The Academy of American Poets is offering a $100 prize to current CCSF students. Submit three previously unpublished poems and you could fatten your wallet while gaining national recognition.
Click here for details on how to enter (it’s easy, we promise). More information can be found at the Academy of American Poets website.
Contest ends May 5, so get writing!
“Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations.”
― Lawrence Ferlinghetti
**Photo credit of Lawrence Ferlinghetti is “Happy Birthday Lawrence Ferlinghetti” by Christopher.Michel is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Unión de la Expresión Artistica del Norte y Sur de este Continente (The Marriage of the Artistic Expression of the North and of the South on the Continent, or Pan American Unity) (1940) 10 Fresco Panels, 22 ft x 74 ft
“American art has to be the result of a conjunction between the creative mechanism of the North and the creative power of the South coming from the traditional deep-rooted Southern Indian forms.”—Diego Rivera
Forum seeks submissions of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, photography, visual arts & video arts inspired by the themes portrayed in and evoked by Diego Rivera’s mural.
EXTENDED Submission Deadline: May 19th, 2020
See Contest Submissions Guidelines
Email text and visual art submissions to submissions@forumccsf.org with an artist statement of your work, that describes how your work relates to the theme.
There are no buts about it–there will be a Spring 2020 issue of Forum (though, possibly with a small delay). We will continue to keep you updated as we learn more.
AND we are still accepting submissions for the Diego Rivera contest. If you are finding more time on your hands, or even an extra bit of inspiration to explore the themes in the artist’s legendary mural, go here to learn more about how you can participate.
The EXTENDED contest deadline is Thursday, April 23rd, 2020.
Between Certain Death and a Possible Future:
Queer Writing on Growing up with the AIDS Crisis
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Hi all! Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is looking to collect stories that narrate the queer experience in association with the AIDS crisis! Below is a description of the project, as well as guidelines, and Mattilda’s personal background. CHECK IT OUT!
Every queer person lives with the trauma of AIDS, and this plays out intergenerationally. Usually we hear about two generations—the first, coming of age in the era of gay liberation, and then watching entire circles of friends die of a mysterious illness as the government did nothing to intervene. And now we hear about a current generation growing up in an era offering effective treatment and prevention, and unable to comprehend the magnitude of the loss. We are told that these two generations cannot possibly understand one another, and thus remain alienated from both the past and the future. But there is another generation between these two—one growing up in the midst of the epidemic, haunted by the specter of certain death. A generation growing up with AIDS suffusing desire, internalizing the trauma as part of becoming queer. And these are the personal stories I’d like to collect in this book—accounts that overlap with the more commonly portrayed generations, and offer a bridge between.
By telling this specific generational story in all its complications, how do we explore the trauma the AIDS crisis continues to enact, and imagine a way out? How do race, class, gender, sexuality, age, ability, religion, ethnicity, indigeneity, rural/urban experience, regional/national origin, Global South/Global North perspective, HIV status, and access to treatment and prevention (over time and in shifting contexts) shape personal experience? What is excluded from the glorified myth of progress that now reigns?
How does the impact of growing up with the AIDS crisis continue to affect those left out of the white picket fence version of respectability promoted by dominant “LGBTQ” institutions? How does this apply to sex work, migration, public sex, cruising spaces and apps, abuse and survival, incarceration, reproductive health, homelessness, activism, drug use and addiction, subcultural striving, gay bar culture, HIV criminalization, and hierarchies within gay/queer/trans cultures?
Any generational frame offers only a partial truth, and I’m especially interested in the gaps between accepted narratives and lived experience. As a generation coming of age both with and without the internet, how has technology changed our lives, for better and worse? How does stigma against HIV-positive people continue today, and does the rhetoric around “undetectability” further exclusion rather than ending it? Who is dying of AIDS now, in spite of “AIDS Is Over” rhetoric? Has the energy around PrEP shifted the focus of public health campaigns away from demanding a cure for HIV? How could a meaningful intergenerational conversation about HIV/AIDS take place? What would communal care actually look like?
