Lacuna magazine is now inviting submissions on all issues that relate to human rights and social justice in the Western Balkans and its diaspora, to be published in late 2016. To discuss your pitch and submit your draft, get in touch with the Lacuna editors at hello@lacuna.org.uk (deadline for submissions: 31st August 2016).
The distinctive histories and multiple identities in the Western Balkans, a region nestled within Europe, yet outside the EU, affect issues of social injustices and human rights across Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania today. The region is slowly coming to terms with its not too distant past of violence and brutality; and now it also faces many of the challenges shared by other European countries, such as building inclusive societies, ensuring institutional accountability, redressing the human rights costs of serious financial mismanagement, treating all migrants within their jurisdictions with dignity, and protecting the environment and heritage.
Outside the region, diaspora groups from the Western Balkans can be found across the EU and further afield. Each person, each family, each community has a different story, a different reason for having left their home, some temporarily others permanently, and with varying degrees of connection to their ancestral lands and multiple accounts of integration or exclusion in their new surroundings. Some children are British, German, Swedish or Italian, but may also identify – or are identified by others – as Serb, Bosnian, Kosovar or Albanian. Their parents’ work enriches our societies and cultures at all levels and in all fields, yet we know very little of their lives, experiences and struggles.
All forms of writing and visual art will be considered: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, film, animation and photography. You may wish to investigate a particular issue, to provide commentary, reportage or expert analysis. Or you may wish to review a book, a film, a piece of music, art or theatre connected to the Western Balkans. For more information, read our guidelines for submissions.
There is no word limit. If you take a look at some of Lacuna’s existing content, you will find submissions of varying lengths and a variety of different styles. The key is that you have something to say that will intrigue and inform our audience, and that you say it (or draw it, film it…) with style and innovation.
Interested? Get in touch with Lacuna magazine to discuss your pitch and submit your draft to the editors at hello@lacuna.org.uk by 31st August 2016.
Banner photo by Franco Pecchio.
