Are you a creative thinker, passionate about action in the climate crisis, sustainability and fashion, or simply looking to put yourself out there and be a part of an exciting YSJU community project?

Why not submit your poems and stories to ‘Out With The New, In With The Old’! Submissions are Open until the 27th March! and the Zine will be printed and launced on 2nd June, and copies will be avalible to all contirbutors.

This Spring, the Living Lab is launching a brand-new zine including works created by our very own YSJ student body and staff linking to sustainability and the fast fashion crisis.

About The Living Lab:
The Living Lab is a network of staff and students at YSJ that explores local ecological justice issues. Through interdisciplinary collaboration across schools, the Living Lab can contribute towards a more just and sustainable future and strengthen our community’s resilience in a changing climate.

About the zine:
‘Out With The New, In With The New’

This Spring, the Living Lab will be curating a creative zine to showcase the diverse voices and stories across York St John University in relation to the Living Lab’s thematic focus of ‘Out With The New, In With The Old.’

Our mission with ‘Out With The New, In With The Old’:

• To support and encourage voices and stories of sustainability and individuality
• To highlight the strength of our community
• To raise awareness of the climate crisis.
• To demonstrate the power that creative expression has in mindfulness and charging us with perseverance and compassion.

Through the zine, we can unify voices, raise awareness, and reflect on what sustainability means in our evolving world.

Writers of all backgrounds and experience levels are invited to take part. Whether you’re picking up a pen for the first time or refining your craft and broadening your portfolio, we encourage you to share your voice.

Open to all students at any level of study and also all staff, across both the York and London campus. It is also open to the wider community who are passionate about the topic.

However ‘Out with the New, In with the Old’ speaks to you – through poetry, storytelling, or reflection – we want to hear it.

Prompts and Inspiration:

The theme of our Zine is ‘Out with the New, In with the Old’. Therefore, we would love submissions that include, but are not limited to:

• Breathing new life into something old
• The passing of time and how it influences change
• Identity – your own relationship with fashion and/or the climate crisis
• Repairing as rebellion – mending, thrifting, or re-wearing as a political act. Who benefits when you stop buying new?
• What would a world without trends look like?
• People/places/businesses who embody sustainability
• How fast fashion is a feminist and human rights issue

Category Specifications:

SHORT STORIES:

• Short story submissions should not exceed 1000 words. Please only include one short story per submission.

FLASH FICTION:

• Flash fiction should not exceed 500 words per piece. You may submit up to three pieces of flash fiction in a submission.

POETRY:

• Poetry submissions should not exceed 50 lines. Authors may submit as many poems as they wish under this line count – e.g. 20, 20, 10.

CREATIVE NON-FICTION:

• Creative non-fiction – which may be articles, essays, reviews or another form, must not exceed 1,000 words. Please only include one piece of creative non-fiction per submission.

Submission Guidelines:
All submissions must be your own work. If we have reason to believe your work is plagiarised or AI generated, then we will not be able to accept it.

All submissions must not be under consideration or published elsewhere, including self-published works.

You may send in a maximum of two submissions, although each separate submission must only contain writing for one category.

• These separate submissions can be written for the same category, or two different categories (e.g., submission A is poetry, submission B is a short story).
• Each submission must consist of work for one category only (e.g. submission A must only be poetry).
• We will print up to two pieces of work from the total submissions you send in (e.g. one of the poems, and the short story).
• Please ensure that your poems and all pieces of work can stand alone as individual pieces and narratives for this reason.

Submissions must be sent in at the same time in an email to out.with.the.newysj@gmail.com with the subject line: ‘Out With The New Submission(s) – [category: poetry] (and if required) [category B: short story], Your Name’.

• We would also love a short bio of one or two sentences about you in third person and welcome you to include your pronouns. The bio mustn’t exceed 40 words.
• This is encouraged, but not mandatory if you wish to remain anonymous. Please further specify in the subject line if you wish to remain anonymous.

Please Note: We strive to print as many submissions as possible, but depending on the volume of submissions we receive, and in specific circumstances, we may need to make cuts or alterations: if any changes need to be made to your work, we will communicate with participants to ensure transparency and collaboration.

If you have any questions or clarfifications do also drop us an email at: out.with.the.newysj@gmail.com  and make sure to follow us on instagram to keep up with any events related to the zine.