Guernica is now producing quarterly themed issues that follow our regular online format. In 2015, the magazine will be tackling the theme of boundaries.

In the decade since its inception, Guernica has lived at the crossroads: at the meeting place of art and politics; at the intersection of small, human moments and larger cultural commentary; between issues international and domestic. This year, in a series of special issues, the magazine will deliberately stake out dividing lines and take up the theme of boundaries. We’ll explore the contours of particular places and ideas, the peripheries, borders that are eroding and fluid, emerging and imagined. Guernica’s most enlightening and provocative work occupies the interstitial spaces, and we’ll turn a deliberate eye to the in-betweens in 2015.

The Boundaries of Gender (March 15th): Where does gender begin, where does it end, and what kinds of limitations might it impose on its constituents? Is gender real or is it a construct? Who occupies the space between genders, and what does that space look like? Guernica is interested in a wide variety of experience, from butch culture, breast cancer, and lumber-sexuals to trans beauty pageants and female jihadis. Submissions are closed.

The Boundaries of Taste (June 15th): What is in good taste, what’s in poor taste, and who gets to decide? In a world transfixed by the dictates of free speech, does it matter, for the purposes of censorship, if public content is likeable? Must a message be tactful for it to hold weight? Guernica will take a close look at the ways in which taste and class interact and overlap, and the current culture of taste-making. Submissions are closed.

The Boundaries of Nature (September 15th): Where exactly are the borders between human intervention and Mother Nature? And how are they being redrawn? What are nature’s limitations and in what ways are we reinforcing and subverting these lines? Guernica will move beyond the perils of climate change to consider the various crossroads confronting our natural world and the innovations being developed to preserve and plunder it. Submissions are closed.

The Boundaries of Nations (December 15th): The borders between nations, on the map and in the mind, are more relevant than ever before. Guernica will consider issues of immigration and what it is like to traverse physical boundary lines, leaving one’s homeland behind; countries vying for independence; others defending their frontiers. But it will also reflect on the ways in which national borders are expanding outwards, becoming increasingly ethereal, in this time when cyber-attacks are looked upon as acts of intercountry aggression. What, in 2015, are the parameters of conflict zones and patriotism and national identity? Please submit your work for our nations issue by October 5, 2015 (see submissions guidelines below).

Submission Guidelines: 

In each special issue, we will publish a total of six interviews (conversations) and features (journalism, reportage, polemic, personal essay, creative nonfiction). We will also publish one or two art features, two works of fiction, and two poems.

To submit a piece of fiction or poetry for a special issue, please follow our submission guidelines (https://guernicamag.com/information/submit/) and include the name of the issue in your title.

To submit a piece of nonfiction, or an interview, please send your work to specialissues@guernicamag.com and include the name of the issue in the subject line. Please do not send in work for issues for which we are not yet accepting submissions. All submissions will also be considered for future issues of the magazine.