Call for submissions

Briarpatch magazine invites submissions for our June 2006 issue, Vol. 35, No. 4. The theme is “Resistance is Fertile: Sustainable Solutions for a Troubled Planet,” and submissions are due by Monday April 17, 2006.

Background

In our February 2006 issue (”Power/Hungry: Navingating the Looming Energy Crunch”), we focussed on the rather bleak environmental prospects currently facing humanity. Greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, even with dramatic climate change already upon us. At the same time, oil hovers consistently above $50 a barrel and is projected to continue rising, and western Canadian natural gas reserves are only projected to last another eight years. The era of cheap energy, upon which our industrial society was built and upon which it depends, is rapidly drawing to a close.

Clearly, adapting to this rapidly changing world and reorganizing our society and our communities into something more sustainable and less resource-intensive will require the best of all of us — our ingenuity and discipline, our passion and compassion, our generosity and cooperation.

The call-out

Emerging from the sobering conclusions of our February issue, we thought it important to turn our attention to the vast amount of work being done to raise awareness about, and to begin to reverse, these trends. To that end, we are issuing this call for articles, essays, photos, artwork, and poems that disseminate the ideas, that document the successes, and that tell the stories that can help us out of this environmental cul-de-sac in which we find ourselves.

Some possible topics include (but are by no means limited to) aspects of permaculture, urban planning, alternative fuels and technologies, creative activism, recent victories such as the Great Bear Rainforest protected areas announcement, initiatives like the Craik Sustainable Living Project , climate change solutions, and anything else falling under the rubric of “fertile resistance” that deserves more attention.

We also welcome reviews (300-600 words) of relevant and recent books/films.

For more information please see our submission guidelines, consult our favourite editing schema, and, if you need further info, email info AT briarpatchmagazine.com

Email your queries and submissions to editor AT briarpatchmagazine.com or mail to

Briarpatch Magazine
2138 McIntyre St.
Regina, SK
Treaty 4 Territory
S4P 2R7

Please include contact info and a short (1-2 sentence) biography. We reserve the right to edit your work, and cannot guarantee publication.