Are you an unagented or emerging writer looking to publish new work? We're inviting pitches for short writing or poetry that considers how stories are communicated - or withheld - across generations, and creatively reflect on issues of memory, language and migration in response to Autograph's new exhibition Of Walking on Fire by Nhu Xuan Hua. Rooted in language’s inability to fully convey complex family histories, Hua reimagines archival photographs from her family’s time in Vietnam and their early years in Europe. The uncanny, dreamlike compositions of her work echo how memory can splinter, blur and slip from view through migration.
We will consider submissions for writing in a range of formats so long as it creatively speaks to the themes of the exhibition. This might include – but certainly isn’t limited to – a remembrance, a piece of poetry or a short work of fiction.
The successful applicants will receive a £400 fee to produce the full text, editorial support from Autograph, publication on our website and the option to perform their piece at Autograph's upcoming event: Memory and The Musicality of Language. The selected proposals will need to be ready to publish by mid-August 2026.
