Deadline: September 15th, 2024
Payment: US 4¢/word rounded up to nearest dollar; minimum US $4, maximum $25
Theme: Outlaws
Eye to the Telescope 54, Outlaws, will be edited by Melissa Ridley Elmes.
Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, Belle Star, Wyatt Earp, Bonnie and Clyde … Robin Hood, Aladdin, Zorro, Jean Valjean, the Joker, Villanelle … Malcolm Reynolds, Zoe Washburne, Peter Quill, Gamora, Han Solo, Sam and Dean Winchester … outlaws have a perennial hold on our imaginations, equal parts romanticized and demonized, revered and reviled, admired and loathed, depending on whose side you’re on. Outlaws are anti-heroes. They destabilize existing systems of power, erasing the illusion of control in societies. They bring with them and leave in their wake disorder, chaos, violence, destruction, loss, and death. But on the other hand, they also point to possibilities—of throwing off the shackles of propriety and authority; of living life on their own terms and according to their own ethical codes, standards, and values; of the possibilities that exist beyond established socio-political and cultural structures. I’m looking for your take on outlaws, defined broadly—give me your space cat renegades, your dryad anti-government environmental activists, your fed up monsters ready to throw down against the powers that be, your alien mercenaries, your dynamic lover-robbers, your charming assassins, your child-thieves: make them loud, make them stealthy, make them in-your-face, make them subtle, make them violent, make them pacifist, make them winners or losers, lovable or loatheable—whatever you do, just make sure it’s in verse form, memorable, vivid, and speculative.
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