Zine #1 : Mediterranean Matters
Theme: Memory & Places
Deadline: 20 August 2025

Extended Deadline for Text (Fiction and Non-fiction) Submissions: 1 September 2025

Questions: mediterraneancommune@gmail.com

About This Issue

In our first zine issue of Mediterranean Matters, we explore how memory connects us to place, through movement, history, and lived experience.

We’re looking for personal or collective stories rooted in the Mediterranean, whether from the present, the past, or imagined futures. Think family heritage, migration journeys, lost homes, childhood streets, sacred landscapes, or everyday spaces that carry meaning.

We were inspired by Toni Morrison’s words:

“All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. […] remembering where we were, what valley we ran through, what the banks were like, the light that was there and the route back to our original place.”

Places are more than physical, they’re emotional, cultural, and political. They shape who we are and how we remember. In the Mediterranean, places hold many layers: traces of history, migration, resilience, and transformation.

We welcome work that explores these themes through different lenses, whether through writing, photography, illustration, or mixed media.

Who Can Submit?

This open call is for creatives with a connection to the Mediterranean—whether you live there, have roots in the region, or feel connected through memory, migration, or heritage.

What Can You Submit?

Text (Fiction and Non-fiction)

• Max 1,500 words
• Format: .doc or .docx
• Use APA style for citations
• Text should be in English

Note: You may include images if you have the rights or use public domain sources.

🖼️ Illustrations / Graphics

• Format: PNG
• Please include: title, year, method/medium
  

📷 Photographs

• Format: PNG
• Please include: title, year, and location
  

We’ll review submissions after the deadline and get back to selected contributors shortly after.

A Note on Funding

This is a volunteer-run project, and all submissions are free! If you’d like to support our work—especially our goal to print a limited run of the publication—you can buy us a coffee.

We’re also open to funding partnerships, please reach out if you have ideas.

Thank you for being part of this journey.

With care,

Mediterranean Commune