Issue 5 of the Wellspringwords® Literary Anthology | “To Be a Living Ancestor” | For women and men of color

In this issue of our Literary Anthology, we wish to explore our humanity through a sacred lens. As beings of the Earth, we begin a physical ancestral journey as soon as we’re born. There is wisdom that lives through and beyond each of us, and there is wisdom waiting to be created through our individual and collective life experiences.

Through the body, through what is woven, through our choices, through what is passed down, through forgetting, through remembering, through breaking apart, through union, through birth, through completion — what can it mean To Be A Living Ancestor? Not an individual only looking to those who came before for guidance, but an individual genuinely, messily, intentionally (or unconsciously), living their ancestral experience?

May the following themes spark meaningful movement in your reflection and creation:

Magic in the mundane

Joys of domesticity

Honoring the Earth

Time as a gift

The lifespan of grief in the body

Living acts of service 

Developing one’s medicine

Evolution through presence

Weaving, craft, and storytelling

Food as medicine, cooking as craft

Memory, loss, rage

Messages from the trees

Ritual, altar-keeping, living as a sanctuary

Sacred motherhood, fatherhood, parenthood

For five years, we have published expressions from only women of color on this platform. For this issue, we joyfully welcome poetry, personal narrative, fiction, and experimental writing from both women and men of color. Let’s see (& learn) how feminine and masculine voices harmonize in our unique exploration of soulful literature and art.

We’re excited to consider any rendering of visual art to include in Issue 5 in alignment with our theme: photography, painting, collage, digital media, textile art, figure art, sculpture, experimental art, intuitive art — let your authentic creative power glow bright. For the cover, we’ll choose the artwork that best encapsulates Issue 5’s theme and the selected writing. Aside from the cover, your submission will also be considered for inclusion in the issue itself.

As you prepare to share your work 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, and self-paced courses. We are here to support you beyond this publication.

Details about Issue 5:

• Submission window: January 19 – March 15, 2026 at 11:59 pm PST

• Writers will be notified if their submission is selected by April 27, 2026.

• Issue 5 will launch in May 2026.