wildscape. literary journal

Theme: calm // storm

What are we looking for regarding this theme?
– Our goal with this issue is to create a spectrum of pieces that start with calm/grounded/mindful work and end with pieces that are full of rage, desperate for justice, and a biting fury that fights fiercely for a better future. When you read this issue, our hope is that you’ll start in a grounded, mindful place, finding peace in the little moments, and gradually become fueled with a desperate, tangible need for justice, so that ALL can experience the calm feeling that you briefly felt at the beginning of the issue.

– This will not be laid out the way our issues typically are. Normally, we separate pieces by genre (poetry, fiction, cnf, art). This time around, they will be organized based on the aforementioned spectrum.

More specifically:

For “calm”: Give us your little details in peaceful moments – the warmth of your baby’s chubby hand as it rests on your chest, the smell of soft baked bread in your grandmother’s kitchen, the feeling of the sun on your skin. Give us joy, give us nostalgia, give us warmth.

For “storm”: Give us your rage and grief surrounding the ongoing genocides in Palestine and/or Sudan. Give us the fury that you feel deep in your bones at systemic racism and poverty. Give us the fierceness you feel in wanting the rights to your own body. Give us feral.



Backstory to the theme (if you care to know a bit more as to how we got here): As you may or may not know, I (Ophelia) am a high school teacher at an inner-city public school. In May 2024, on graduation day, the graduated seniors and their loved ones came back to our school’s campus to utilize the grounds to celebrate together. Later in the evening, while they were celebrating, a car drove onto campus and the occupants of the car began shooting. One of our graduates, Lamon Wiggins, was shot and killed while trying to push a friend out of the way of the gunfire. He was not the intended target. He was a child with a bright future ahead of him, and a loving family beside him.

A week after Lamon’s passing, as I was walking through the hallways of our school, I noticed that our 12th grade English teacher had hung up poems in the hallway that her students had written before graduation. As I was scanning them, Lamon’s poem caught my eye. His poem’s title was “Where I’m From”, and while short and sweet, it talks about the little details of his childhood and upbringing that he remembers fondly. And in that moment, my heart broke a second time. For Lamon and his family. For his mother, who lost her only child. For the gentle moments that made Lamon who he was, only for violence to take him in the end. For injustice and the systemic violence that too often ends in a mother holding her child’s lifeless body – both here in America and abroad. 

I wanted Lamon’s poem to be seen. I wanted his story to be heard. So now, with Lamon’s mother’s blessing, his poem and story will be the center-point of this issue. From a calm, gentle, nostalgic poem, to a violent, unfair death, Lamon’s story encompasses the two ends of the spectrum that I hope to create with the theme of “calm // storm”.

Don’t overthink this theme. If you think your work even remotely fits, send it in.

3 WAYS TO SUBMIT YOUR WORK:

1) DUOSUMA: Send submissions through Duosuma here, after reading the genre-specific guidelines and general information below.

2) GOOGLE FORM: You are welcome to utilize our new Google Form to make a submission in any genre. This is new as of July 2025, so bear with us as we work through the kinks of this system, and feel free to email us with any questions/comments. You can submit work via Google Form here.

3) EMAIL: Emailed submissions should be sent to wildscapelit@gmail.com. The subject line should state the genre that you are submitting (i.e. “Poetry Submission”, etc.). Please attach your submission as a .doc/.docx (see genre guidelines below for more info. for art, attach your work as whichever format works best), and include a short third-person bio, your preferred pronouns, and how you heard about us in the body of the email. A short cover letter is welcome, but not required. We love learning about the person behind the work, so feel free to tell us about yourself, if you’d like.


EXPEDITED SUBMISSIONS:
-All submissions are free, with the option to tip. Tips are very much so appreciated, but never expected. Here are the costs for expedited responses:
-Expedited Response in <48 hours: $5
-Expedited Response in <24 hours: $8
-If you want either expedited response option, you may leave a tip when you get to the “tip jar” page on Duosuma, or if you’re submitting work via email or Google Form, by tipping us via Venmo (username: @wildscapelit) or PayPal. If you choose the Venmo option, please put the following information in the note of the payment: your last name and the genre of your submission (ex: “jones poetry” or “smith fiction”).
**A tip does NOT affect our decision regarding any submission. We read submissions blind (i.e. not knowing who the author is) so that we may make our decisions without bias. Tips will not be refunded for any reason.

