#copperthread

The theme for issue 3 is dystopia.

Deadline for submissions is the end of February.

A quick note on this topic:

Dystopia as a concept is set against the idea of utopia, or “ideal world”, dystopia being a kind of worse-case-scenario of possible worlds.

In any given structured society that is less-than-ideal, one can fail to see the forest for the trees; a small piece of the established order may be elevated as not merely a product of dystopia, but the dystopia itself, and thus our examination comes from too narrow a vantage point, skewing the altogether.

If dystopia is the complement to utopia, a hyperbolic dilation of one negative aspect of society is not a good reference point from which to speculate a wholly better society.

We do not wish to police the content or perspective of submissions, but we also don’t want a slew of submissions about Donald Trump, or any number of politically/culturally salient but ultimately anecdotal topics.

Keep in mind the function of dystopic accounts on a timeline, and how certain visions age with increasing relevance while others gather dust and fade into obsolescence.

Take a step back, look at the forest - it contains all of the trees.

After a month of hard work, Issue 2 of Copper Thread is finally ready! To download a pdf of the second issue, head over to our Issues page and choose Copper Thread Issue 2: “The Letter You Won’t Send”.

Thanks so much to everyone who helped create Issue 1, and to all the kind words of reception from readers. Issue 2 is now in the works!

After a month of hard work, Issue 1 of Copper Thread is now officially available! To download a pdf of the first issue, skip on over to our Issues page and choose Copper Thread Issue 1: “Flight”.

So, you’ve stumbled across our little project, Copper Thread. Congrats! We’re happy to have you. Each issue of Copper Thread focuses on one theme, and the goal is to have each of our contributors submit a piece of writing between 1,000 and 1,500 words, a piece of poetry, or a piece of art/photography that explores the theme. See the “Guidelines” page for specific details.

All of our themes are chosen using a highly scientific algorithm (namely, writing words on scraps of paper and picking them out of a jar). The theme for Issue 1 of the publication is “Flight”. Submissions should be emailed to [email protected]. Shortly after you make a submission to us, we’ll be in touch with you to discuss editing.

For ease of editing, we suggest that you submit any writing to Copper Thread in the form of a Google Doc. If you would like to participate in the editing process, please let us know. Otherwise, we will make edits as we see fit and send you a final copy for review prior to publication.

The deadline for Issue 1 is Friday, September 16. Issue 1 will be posted to the blog on September 30 under our “Issues” page. Those interested in receiving a print edition of our first issue should make a request to us via email. As a token of our gratitude, we will also be sending a print edition to all individuals who make a submission to Issue 1.