Call for Ekphrastic Submissions: The Switcheroo! (deadline 4/15/19)
first posted 2/24/19; updated 4/15/19
BROADSIDED PRESS ANNUAL SWITCHEROO
WANTED: Ekphrastic Responses to artist Jennifer Moses’s “Skipping Along”
DEADLINE: April 15, 2019
Broadsided Press is seeking submissions of poetry and short prose that respond to “Skipping Along,” a mixed-media piece by Broadsided artist Jennifer Moses.
The winning entry will be published on May 1, 2019 as a Broadsided collaboration to enliven the doors, utility poles, bus stops, and walls of the world.
Submit writing in response to the image below—details follow.
This the 16th Broadsided Press “Switcheroo.” What is The Switcheroo? Every spring, we like to turn the tables and invite writers to respond to art we post.
All Broadsided artists were invited to submit up to three pieces of work for the Switcheroo. We then asked David Bernardy, the 2018 Switcheroo artist, to review the submissions and choose one he thought would be generative for writers and would work in Broadsided’s unique format. Of his decision, Bernardy had this to say:
As someone who is both a writer and a visual artist, I have thought a lot about how images can draw forth language, how they invite story, and I have tried to pay close attention to what kinds of images most frequently do that for me. And I keep coming back to the word intimation. It is a lovely, weird, almost contradictory word which means “to make yourself known indirectly,” or, as a noun, “a hint.”
Intimation describes those moments, those gestures, in which we try to reveal but we don’t want to lay bare, in which we do not give straight directions to our heart. Instead we lay down a crumb on the path, and expect the reader or viewer to follow through the trees, looking for the next one. These are invitations to knowing, but they leave space for the work of the reader, the looker, the other. They suggest, and they hint, and they tease us with possibility, but ultimately the story is ours to determine, as we translate the visual into language.
These moments are what drew me to Jennifer Moses’s piece, “Skipping Along.” I am in love with the textures, so much like the ruined billboards of storm-torn cities, or stacks of rain-sodden maps. I see hints of sky, of landscape and riverbed, a smooth highway at night, or a cool snake or a stomach. I could live in the upper-left hand quadrant of this painting for a long time. But to do so would be to ignore the red mass, the ridiculous baby(?), the diagram of gathering clouds (?)… Who knows what it is? But it cries to be something, and with all those details in the back, it cries to be somewhere.
Which is all you need for a story: a something and a somewhere. Jennifer Moses’s piece intimates. It says, “Come play with me.” I, for one, am game.
Thanks so much to Elizabeth Bradfield and all the fine folks at Broadsided Press for all the work ya’ll do.
—David Bernardy (@davidbernary, @DavidCBernardy)
Artist Jennifer Moses is a painter living in Boston and a professor of art at the University of New Hampshire. She has exhibited her work throughout New England, is a member of the Kingston Gallery in Boston, and is a recipient of a yearlong residency at the Roswell Artist Residency Program, and a Yaddo residency. More at www.jennifermosespainting.com
GUIDANCE:
Poems should be UNDER 20 lines. Prose should be UNDER 300 words. Entries should be sent via Submittable under the “Switcheroo” tab. Further guidelines can be found there.
Curious to know what we’re looking for? See past Switcheroo examples. We’ve favored responses that are not literal interpretations but instead instead amplify some emotional aspect of the visual art. As both image and text will appear together in the final publication, we seek writing in conversation with the art such that a new piece is created by the two together.
A pdf of this announcement can be downloaded here: Switcheroo2019-BroadsidedPress.
PS: We are are also open for non-Switcheroo submissions. See our guidelines. If selected, a Broadsided artist will respond to your work. See what you inspire!