Current Open Submissions/CFPs

Almanac for the Anthropocene: A Compendium of Solarpunk Futures

Submissions are closed unless you have a recipe/blueprint/direct action–basically, anything except essays. If you have something that might work, please feel free to contact us until March 15th.

Under contract for Salvaging the Anthropocene series from West Virginia University Press:

Our goal with this edited collection is to provide an accessible handbook to transform the Anthropocene rather than fear it. Each chapter will have the same basic outline of interdisciplinary theory, solarpunk testimonies, and practical action. The action could take the form of recipes, building plans, how to organize a protest, etc. Each action will emphasize not just resistance to capitalism and climate disaster on its own, but also on how these ideas can be molded to resist capitalism structurally. The four sections will focus on ingenuity, generative, independence, and community.

What is Solarpunk?

A solarpunk imagines new futures in the shadow of and in opposition to environmental collapse, then works to create those futures. A solarpunk doesn’t just have ideas and beliefs; a solarpunk enacts. On paper, being a solarpunk might sound like being a Marxist, a municipalist, or another ideology entirely. Yet, a different kind of necessity turns solarpunk thought into action. Mainly extinction. A solarpunk might approach a problem with the following questions: How do my actions impact my human and nonhuman community? What intentionality fuels this issue? Does the following action dismantle a damaging system like capitalism? Does this action produce radical care of self and others? Does this action overcome the cultural desire to consume?

In other words, being a solarpunk is not just about solar. Neither is it Woodstock for the new millennium. The emphasis on solar reminds us of environmental interconnectedness. Human-nonhuman-sunlight-nightlight-mineral-oil-ocean-and-and-and. A solarpunk gives life back to words like intersectional and community.

Solarpunk grew to life online sometime in 2008 but became more widely recognized with the publication of Solarpunk: Histórias ecológicas e fantásticas em um mundo sustentável edited by Gerson Lodi-Ribeiro in 2012 and Adam Flynn’s “Notes toward a Solarpunk Manifesto” in 2014. Returning to the collective roots of cyberpunk, the first solarpunks gravitated to online spaces to build the lifestyle. A consistent interest in community, green spaces, and practical but pleasant art-nouveau design defined early solarpunk, though the community debated how these elements would be included in deserts or less hospitable climates. Foundationally, solarpunk rejected the dystopian hopelessness of speculative literature trending after 9/11. This rejection of dystopia did not mean embracing utopia, however. Rather, solarpunks aimed for something in the middle, such as the ambiguous utopias of Ursula K. Le Guin’s work. The goal of solarpunk was not to dream of perfect worlds but to strive for something sustainable in the Anthropocene.

Guidelines

We invite contributors from all disciplines, and we especially encourage and welcome submissions from diverse voices and under-represented populations, including, but not limited to, people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, those with disabilities, and the elderly. Authors of all walks of life should feel encouraged to send us work that engages with solarpunk in some way. We are looking for, but not limited to:

Short critical papers (preferably around 3,000 words but if it’s longer, we will still consider it)

Interviews/Talks

Scientific reports

Recipes

Blueprints

Maps

Sidebars/Short thoughts (150 words)

Illustrative explorations

Inventions

Designs

Thought experiments

As solarpunk is a growing area of creation and study, we will be accepting abstracts, queries, proposals, and complete submissions. If you have questions, please e-mail us. We will be accepting on a rolling basis, but final deadline for complete submissions is January 15th as the manuscript will be submitted on February 15th.

E-mail submissions and queries to solarpunk2040@protonmail.com

If applicable, please submit in MLA format.

For more information on solarpunk, please see our previous edited collection: Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk & Eco-Speculation

A note on lack of payment: since we are posting this call for submissions on solarpunk and creative writing venues, we wanted to explain why we cannot offer pro rates like we did with our first book, Sunvault. Unfortunately, it’s not a great answer. Simply, the academic publishing system doesn’t work that way. In fact, sometimes it works the opposite, and paying authors can be seen to devalue the book (I know, that’s not a good reason). If your work is accepted, you will have an academic publication on your record. If that’s of interest to you, then we hope you will submit!

About Us: Phoebe Wagner is currently pursuing a PhD in English at University of Nevada: Reno while Brontë attempts to balance independent scholarship and creative writing.