A Call for Work Chant de la Sirène, Issue 5
Tyranny & Hybrid Poetics
Observing / Documenting / Resisting MAGA & the Global New Right
Deadline May 1, 2025
Submissions must be sent to chantdelasirenesubmissions@gmail.com
In its emphasis on the hybrid literary arts as they document our social times, Chant de la Sirène will continue its interrogation of language & form in Issue 5--this time on the topics of tyranny, autocracy, and the Radical Right, as they take over the United States and other supposedly "pro-democracy" countries.
Here are a series of questions we might consider in Issue 5, "Tyranny & Hybrid Poetics"—
What does poetry & multi-media art have to say about MAGA & the Rise of Authoritarianism within what have previously been considered “democratic” nations? Can artistic expression somehow get to the root of what is wrong about our accepted forms of "democracy"?
Can “poetics” & art provide an analysis of authoritarian systems in ways journalist prose and talking heads cannot?
How might writers and artists document & react to the New Right in the U.S.—and beyond—in ways that resist the fascist moves?
What are historical accounts of literature & art resisting authoritarianism and autocracy?
What are historical accounts of literature & art collaborating with authoritarianism and autocracy?
Are “poetics” necessarily against tyranny by definition? (Or not?)
How can poetics & the multi-media arts educate, inform, even warn communities about demagogues and the concentration of dictatorial power?
Can poetry and art effectively challenge recent attacks by MAGA and the US Radical Right against groups of people potentially politically vulnerable—women, LGBTQ communities, brown and Black communities, new immigrants (documented or undocumented), the disabled, religious-spiritual communities not affiliated with Christian conservatives, intellectuals & artists? (Or not?)
What are current issues regarding Climate Change that emerge under the Trump / New Right regime(s)? What can we do about them?
What is it like to write or produce art under a system of political tyranny? (Consider issues of funding, public censorship, access, all forms of communication, audiences.)
Do the coercive strategies of authoritarian leaders and their social structures change or negate the creative role of all the arts, in personal and/or public manifestations?
Do audiences for art and literature change under fascism and tyranny?
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Submissions might include:
A series of interrelated poems; essays that are scholarly, “creative,” and/or memoir in form (or a combination); book or art reviews; experimental prose pieces; video or film; painting & illustration; photography & the graphic or plastic arts—and, of course, the hybrid interweaving of any of the above. Documents regarding radical pedagogy will also be considered.
Successful submissions will bend, challenge, or otherwise question traditional conventions of genre & form.
Literary submissions must be submitted in Word doc by ATTACHMENT, with any special formatting including page numbers deleted. Visual pieces can be submitted by .jpeg, or by links to video/film work to Youtube or Vimeo. (We prefer Vimeo.) Large files can be received in special cases via WeTransfer. Please consult the editor if you have questions about how to best submit your work.
Note: An extended deadline beyond May 1 may be granted with consultation in advance. Queries welcome!
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In addition, in connection with the upcoming issue, CDLS is sponsoring
ANTI-TYRANNY READING / WRITING WORKSHOPS
Towards the making of “Tyranny & Poetics,” Chant de la Sirène is organizing small independent writing & reading workshop groups via on-line platforms like Zoom. We are calling these Anti-Tyranny Writing/Reading workshops. Visual artists may also want to join. Consider these "resistance cells" of creativity in the midst of tyrannical political conditions. We hope you will want to join.
The fine print: For those of you generating or wishing to produce new creative work on topics (and forms) concerning tyranny & the Radical Right, please sign up to attend one or more of these Reading-Writing groups. The small groups will be convened with the goal of encouraging new work, collaboration, and dialogue on "tyranny" as a topic for the arts. They may also help distill the fear and anxiety many of us feel as we involve ourselves in creative response (especially what is occuring post-Inauguration in the US.) Short readings may also be integrated into the workshops, per group wish. Workshops will take place in March and April this year, using an online platform like Zoom, and TBA, depending on scheduling needs.
If you’d like to help convene an Anti-Tyranny Reading-Writing Workshop (thanks to Jen Scappettone for the language), or if you’d simply like to join one, please SEND A NOTE TO OUR SUBMISSIONS EMAIL (above).
It is hoped that work may emerge from Anti-Tyranny Workshops that might be considered for Issue 5. Regular CDLS submission processes still apply.
For examples of the kinds of work we publish, and if haven't taken a look at CDLS's "Climate Change & Poetics" Issue 4 (or the previous "War & Peace" Issue 3), please go to the menu bar at the top of the page to navigate to these issues:
www.chantdelasirenejournal.com
A special feature of each issue once we publish is a contributor READING, open to the public via Zoom.
Thanks for your interest and potential work.
—Editor, Chant de la Sirène
