“Evil has a blockbuster audience. Goodness lurks backstage. Goodness is really and truly hard. You can’t seduce it. Writing and trying to find language for it is probably all I have ever done.”
– Toni Morrison
Description
Peace is a quality of relations we need to work towards in every generation. Unsolicited Press is seeking bold, original work for an upcoming anthology exploring works that speak to the ways we inherit and carry forward peace, both as a daily practice and a way of living in good relationship with the world around us.
Themes
We are looking for essays, poems, and/or ritual practices that offer pathways for collective dialogue and that continue to build on inherited legacies of peace. Some questions the editors are interested in are:
- “How is peace passed down in your culture/family/community?”
- “How do you honor your legacy of peace?”
- “How have you created communities of feeling that sustain peace and caring for each other?”
We welcome submissions in multiple languages. For works in indigenous and creole languages, please provide an accompanying version for reviewers in English, Spanish, Portuguese, or French. We aim to create an audiobook version and will be requesting recordings from participating authors.
Guidelines
- Original work accepted in poetry, flash, short story, imagery, annotated ritual practice:
- Prose: Up to 1200 words, file formats: doc, docx.
- Poetry: Up to 4 poems, 7 pages max, file formats: doc, docx.
- Still Images: Up to 3 images, 300 dpi, file formats: jpg, tiff, or png.
How to Submit
Please send your work via [Duosoma or Subfolio]:
Link / Info A brief cover letter (250 words max)
The title of your piece in the subject line or form
Your manuscript in .docx format
Simultaneous submissions are accepted but please notify the editors immediately should your submission be accepted elsewhere.
There is no submission fee associated with this reading period.
No AI-assisted submissions.
Compensation & Rights
- Contributors receive a free copy of the anthology upon publication.
- We request first North American serial rights, nonexclusive anthology rights
- Rights revert to the author after publication.
Timeline
- Submission Period: [March 2 – May 15, 2026]
- Author Notification: [August 31, 2026]
- Publication in 2027
Meet the Editors:
Leonora Simonovis is a Venezuelan American writer, editor, and teaching artist, and the author of Study of the Raft (Colorado Prize for Poetry 2021). Her work considers the intersections of myth, language, and story in connection to the land and to her experience as an exile. Her poems and essays have been featured in the Poetry Foundation, Poetry Magazine, the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day, About Place Journal, Amsterdam Review, Whale Road Review, and others. She received fellowships and residencies from The Poetry Foundation, VONA, CalArts, the Vermont Studio Center, Esperimento Sul Respiro and Anaphora. Leonora lives on the unceded lands of the Seneca Nation in upstate New York.
Amy Shimshon-Santo was born on Tovaangar land in current day L.A. and has immediate family in the Americas, the Northern Territories, and the Middle East. She is the author of six books (four poetry collections, a limited edition chapbook, and an essay collection). Her most recent works are Piecework: Ethnographies of Place (Unsolicited Press) and Random Experiments in Bioluminescence (Flowersong Press). Her writing appears in Prairie Schooner, Tikkun, ArtPlace America, ASAP/J, Zocalo Public Square, GeoHumanities, Public, UC Press, Urban Education, SUNY Press, Journal of Writers’ Project Ghana and more. She has edited publications for UC Press, LA Public Library, Braille Institute of America, Illinois Open Publishing Network, Libretto Magazine, and Revista de Crítica Cultura. Amy has been a guest artist with UNESCO (Mexico), Pa Gya Lit Fest (Ghana), Lagos Int’l Poetry Festival (Nigeria), and universities in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Nicaragua, and Brazil. She has been nominated for an Emmy Award, a Rainbow Reads Award, Pushcart Prizes, Best of the Net, and was a finalist for NightBoat Poetry Prize.
About the Publisher
Unsolicited Press publishes fearless, craft-driven work across genres, with a commitment to independent voices and reader-first storytelling. We believe in literature that disrupts, questions, and connects.
