“Life and home are so intertwined that it is almost impossible to think of one without the other. The home offers privacy and personal security. It protects and nurtures… A stable home allows us to strive for self-reliance and personal expression, to seek gainful employment and enjoy individual freedoms.
We have affirmed provision in old age, twelve years of education, and basic nutrition to be the right of every citizen because we have recognized that human dignity depends of the fundamental human needs. And it is hard to argue that housing is not a fundamental human need. Decent, affordable housing should be a basic right for everybody in this country. The reason is simple: without stable shelter, everything else falls apart.”
Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (Allen Lane, 2016)
Winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Books Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction
In our Winter 2017 issue (Issue 37) we will have a special feature examining the causes and consequences of the inadequate supply of affordable housing here in Ireland. We’d like to invite submissions of poetry, fiction and non-fiction that explore different aspects of the ongoing crises in housing and homelessness.
International submissions are welcome. All work must be previously unpublished.
We will accept submissions Wednesday June 7th – Wednesday July 12th through our Submittable page. Poems and stories on these themes are to be submitted by the window’s closing date.
If you have an idea for an essay on some aspect of this theme, please submit a pitch by Wednesday July 12th.
If you previously submitted to the magazine in our last general submission round (April 17th – May 19th) you may submit work for this feature. Please only submit work in response to the theme – general submissions made in this window will not be considered for publication.
Recommended Reading:
Dave Lordan: Multimedia Notes on the Literature of Homelessness
Lois Kapila: On Non-Fiction about Housing and Homelessness