The Hooghly Review will drop a special issue this winter, and we have a special guest editor helming the project: François Bereaud.
Special issues have been a long time coming, but with our Issue 4 currently shelved for April 2025 due to unavoidable circumstances, this is the perfect time to get the first of these rolling. And who better than François whose mural photography not only made it to the cover of Issue 2 but also got the two of us developing the theme for the first of the special issues?
A terrific writer and photographer, François Bereaud has travelled through the US, Mexico, Canada, France, Spain, Iceland and elsewhere, and has captured breathtaking shots of murals, street art and graffiti wherever he has been to.
He modestly says he “writes, sometimes publishes, edits, and supports writers,” and is excited for his short story collection, San Diego Stories, coming out in September 2024. We are thrilled to have him on board and urge you to learn more about the math professor-cum-writer at francoisbereaud.com.
Here are François’ thoughts on the theme:
“I love public art, especially murals. They can provide a splash of beauty in an unexpected place, but, also, a window into the community: its joys, sorrows, pains, and resiliency. They can be political, not uncommonly a symbol of force to the oppressive powers that be. They can provide hope and love.
One of the places closest to my heart, Philadelphia, is a treasure trove of murals. Here are two images which capture some of those sentiments.
For this special issue, send us images from across the globe to, in turn, inspire writers from far and wide.”
Submissions will be considered in two phases.
Phase 1 (CLOSED):
We have accepted some wonderful photographs of murals, street art and graffiti from all over the earth (including almost Antarctica) and are no longer considering photography submissions.
Phase 2 (CLOSED):
We want original and previously unpublished prose and poetry inspired by photographs of murals, street art and graffiti we have curated during the Phase 1 submission period.
Click here to access the photos.
· Send us your work in any one of the following categories:
o 1-3 poems (single-spaced, no line limit, keep it all under 10 pages)
o 1 fiction or creative nonfiction piece of up to 3000 words
o 1-3 micro/flash pieces (fiction and/or CNF) with each piece up to 1000 words
· Submissions should be sent in a Word file with file name and subject line “Murals Phase 2 — [your name]” to murals.thr@gmail.com. (Do not send Murals submissions to our regular email address.)
· Mention the Phase 1 photo(s) your work is inspired from both in the Word document and email body.
· Do not send author bios and author photos. We’ll ask for that if your work is accepted.
· Submissions close on August 31, 2024 midnight (your timezone).
This submission call is ONLY for prose and poetry inspired by Murals Phase 1 photographs. Please do not send any other prose/poetry for this call.
Decisions will be sent out on or shortly after September 15, 2024.
The special issue will be published sometime between late October and November, 2024.
The special issue will include:
· photographs selected from Phase 1,
· photographs by our guest editor, François Bereaud,
· selected prose and poetry based on / inspired from the above photos.
Here’s a brief guide on murals, street art and graffiti: https://medium.com/@ruthaquilani/what-is-the-difference-between-street-art-mural-and-graffiti-1465508f0cc
F.A.Q.
Resubmissions: Not unless requested.
Sim-subs: Yes, just let us know upon acceptance elsewhere & withdraw. However, if we have accepted and you’ve agreed, please don’t withdraw or request us to replace already accepted work with another work.
Reprints: No unsolicited reprints. If you would like to send us work previously published in defunct magazines, meaning they’re no longer on the internet, you can.
Submission Fees: No.
Payment: We wish we could.
Rights:
· Copyright of the work remains with the contributor.
· We ask for First Electronic Publication Rights and credits when your work is republished.
· We also ask for Archival Rights on our website indefinitely.
· If we ever plan an anthology from the work published in our magazine, we’ll request permission from the contributor.
· We nominate our contributors for awards such as the Pushcart, Best of the Net, Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions, etc.
Our Editorial/Publication Ethics:
· We have a strict policy against plagiarism and work deliberately intended to offend any person or group. Upon receiving such submissions, we reserve the right to ban you permanently from submitting to our magazine.
· We’re sure AI is helpful in many ways but this space is about original creativity and so we won’t publish AI-generated work.
· Our readers are (hopefully) mature adults. Eroticism/sensuality in literature and art is wonderful, but we will reject pornographic work.
· Hit us with experimental themes, and difficult subject matters. As such, your work may be political but we don’t want to be preached at.
· While we love work that brings forth your culture, we don’t want religious work intended to proselytize.
Please direct any questions/queries to thehooghlyreview@gmail.com with the subject line “Query: Murals” or drop us a DM on X @HooghlyReview.