Theme Issue on The Body Politic

Theme Issue on The Body Politic

From Sept 1 to Dec 31, 2023, we are accepting submissions for a special theme issue on The Body Politic.

We humans inhabit singular bodies.  Yet we are communal.  It is no mistake that the phrase ‘body politic’ – designating the people of a nation, state, or society – incorporates the word ‘body,’ as if collectively we become one organism.The personal is political, as Gloria Steinem famously said.  Political systems and laws affect us as citizens of a particular nation and community, as well as in our living rooms and our very bodies. And we as individuals affect them.Each nation has its own collective personality, as a result of its history, political structure, and the story it tells itself about its meaning and identity. So does each hospital, school, prison, summer camp, and house of worship. Each societal entity inhabits its own body politic, which exists in a constant state of flux.

For this special issue of BLR, we invite submissions of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction that address the interface of any given “body politic’ with the personal, and vice-versa.

Deadline: December 31, 2023