-We welcome and encourage work from all historically marginalized creators

-We do NOT accept AI-generated work, and we ask that you do not submit any work, written or visual art, that has been created using AI in any way

–Languages We Accept: We can only accept work written in predominantly English, though works with words/phrases in other languages are absolutely welcome

-**Previous Contributors: While we generally ask that contributors of the most recent regular issue skip one submission period before submitting work again, this does NOT apply for this issue. All previous contributors, regardless of when your work was accepted/published, are welcome to submit work for this themed issue.

-**Multiple Submissions: While we generally ask that you do not submit work more than two times in any submission period, we are allowing up to THREE submissions for this themed issue. We will also allow more than one submission at one time – however, do be aware that Duosuma will not allow you to have more than one pending submission at any given time. You can either wait until we respond before submitting again, or you can submit work via Google Form or email. Please complete a separate Google Form (or send a separate email) for each submission.

–Simultaneous Submissions: Simultaneous submissions are more than welcome. In fact, we encourage them! Please notify us immediately of acceptance for publication elsewhere by withdrawing your piece from Duosuma, leaving a note/message in Duosuma, or by emailing us (wildscapelit@gmail.com)

-**Previously Published Work: So long as you have the rights to your previously published work, and can prove that you do (i.e. contract with previous publisher, screenshot from communications with them confirming that you do, etc.), then you are welcome to submit it! We will not need proof of such until/unless your work is accepted, but please do mention that it’s previously published in your cover letter.

–Response Time: It generally takes us 1-3 weeks to make a decision on a submission. Sometimes, if things are slow, we might respond in just a couple of days. Other times, if we’re swamped, it could take as long as a month. If you don’t hear from us within 45 days, please feel free to reach out via email, at wildscapelit@gmail.com.

–Compensation: Unfortunately, since we are only a two-person team, a brand new magazine, and don’t charge for submissions, we are unable to pay our contributors at this time (but we hope to in the future). We do, however, nominate for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, O. Henry Prize, and Best Small Fiction. We also promote our contributors on social media as best we can.

–Author/Artist Rights: All rights revert back to the author/artist immediately upon publication. We ask that if work originally published with us gets published elsewhere in the future, that wildscape. receives credit for first/prior publication.

–WE DO NOT ACCEPT: Hateful words of any kind (if you need clarification on this, then we might not be for you). We believe that black lives matter, that the people of Palestine & Sudan & the Congo & Haiti & all other oppressed populations/nations deserve to be free, & that trans rights are human rights. If you send work that enables the oppression of any marginalized people. We reserve the right to rescind acceptance/publication of your work if it is found that you are expressing hate towards any oppressed/marginalized groups. We also do not accept work that has been created using AI in any capacity. 

-Up to 5 poems

-Each poem must be two pages or shorter

-Please put all poems in one document, and start each poem on a new page

-12pt, times new roman font

-upload ONLY as a .doc/.docx (NOT a PDF, unless a PDF is needed to preserve the formatting. If this is the case, please let us know in your cover letter)

-Please leave all identifying information off of the document itself, as well as the document title. We prefer to read blind (i.e. not knowing who the author is)

-Keep your bio under 75 words, please. A cover letter is not necessary and will not affect our decision, but we do enjoy getting to know the person behind the words/art, so feel free to let us know a little about yourself, if you’d like.

-Prose poetry, as well as hybrid forms such as blackout/erasure poetry, are more than welcome

–We tend to lean away from rhyming poetry, and we tend to prefer experimental, contemporary, and free verse work.

-Up to 2 pieces

-max 1,500 words per piece

-Double spaced, 12pt, times new roman font

-upload ONLY as a .doc/.docx (NOT a PDF)

-A cover letter is not necessary and will not affect our decision, but we do enjoy getting to know the person behind the words, so feel free to let us know a little about yourself, if you’d like.

-Please keep your third-person bio under 75 words

-Please leave all identifying information off of the document itself, as well as the document title. We prefer to read blind.

Please send up to 10 works of art. We prefer the whimsical and the beautiful, the ethereal and the wild. We tend to lean towards nature and florals, abstracts, watercolors, pastels, and whimsical work. We’re open to any and all mediums, though. Genre does not matter, but we tend to lean away from horror.