Call for writing and artwork for ‘Going the Distance’ 

Duluth Publishing Project, in collaboration with the University of Minnesota Duluth and Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador, is compiling a collection of creative works — visual art, poems and nonfiction writing — on the theme of “Going the Distance.” Students enrolled in classes at the colleges will edit and create the final product.

The theme for the project takes it inspiration from the incredible distances that can separate people from their neighbors in both the United States and Ecuador. Rural areas are sometimes sparsely populated. For example, in rural Cook County, Minnesota’s population density is 1.8 residents per square mile. Residents of rural areas are often miles from affordable access to fresh foods, healthcare, and other public services. Using Minnesota as an example again, some rural residents, close to the Canadian border and the Superior National Forest, are more than an hour, one way, by car, from a clinic providing basic health care. In many parts of the U.S. and Ecuador, one must “go the distance” to have access to the services essential for life. In this sense, one must “go the distance” for basic survival.

The theme from the project, though, also takes inspiration from the metaphor’s association with never giving up. Living one’s best life often entails “going the distance.” Whether we mean setting a goal to run a marathon or completing what oncologists call “the cancer journey,” one must “go the distance.” Achieving any goal, from earning a university degree to creating a work of art, involves “going the distance.”

Submissions should be less than 5,000 words (20 typed pages) for essays, memoir and journals; poetry submissions should include no more than five individual poems, and no one poem can be more than five pages in length. Artworks in any digital format are accepted. Because of the collaboration between universities in Duluth and Quito, submissions are being accepted in both English and Spanish.

Submissions will be reviewed by students in Ecuador, in Duluth, or both. Additional evaluation will be offered by faculty with related expertise.
Authors retain all copyright of their work; project seeks only permission for first publication in the collection, which will live online, for free, on the Minnesota Libraries Publishing Project and as a book available on Amazon. Previous collections in this series can found at amazon.com.

Submit work by emailing dbeard @ d.umn.edu by Jan. 10. In the subject line, please indicate it is a submission for “Going the Distance.”