Call for Submissions: Signs of Life
Signs of Life: Artists and Writers Respond to AI
Artificial intelligence has only recently become mainstream, but its ubiquity and impact is undeniable–on the electrical grid, on our water systems as AI’s processors demand to be cooled, on the lives of all beings who live near loud data centers, and on our digitally mediated interactions with each other—whether it’s the offers to “enhance” our communications, the bots trying to nab our attention, or the “ears” suggesting we buy stuff.
At Broadsided, we find ourselves thinking about the elements of humanity that cannot be replicated and that we have no desire to speed through: process, rambling, the flawed touch of a human hand, tedious tasks like weeding that offer their own reward. The value of art and literature, we believe, is in the process behind work as much as its result. The thought, struggle, learning, and intentionality behind creating literature and art is proof of our shared humanity; we, too, are rough, unfinished, and full of complications that add to our beauty.
To engage this, we have created a special call for work that will result in a Broadsided Responds folio.
In this folio, we want to focus attention on the humans behind and inside the work. We asked artists involved with Broadsided to share pages from their notebooks, that intimate draft-space and dream-space, that space where things begin and do not need to end. Below are pages from four artists–Antonia Contro, Amy Meissner, Kevin Morrow, and Janice Redman. Use these images as inspiration as you consider the writing prompts below.
We will select four poems/flash prose pieces to publish as broadsides alongside the notebook pages above (you may indicate in your submission cover letter which notebook inspired your poem, but we will determine the pairings).
Below, we offer four prompts for you humans out there—you makers and writers and dreamers—inviting you to be your most beautifully human selves. What can’t AI do? What imaginings aren’t possible for an algorithm? How can you share your humanity?
Prompts
Submit a poem/flash prose of 30 lines/200 words (or less) responding to one (or more) of the prompts below.
- HOMOPUNKT (Homo = same/one; Punct = punctuation; K = Punk): Send us work using only one kind of punctuation, and use too much of it. Is it the…. the \\\\\ the (((( the ???? or even the ‽ ‽ ‽ ‽? AI would not want you to use such crazy-excessive stuff. Use it! Em-dash to your human heart’s content!
- “Only I can see ___” What can only you see? Is this dream? Memory? The specific angle of light today?
- “I Am Not a Robot” Consider this phrase offered so often on websites that then ask us to identify the traffic lights or motorcycles. How can you convince us? How do you know you are human?
- “Dear Life Form” The Golden Record was sent into space on the NASA Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft. Launched in 1977, it sought to connect, in a human way, with other life. What would you send into space? Send us an epistolary poem to alien life. What’s on your Golden Record?
Dates & Guidelines
Deadline: December 15, 2025
Submit via Submittable: While we ask for a $3 entry fee, which goes wholly toward keeping Broadsided (an all-volunteer operation) running, we would like to make sure as many people as possible can be invited to share their voices. Please reach out to us you’d like a fee waiver.
Once we’ve selected a folio of writing to publish, we’ll work with our editorial team and designers to pair writing and art and design them into broadsides.
It’s our hope to release the broadsides on January 15, 2026, fresh for the new year and all the thinking, feeling, creating, and human connections it will bring.
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This special feature is created with help from students at Brandeis University. Thank you Miriam, Cate, Sam, Maeve, Viviana, Sadie, Ryan, Leah, Lauren, Rivka, Anna, and Hannah.