Deadline: June 30
Our lives and communities revolve around food: hungering for it, buying it, preparing it, and eating it, but also growing it, moving it from field to shelf, and disposing of its waste. Just as healthy food promotes human health, healthy food systems promote healthy communities—places and people oriented toward restoration, regeneration, and even rebirth. What would it look like to live in a world where our food systems regenerated not only us, but the planet? What if how we grew and ate our food could sequester carbon, replenish the soil, restore ecosystem biodiversity, and help battle disease?
I-Regen is working toward such a vision and is partnering with Ninth Letter to help us all imagine it. We invite poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction responding to or exploring the subject of “regeneration,” specifically as it relates to food and food systems. What does regeneration in our lives and communities look like, sound like, feel like, taste like? How does its absence harm us? Feel free to think as narrowly or as broadly as you like about the theme—surprises are always delightful and welcome.
Guest Judge: Scott Chaskey is the author of Soil and Spirit (Milkweed 2023)
Regular Submissions Open Sept. 1
Contest Guidelines
Volume 21.2 Available Now!
320 pages. 35 writers. No skips.
In this issue, writers flex their skills in (and out of) form, respond to art ranging from Leonardo da Vinci to Yoko Ono, embody the metropolitan and bucolic, captivate us with characters ranging from motorcycle stunt performers to a playground clairvoyant. We have two stories about showers that couldn’t be more different. We have a Doberman, Gerald Ford, a wolf, Bethenny Frankel, an octopus, and a guest appearance from Samuel Beckett. We have, for you, published this vibrant writing in full, rich color, and we invite you to immerse yourself in the world created here. Come in. Stay awhile. We’re happy you’re here.
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