Desire moves us towards transformation, connection, evolution. Born of our psyche, our imagination and our experience of aliveness in the world, desires put our inner lives in contact with the material world. That is, desires are a thread connecting our inner and outer landscapes, and creating continuities between matter and psyche as they shape one another. Desire, we could say, is a force of life.

Biologist and philosopher Andreas Webber has proposed that "nature is the embodied desire to connect" and that senses are the vehicle for desire as they speak to that longing to connect. He says that all organisms, and matter too, strive for the same goals: continued existence, connection with others, becoming through mutual transformation. Aliveness, for him, means "to partake in the desire to be, and in the desire to connect".

However, in western society our corporeal experience has been strongly repressed and our innate desires for connection and belonging have been hacked and aimed at consumption and economic growth. This puts us in a constant state of craving, scarcity and frustration as we pursue desires that are impossible to satisfy and that put an enormous pressure on ecosystems and bodies through extraction and exploitation. This kind of unfulfillable desiring drives us, not to transformation and connection, but to dissatisfaction, anxiety, greed and an increasingly impoverished experience of the world.

As we imagine and strive for other possible worlds, there is a need to examine the deeper social, psychological, linguistic, emotional, and ethical foundations driving our current yearnings. This is why we want to dedicate our eighth edition to the theme of desire. 

We are looking for stories that pay attention to the interactions of the unconscious self with the world, that examine why we desire what we desire, which cultural and spiritual narratives are driving us, and how this influences our relationship with our inner and outer landscapes. We are also interested in stories that explore the manifestations of desire in the more-than-human world, and how our human desires (both individual and collective) connect or conflict with them. We welcome imagination and speculation to think about how we might desire differently, what it is that the Earth desires and how we might embody that desire.

As always, with our eighth volume we want to address this theme from our characteristic approach: creative nonfiction stories in multiple formats (multimedia, short film, text, or photo essay) that are situated at the intersections of ecology, culture, justice, and spirituality. See below for further information and for examples of stories that have been selected in previous open calls. 

We look forward to your proposals!

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR: 

Wimblu creates and publishes stories that reconnect ecology and nature in order to restore our sense of belonging and connection to our planet. We are looking for non-fiction stories that have a strong author’s vision and that connect themes such as ecology, spirituality, art, justice and, in this case, the theme of Volume 8: Desire

Format
We accept proposals in any multimedia format (text, short film, photography, animation, hybrid).

Who can apply?
Anyone, of any age, nationality, gender or ethnicity.

HOW TO APPLY:

Read our guidelines here and apply to be featured on our volume 8 by filling out this form.

Deadline: September 16th, 2023  EXTENDED UNTIL SEPTEMBER 23, 2023

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Some of the stories selected in previous calls:

The Edge by Alvaro Laiz

The Nostalgia of the Shepherd Is My Own by Laura Sanz Corada

Mariquitensis by Mariluz Patioventura

The Bridge by Alejandro Ferlini

Mutant by Valeria Sestua

A Mirrored Window by Francisco Provedo

*Webber, Andreas (2017) Being Nature. Humans and Nature; Webber, Andreas. (2021) Skincentric Ecology. Humans and Nature.