Issue 1: Pandemic

Gardening Through Grief explores the relationship between gardening and grief and loss. For many, the garden – Nature itself – is an ideal place to find beauty, peace, and joy in troubled times. Nurturing new life, whether flowers, vegetables, succulents, or trees, is balm for the soul, and may help promote healing and emotional growth.
 
Our official launch was scheduled for several months out … then COVID-19 happened. And suddenly, the whole world was grieving. We decided to move up our timeline, to provide a space for those who are anxious, depressed, and overwhelmed – and those who care for them – to contemplate how “playing in the dirt” can offer respite, repair, and hope, for individuals and communities.
 
We welcome submissions on any aspect of gardening, grief, and social life in the context of pandemics, especially (but not only) COVID-19. Also, you do not have to be a gardener to submit! But it helps if you appreciate gardens and what they offer to humans and nonhumans alike, and if you understand how enmeshed gardens are in social life.

​We are especially interested in the relationship between gardening and social justice, including community gardens, urban farms, food justice, racial justice, and health disparities. And, we appreciate submissions that contend with interspecies dynamics and their role in fostering gardens, farms, and emotional health.

​We are also, collectively, deeply and profoundly worried about the climate crisis: How might gardening, broadly defined, help mitigate harm? What can gardening teach us about saving our planetary home? And, how does gardening speak to our individual and collective grief (and rage) about climate collapse?

How to submit:
 
Submissions may include fiction, essays, interviews, poetry, comics and graphics, and visual art, including photography. We will also consider interviews; please query if you have an idea for an interview subject.

• Fiction and essays should be less than 5,000 words.
• Poetry should be less than 200 lines.
• If submitting visual art, include no more than 6 images per submission.
  ​

Send your submission in the body of an email and include your name, preferred email address, and short bio. Title the subject of your email with the category and title of your piece. For example, “Essay Submission: Playing in the Dirt.”
 
You may attach visual art to your email as JPG or PNG files or send a link to posted work elsewhere.
 
Both new and previously published works (on your own blogs/websites, but not in other journals) will be considered. We request right of first publication, with authors/artists retaining copyright. If you republish your work elsewhere, we ask that you provide visible credit to Gardening Through Grief.

Send all submissions and queries to [email protected].

Submission Deadline:  September 1, 2020