Literary Anthology Issue 4: “Love, Surrendered.”
Love is the inimitable, ineffable force that moves us, creates us, and evolves us.
However, it is not only a simplistic “love” that we wish to explore in Issue 4 of our publication. It is love’s varying and multidimensional forms — desire, lust, self-love, self-preservation, orgasm of many varieties, empathy, compassion, grace, rage, sorrow, and more — that we wish to explore.
And deeper, it is not only forms of love, but the surrendering to these forms explored, that we wish to exhibit. What is it to surrender, and surrender to love? What are the visceral, subtle, and lived challenges of surrendering? What does love teach you as you surrender deeper and deeper into its alluring force?
Allow the following prompts to guide you in your reflection and creation:
- Poeticize your self-forgiveness and process extending forgiveness.
- Write on cultural evolution as a demonstration of choosing love.
- What does it mean to learn (& live) the language of true love?
- Poeticize the consequences of love at the intersection of love, rage, and sorrow.
- Write about your experience of an expanding or opening heart.
- Write of the texture and flavors of grace as you have experienced it.
Details about Issue 4:
Issue 4 will launch in November 2025.
General Guidelines
- Themes to keep in mind + heart while considering your submission: Love, Body, Spirituality, Wellness, Identity
- You are welcome to submit if you identify as a woman of color. If you do not but are passionate about this platform and opportunity, please extend your passion by sharing this opportunity with a special woman of color writer or artist in your life.
- All submissions must be original and unpublished; we do not accept previously published submissions, either in print or digitally. We ask for First Electronic and Archival Rights: your selected submission will first be shared through our digital Literary Anthology before it is published elsewhere. We will then archive your work to be accessed for future purposes/inspiration/teaching. You retain copyright of your original work. By submitting your work, you agree to this.
- The contents of your submission are original and your sole creation — no AI involved. We embrace your authentic creative intelligence.
- There is a USD $5 fee for each submission, and a USD $10 fee for each writing submission requesting editorial feedback. All submission fees support the costs and maintenance of this publication and platform.
- We hold your submissions in strict confidence and privacy, whether or not they are published. Your submission will only be seen by the Wellspringwords® editorial team.
- We do not offer monetary compensation at this time. If you desire to support our initiative of empowering writers and artists, you may contact us to discuss sponsorship opportunities.
Specific to Writing
We joyfully welcome poetry, personal narrative, fiction, and experimental writing, on the theme of “Love, Surrendered.” Let your writing be soulful; let it be deep. Write from a deeper place within your body, psyche, and heart. Let your mind rest and allow language to flow from a messier, more intelligent, purer, and most honest place within your multidimensional being.
As you prepare to share your written artwork with us, if you desire to fortify and nourish this soulful writing quality, please engage in any part of our Creative Enrichment Studio — 1-1 coaching, online immersions, self-paced courses, and A Writer’s Paradise. We are here to support you beyond this publication.
In the end, we’ll choose a few pieces from each genre to publish in Issue 4, our Autumn/Winter 2025 issue.
- Maximum word count for prose: 3,000; you may submit 1 piece for consideration. Please ensure your piece has a title.
- Maximum word count for poetry: 500; you may submit up to 2 poems for consideration. Each poem may be up to 500 words. Ensure all poems are in one document, each with its own title.
- Translations from any language into English are welcome. Please note if your submission is a translation, what language it is translated from, and who it is translated by.
- As the mission of this platform is to amplify the expressions of women of color, any references/external quotes you consider using should be representative of that.
- Submissions requesting editorial feedback will undergo an intimate and trauma-informed editorial process that includes developmental feedback, intending to support the writer in deepening and refining their authentic voice.
Specific to Visual Art
We’re excited to consider any rendering of visual art to include in Issue 4 on the theme of “Love, Surrendered.”: photography, painting, collage, digital media, textile art, figure art, sculpture, experimental art, intuitive art — let your authentic creative power burn bright.
For the cover, we’ll choose the artwork that best encapsulates the issue’s theme and the chosen writing for the issue.
- You may submit up to 4 pieces of artwork for consideration. Please ensure all pieces are high-quality images in PNG or JPG. Each piece should have its own title.
