A language is much more than a way of communication, it is a prism through which we see the world and relate to it, it is a container of ancestral knowledge and a repository of our identities, histories, memories and cosmovisions. So our relationship with the world cannot be understood without considering the languages that encode it, and vice versa. Languages and landscapes shape each other.
However, in our times, historical processes of colonization and displacement have led to the disappearance of many languages and have put thousands of others in danger of extinction. The process of globalization for its part, has increasingly standardized the ways we communicate, and economic and political interests determine the 'appropriate' or 'acceptable' language and vocabulary. On the other hand, as technology advances, we are exposed to new languages and ways of communicating that continue to shape our relationship with the world.
One consequence of this is that we find ourselves today with a profoundly anthropocentric language that limits our ability to recognize ourselves as part of the web of life. As Paul Kingsnorth states, "our words are no longer at the service of the whole, they are at the service of fragmentation and we have used them to justify the construction of a fragmented world." This in turn impacts the ways in which we make sense of, value and relate (or not) to the more-than-human world and is also determinant in the way we understand the planetary crisis and the realities we imagine possible.
This is why we want to dedicate our ninth volume to the theme of language.
We seek stories that tell the ways in which language brings us into relationship with the more-than-human world and the kind of relationship that each language enables. Stories that examine the vocabulary that is shaping our understanding of the crisis and propose alternatives that help us imagine other possible worlds. Stories that consider language beyond the human, attending to the myriad ways in which our planet expresses itself; and even stories that consider language itself as a living being with cycles of birth, death and transformation. Stories that show how language allows us to come into contact with the sacred. Stories that recognize the importance of linguistic diversity and all that is lost every time a language, a song, a sound, a gesture is lost. Stories in which language moves away from abstraction and goes beyond the verbal, to put us in contact with our bodies and landscapes. In short: stories where language is the protagonist and we are invited to question it, transform it, and imagine it in order to invoke the worlds we want.
As always, with our ninth volume we want to address this theme from our characteristic approach: creative non-fiction stories in multiple formats (multimedia, short film, text, or photo essay) that connect ecology, culture and spirituality. Some criteria we consider essential for the selection are that the works tell a specific and situated story (that they are not just ideas, comments or abstractions), that we can distinguish an original and authentic authorial voice or gaze in them, that they are able to create intersections between different themes, and that they are open and spacious enough for readers to find their own place within them.
¡Les invitamos a familiarizarse con nuestro contenido y estilo antes de aplicar! Más abajo encontrarán más información y ejemplos de historias que han sido seleccionadas en convocatorias anteriores y en nuestro archive viven las más de 60 historias de nuestros volúmenes previos. ¡Esperamos con emoción sus propuestas!
Anyone, of any age, nationality, gender or ethnicity.
Read our guidelines here and apply to the call for volume 9 by filling out this form.
Nashwat Al 3obour by Karmit Even Zur
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
