”, your most sellable, your most popular art. The art that makes you feel free.
ABOUT THE MAGAZINE
SINK is a creative and literary leftist magazine open to submissions of any kind, including cross-genre submissions. Our primary goal is to curate work from underrepresented people from the north of England, with particular emphasis on work from people of colour, people who are genderqueer/LGBTQ+, people living with disabilities, survivors of sexual violence, and working class creatives.
Currently, SINK only publishes short stories, flash fiction, essays poetry, art (including photography) etc by creatives from the North of England, meaning anyone who has spent a significant amount of time in the North from living, studying, working etc.
We take submissions for our themed issues during specific submission windows. Our blog takes submissions at any time.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
1. Writing can be in any form from articles, to personal essays, to short stories, flash fiction, and hybrid pieces, but no more than 3000 words. Poems should be no longer than 2 pages, but multiple poems may be submitted. Any art submissions must be sent in high resolution PDF or JPEG format.
2. Please send all submissions to our email or submission box (displayed below) with the subject line SUBMISSION (Issue 4).
3. We are a political and Northern magazine. Please keep this in mind when submitting. We do not require submissions to be political in content or to refer explicitly to the North of England but it is something to remember.
4. Please submit your work with a short bio and your social media handles if you want us to tag you when we promote the issue and your work in it. If you would rather not be on our social media, please let us know in your initial submissions email too (needless to say, this will NOT affect your chances of being featured!)
5. Do NOT send us work that is misogynistic, racist, homophobic, transphobic or discriminatory in nature. You will be blocked from submitting again. If you are unsure, do not send it to us.
6. To re-iterate, we are open to and even keen to feature genre-defying work. Send us whatever you have, the more unconventional the better!
Either send in your submission to the form below or email us using the address editors@sinkmagazine.co.uk. We look forward to working with you!