Call for work: art; fiction; photography; interviews; poetry; philosophy; essays; photo-essays; recipes, histories; memoirs, and more.
Breath is a thing and an action, it is atmosphere and oxygen, asthma, emphysema. Breath is sighing and choking, halitosis and singing, breath is suffocation and flatulence. Breath is what makes us float or sink. We take breathing for granted—but it is a remarkable gesture, for to breathe is to be alive. Awareness of the breath allows us to observe ourselves, and perhaps to become aware of the spaces between body and spirit, nature and culture, self and other. Breath pervades everything we do but is impossible to capture. It indicates how we are feeling; if we are stressed it becomes shallow, if we are tired it morphs into a yawn. By its nature, breathing is the basis of all human and many non-human activities. We save lives when we resuscitate. We speak and sing with breath.
This book will explore breath and breathing in all their intricacies. Like the other Trunk volumes it will be a collection of art, photography, fiction, essays, historical accounts, poetry and interviews. As well as artists, novelists and scholars there will be work by astronauts and deep-sea divers. The volume will be the third in the award-winning Trunk series, which has so far included Hair (2009) and Blood (2012).
We seek writing and visual materials that explore the fascinating cultural, medical, geographical, historical, religious and social aspects of breath. We encourage accessible, curious, entertaining and stimulating work.
For more information please visit the Trunk web site. Submissions are due November 30, 2014.