A Callout for Unfinished Writing

In the centre of the image is a drawing of a fist clenching a pencil. Above this, text reads "call for submissions: unfinished writings". To the right are abstract designs in red, yellow, and orange.

Hello All!

We are The International Indigenous Unfinished Work Creators. We are a working group of writers from the Odawa Native Friendship Center representing many areas within Ontario and expanding to have other Nations from other areas of Turtle Island. We are also partnering with Indigenous writers from New Zealand. We have come upon an idea to ask for people’s unfinished work (Yes, we can recycle this also!)

Regardless of your age or gender, we want to read your unfinished writing. It can be in the form of a poem, play, story, song, or any other format of writing. Make sure it’s unfinished though. If we choose your work, we will send you a personal letter of acceptance and a certificate you can put up on your wall.

Our goal is to publish as many unfinished works as possible with the intent to publish these books as a teaching and healing tool. This project will become an exercise book in which you are able to finish the work without the author seeing the finished product. The book will contain assorted styles of writing in which the new writer will be able to design their own story. Perhaps find an ending that is happier than it could be. It is time to get creative!!

In the centre of the image is a drawing of a fist clenching a pencil. Above this, text reads "call for submissions: unfinished writings". To the right are abstract designs in red, yellow, and orange.

Submission

Each person may submit three unfinished pieces of writing, knowing that only one will be chosen for publication. We encourage everyone to self-identify: i.e. 60s Scoop, Residential School Survivor, On Reserve, Off Reserve, Children (7-12), Youth (13-17), Status, Non-Status, Metis, Inuit, BIPOC, Country, Region (specify if you are Indigenous to that region), Indigenous People of the World (eg. South America, Central America, Mexico, African country, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South Pacific).

Poetry, stories, songs, haiku: all literary expressions will be considered! The size of the piece will be limited to four paragraphs (no more than a page long, double-spaced). Ideal submissions should be family-friendly in language. Any questionable pieces will be brought to a panel decision. Some pieces may be edited for grammatical purposes, but we hope to overlook the grammatical errors in most submissions as this is a learning process for you, the up-and-coming authors also!

Send pieces to unfinished.writing@rightingrelations.org

We hope to hear from you and may you enjoy the journey we are about to embark on!
Miigwetch