Journal 17: Peaks and Valleys

When I was a kid, I had to walk to school. It was uphill both ways. Everything was harder. Ask my kids. 

These days have both ups and downs. Ask anyone. It's all pros and cons, plaids and solids, damage and joy. It's peaks and valleys.

For Journal Seventeen, we ask for one or the other or both. Yodel from the peak on a glorious morning, or gently whisper by the campfire on the valley floor, the fire crackling, sparks disappearing in the damp, cold air.

We welcome work that wanders, marches, scales, and sinks. Send us pieces that trace the arc of a relationship, the rise and fall of a dynasty, the tectonic shifts of identity. Consider the peaks and valleys of sound, of silence, of syntax. Consider the geological, the psychological, the mythological.

Surprise us. Tilt the horizon. We’re looking for writing that traverses the uneven ground—work that knows the beauty of imbalance and the power of place. We’re looking for stories that go downhill fast, and, of course, stories about that long uphill walk to school, and back home again, to that shining house on the hill, the one that looks smaller from a distance, despite the enormity within.

Muleskinner Journal Seventeen will open on February 1 and close on March 15. No need to look high and low, our submission guidelines are here. Check them out. There are small changes every time.