Call for submissions

We are searching for innovative ways of looking at what is near and far, while exploring the world of Central and Eastern Europe and South-Eastern Africa.

As part of the project “Deconfining Arts, Culture and Politics in Europe and Africa”, the ART TRANSPARENT Foundation, PRO PROGRESSIONE and Women’s History Museum Zambia are pleased to announce a call for submissions to the Intercontinental Anthology:

NARRATIVES OF CLOSENESS AND DISTANCE FROM CENTRAL-EASTERN EUROPE AND SOUTH-EASTERN AFRICA – A MULTICONTEXTUAL PATCHWORK

Editors: Urszula Markowska-Manista & Natasha Omokhodion-Kalulu Banda

Description

By bringing together 8 artists, scholars and practitioners from Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Czechia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia who search for common points and connections in intercontinental history, memories, art, science and fine literature, we are searching for innovative ways of looking at what is near and far, while exploring the world of Central and Eastern Europe (i.e. Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia) and South-Eastern Africa (i.e. Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia).

We invite authors who feel close to these contexts and who express themselves in and through various, new forms of presentation. This anthology hopes to develop a more comprehensive understanding and theorization of the connections and distances in experiencing, thinking and telling about closer and more distant worlds whose places and spaces reveal their artistic, scientific and literary potential. We are looking for unique narratives that de-orient, decolonize and bring knowledge and practice closer.

We invite the following submissions: personal essays, counter-stories (fiction and non-fiction), memories (part of the diary), academic articles, re-told fables and tales.

Themes: Deconfinement. Closeness and distance – exploring spaces and places, past, present and future, between South-Eastern Africa and Central and Eastern Europe. Borderlands, reading people’s experiences, showing the potential and the meaningfulness of things, new dimensions of rituals here and there and “in between”. Discovering tacit, indigenous, regional knowledge as a bridge to mutual understanding. Knowledge at the intersection of art and science as a step towards a reading of shared meanings.

Submission Criteria:

  • Language: English
  • Submissions must reflect the theme
  • Characters count: 54,000 (including spaces and punctuation marks)
  • Format: Microsoft Word, Times New Roman 1.5 spaced, 12-point size. The title of the text should appear at the top of the first page followed by the characters count. Every page must be numbered. Do not put your name anywhere in the document. 
  • Only one submission per author is allowed. Submissions are accepted only via email. Entries should be sent to opencall@arttransparent.org
  • As an attachment to the e-mail with the application, a file with the required personal data should be attached, including such information as your legal name, country of residence, age and contact details.
  • Entries must not have been previously published. 
  • Entrants agree as a condition of entry that the anthology publishers may publicize the fact that their text has been entered, longlisted, or shortlisted for publishing.
  • By submitting an entry, the author agrees to its inclusion in the anthology should it be selected by the editors, and to work with the editors to prepare the story for publication.
  • By submitting an entry, the author attests that it is their original work and grants exclusive global print and digital rights to ART TRANSPARENT. Should the entry be longlisted or selected for publication in the anthology, the copyright remains with the author. 
  • The decisions of the editorial team in relation to the selected entries are final and not subject to appeal.
  • Shortlisted writers will be expected to submit their pictures and other information necessary for publicizing the prize on social and other media. 
  • The winners will be expected to take part in publicity activities, including social media, whenever possible.
  • The authors of the texts selected for publication will receive a remuneration of EUR 500 gross.

Rules and regulations

Eligibility

  • You must be a citizen of, or reside in, any of the following countries: Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Czechia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia
  • You must be over 18 years old at the time of submission

Submission deadline (full text) extended to 4 June 2023

Natasha Omokhodion-Kalulu Banda is a Zambian of Nigerian and Jamaican heritage. Her short stories have featured in various publications, including ‘Short Story Day Africa 2018’ for Door of No Return, which was translated into Portuguese for Brazilian Journal ‘Periferias’. Her latest short story, Her Sweetie, Her Sugarcane has been released in Harper Via’s anthology ‘Reflections’. She is an alumni of Curtis Brown Creative’s Breakthrough Course for Black Writers, and an MA candidate in Creative Writing at Kingston University London. Her first book No Be From Hia was selected as a Graywolf Africa Press finalist in 2019. Published in Zambia, it has gone on to markets in South Africa, Canada, and is due for release in the UK by Legend Press. She has served the Afritondo Prize judging panel in 2022, and is a Board Member of Alliance Française of Lusaka.

 

 

Urszula Markowska-Manista, PhD
I self-identify as a researcher of education and childhoods in culturally diverse environments, conducting interdisciplinary fieldwork in a variety of contexts (the Horn of Africa, Central Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, and the South Caucasus). My work draws on inclusive and participatory approaches, decolonial methodologies, interclusion, ‘difficult knowledge’ and ethical symmetry. I have been in academia for 20 years and have held positions at universities in Poland and Germany. From 2016-2021 I served as director (FU Berlin 2016) and co-director (2017-2021 FH Potsdam) of the international MA Childhood Studies and Children’s Rights (MACR) programme and from 2017-2018 as head of the UNESCO Janusz Korczak Chair at the APS. Currently, I’m an assistant professor and researcher at the University of Warsaw (Faculty of Education). Two decades of successful international research experience have resulted in recognised practical and research projects, academic and non-academic publications, and international cooperation in diverse places and spaces of activity in which I focus on human rights, voice, and participation.

If:

  • you’re fascinated by all kinds of relations between East-Central Europe and South-East Africa,
  • you like writing (we are interested in journalistic and academic texts, counter-stories, poetry, memoirs, re-told fairy tales and fables),
  • you have an interesting story to tell,
  • you want to take part in a unique, multidisciplinary project based on intercontinental cooperation

send us your text to be included in the publication: “NARRATIVES OF CLOSENESS AND DISTANCE FROM CENTRAL-EASTERN EUROPE AND SOUTH-EASTERN AFRICA – A MULTICONTEXTUAL PATCHWORK“, edited by Urszula Markowska-Manista (Poland) & Natasha Omokhodion-Kalulu Banda (Zambia).

We offer:

  • participation in an innovative project focused on the past and present relations between two regions: Central Europe and South-East Africa,
  • the possibility of working on texts with an exceptional editorial team,
  • remuneration of 500 euro/text,
  • publicity and participation in events promoting the publication in Africa and Europe.

Interested?

Take part in the Q&A session held on 15 May at 12 noon. This is a unique opportunity to meet the editors of the publication. To participate in the Q&A session, simply write to us at opencall@arttransparent.org.

Remember, the deadline for submitting texts is Thursday, 25 May 2023.

Submission deadline (full text) extended to 4 June 2023

About Project

Organiser:

Partnership:

The project is funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

 

Project “Deconfining arts, culture and policies in Europe and Africa (DECONFINING)” co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Supported by members of

 

The task entitled “Deconfining Arts, Culture and Politics in Europe and Africa” has been co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund – a state purpose fund, as part of the Promesa dla Kultury programme.
– co-financing: PLN 340,024.56 zł
– total value of the task: PLN 1,111,818.37