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From the Editors: Proximity’s Next Issue, Submission Calls, and 2018 Prizes

Dear Proximity readers and potential contributors,

Due to a major website issue (and scare!)–our first in four years–we’ve been taking measures necessary to secure our magazine’s site and its archives. This has meant a delay in our quarterly issue publication. Out of respect for our contributors and their work, this also means we will publish one less issue this year so to allow each collection of true stories the time and space it deserves to be read and shared.

But, we have an exciting issue ready to publish in July/August. Issue 18, themed ENDANGERED, includes essays, a book excerpt, and photo essay by Jenny Forrester, Kristina Gaddy, Larry Handy, Monterica Neil, Clinton Crockett Peters, Paige Towers, and others.

We are also accepting submissions for several issues:

Issue 19, themed THE BODY, will be our third annual prize issue. Submissions are open for the 2018 Narrative Journalism Prize, Personal Essay Prize, and a new Editor’s Choice Book Prize. Judges will be announced in June and this issue will be published in October 2018.

Issue 20, themed AGING, will be edited by three amazing women writers: Leonarda Carranza, Danielle Daniel, and Maria Schamis Turner. Based in Canada, this guest editorial team is already accepting submissions. This issue will be published in January 2019.

Issue 21, themed WALKING, will be published in April 2019. Submissions for this exciting collaborative issue — pairing writers with visual artists — will open this summer!

While you patiently wait for our next issue, we encourage you to read craft essays, author interviews, book reviews, and more (right here!) on TRUE, our space for weekly conversations around telling true stories. Here are just a few to get you started:

Frederica Morgan Davis interviews Clinton Crockett Peters on environmental writing, ecojustice, and his debut essay collection, Pandora’s Garden.

Felicia Rose Chavez explores otherness inside podcasting. She pulls us into snippets of S-Town and The Read to examine this more closely, and she asks us–just as she asks her students–to listen more closely. Most importantly, this essay asks us to consider the choices a producer must make along the way and the implications of each.

Kevin Haworth speaks with Miriam Libicki about “the drawn essay” and her book, TOWARD A HOT JEW, published by Fantagraphics.

Katharine Coldiron speaks with Natalie Singer about her debut memoir, California Calling, published by Hawthorne Books in March. You can also read an excerpt from her book in Issue 17.

And, if you have yet to read Issue 17, themed REUSE, guest edited by Santi Elijah Holley and Erica Trabold, we encourage you to do so. The nine pieces in this issue speak to permutations of REUSE that far surpass sustainability or recycling. Whether through writing, fine art, or research, each contributor approaches the theme in ways both evident and subtle. These writers and artists include: Jeremy Okai Davis, Shasta Grant, Ashton Kumburoff, Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein, Patrick Mainelli, Verity Sayles, Natalie Singer, Joni Tevis, and Kayla Dyer Queen.

Last but not least, TRUE is seeking pitches. We are looking for smart craft essays, author interviews, book reviews and other unique ways to talk about nonfiction storytelling. If you have an idea, email TRUE’s senior editor Stephanie Trott with your pitch.

We’re also slowly expanding our list of contributing editors who can help us push the conversation into under-discussed spaces and elevate the writers who deserve more attention. We will soon announce those editors and their particular submission calls. However, we’re still looking to add to this team. If you’re interested, email Maggie Messitt with a series idea or a subject about which you’re passionate. We’re particularly interested editors focused on multimedia nonfiction, documentary and podcasts, geographic and cultural focus, book reviewers, and more. (Commitments will range.)

Thank you, as always, for your readership!

The Proximity Editorial Team

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