I’m interested in your most intimate stories, and your most personal fears—what you’re afraid to say is what I want to hear.
About the Editor: Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (mattildabernsteinsycamore.com) is the author of three novels and a memoir, and the editor of five nonfiction anthologies. Her memoir, The End of San Francisco, won a Lambda Literary Award, and her widely hailed anthologies include Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?, That’s Revolting!, and Nobody Passes. Her latest novel, Sketchtasy (one of NPR’s Best Books of 2018), is about this generation between certain death and a possible future.
Guidelines: Please submit nonfiction personal essays of up to 5000 words, as Word attachments (no PDFs, please), to nobodypasses@gmail.com. Contributors will be paid for their work, and will receive copies of the book. Feel free to contact me with any queries. The deadline for submissions is March 1, 2020, but the sooner the better!
Goooooood evening, everyone! It’s your former blog editor, Zach, back at it again~
This blog went dark for a few months over the summer semester between Forum classes. I hope you all had a good June and July with at least a decent amount of relaxation.
CCSF classes started on Monday, so this marks our first ENG 35L/M class of the new semester. We have new staff advisors, new students, and we’re looking forward to getting a whole host of new submissions, from you, for you!
Please welcome Steven Mayers, a veteran Forum advisor, and Chante McCormick, our new advisor for this semester. They and we would like to invite you to SUBMIT TO FORUM MAGAZINE!
Forum, the literary magazine of City College of San Francisco, gives voice to the talented authors, poets and visual artists in our community.
It’s another week, that means it’s another Forum lab! Today’s topics include cover choices, finalizing choices and table of contents (look for acceptance emails once that’s done), copy-editing and getting pestered by me for blog material.
While you’re waiting, take a moment to write something fun based on the below prompt.
Today’s prompt is:
A Secret Someone Else Doesn’t Know
Whenever you write a poem, story, take a picture, or create a piece of artwork based on these prompts, you can post it in the comments or submit it to submissions@forumccsf.org for consideration on the Forum Magazine Blog.
Make sure to follow all submission guidelines and in the subject line include “Writing Prompt Wednesday”. In the body of the email, please include the writing prompt you used for your piece.
Forum, City College of San Francisco’s literary magazine, is holding two contests!
We’re looking for Visual Art and Fiction submissions– the winning submission will be published and the two winners will receive $50 each! All submissions will be considered for publication.
Submissions are due by Tuesday, February 21st 2017
Submission Guidelines can be found here
We are also looking for creative non-fiction, screenplays, interviews, poetry, and other literary work, so please feel free to submit your work!
Forum, the literary magazine of City College of San Francisco, gives voice to the talented authors, poets and visual artists in our community.
Thank you so much to everyone who made our Forum Spring 2014 issue launch party such a success! Big thanks especially to: Bird & Beckett Books for so graciously hosting the event in their fabulous bookstore (seriously check it out, it’s amazing!), our contributors for producing all the immensely beautiful content in this issue, to our advisors and staff for putting in the long hours needed to get the work in print, CCSF’s graphics department for dedicating their talents to the layout, and to everyone who came to the launch party to show their support.
A special thank you to Bill McGuire, whose tireless efforts to raise money for the English Department social fund added up to a very generous donation to support our production costs. We still get all teary just thinking about it.
If you’d like to buy an issue of Forum’s Spring 2014 issue, please stop by Bird & Beckett or the CCSF Ocean Campus Bookstore. Each copy is $10, and all profits go toward funding future issues of the magazine.
If you’d like to work for Forum next semester, we’d love to have you! Just apply through CCSF (applications are open to everyone) and register for English 35L. Or, if you’d like to submit your work to be published, please visit our submissions page for more guidelines. The Fall 2014 submissions deadline will be in September.
Have a great summer, everyone! Before you take off to enjoy backyard BBQs and camping trips by the lake, please take a minute check out photos of our launch party over on our Facebook page. Just click the pic below:
Forum Literary Magazine 