Print submissions

Pitch to our 10 year anthology issue

Skin Deep is an arts and culture organisation working in service of racial justice. In our annual print magazine, we publish journalistic features, interviews, essays, conversations, fiction, poetry, photography, art and other creative responses.

Our next magazine, a special 10-year anthology issue, is all about time, rhythm, cycles, pacing, and change. It will mark a decade of work by bringing together the best of our back catalogue into a new collection – but since the past is always alive and in constant conversation with the present, we’re also commissioning brand new pieces to weave throughout. 

This issue is not just a response to a milestone in our organisation. It comes into being during ongoing genocides in Palestine and beyond that demand thinking deeply about the relationship between urgency and sustainability in our collective responses to crises that are both new and old, acute and chronic. We know that movements for justice are marathons, not sprints – but how can we move slowly when the violence is so fast? How can we travel in time to collaborate with all those who came before us and all those who will come after us? We believe that liberation is coming, but how do we know if we are near the beginning or the end of the struggle? And how can culture – music, film, literature, TV, theatre, art – work to bring that end sooner?

We’re looking for creative, unique pitches and original submissions that will explore the relationship between time and our interconnected struggles for racial justice and liberation.

Your story can focus on a fraction of a second or span aeons. It can be about change or stagnation. You can explore making, wasting, saving, reclaiming or biding your time. We’re interested in: archiving, chronicling, time travel, inheritance, deep time, crip time, more-than-human time, looking back to look forward, and decolonising time itself. We are particularly interested in pitches or submissions that touch on climate justice, abolition, queerness, and disability justice. 

We want this anthology to roam far beyond the decade we’ve existed, tapping into deep currents that flow from generations past to futures yet to come. We invite you to join us on the long road we walk together, and share a story to pass the time.

HOW TO PITCH

To pitch for the print magazine, please follow the link below and fill out the form:

https://forms.gle/MSTB27ixPpkkSbANA

The deadline for submissions is Monday 5th August at midnight.

PITCHING TIPS

We believe the best pitches are unique, written in uncomplicated language, and give a strong sense of why we should care about a topic at this moment – and how it relates to the theme. As it’s for print (and especially given the theme), we’re looking for pieces that will have lasting interest.

We’re open to pitches from all types of writers, artists and creators, regardless of whether you’re a seasoned professional or a first-timer. We believe in expertise by experience, and will prioritise creators with lived experience relevant to the ideas they want to explore. We actively seek to publish work from voices outside the UK and US contexts; our audience and network of creatives are global, so we’d love to hear stories from all over the world.

We are a space for cultural production in the name of racial justice and we’re always interested in work that explores the relationship between culture/creativity and anti-racist, anti-imperialist politics and activism. For us, culture includes but is not limited to: music, film, TV, theatre, photography, illustration, visual arts, performance, literature, design, architecture. Have a look at what we publish to get a sense of our style, interests and values.

We are medium-agnostic and we love to be surprised, so if you have any imaginative ideas for pieces in unusual styles or formats, please send them our way (as long as they can be printed on a page). 

CREATIVE REFERENCES

To get the ideas flowing, here are some key references we’ve been reading and listening to on the theme of time:

ACCESSIBILITY

If we can facilitate a different form of pitching (virtual or otherwise), you have suggestions as to how we might change our current process, or if you have any other questions or feedback on our pitching process, please email anjali@skindeepmag.com

FEES

Our commissioning fees for print this year will range roughly between £200-500. The precise fee we offer on that scale will be based on the amount of work we estimate will be involved in delivering the piece.

To purchase back issues of Skin Deep’s print magazines, click here.

For more details on Skin Deep’s mission, pitching process and FAQs, click here.

If you’d like to support our work by becoming a member, click here