The Printing Room is published as part of Multistory's artist development programme BCN (Blast Creative Network) and provides the opportunity for Sandwell and Black Country-based emerging artists to experiment with and push their writing practice. The journal is designed and printed by The Holodeck, a printmaking and design studio founded in 2013 in Birmingham.

The second issue of The Printing Room invites writers to respond to themes and questions being explored through Multistory's arts programme Green Roots, through experimental writing, criticism or fiction. Selected artists will receive a £250 fee and editorial support from Multistory. The yearly opportunity is supported through a writing masterclass and crit led by a guest mentor; for this year's programme, we've invited Cathy Wade.

Programme schedule: writing masterclass in early October, the deadline for first drafts and group crit in late November. The deadline for final drafts is early January.

ISSUE THEME

Green Roots brings together local residents, artists, activists, urban planners, community support groups, gardeners, schools and ecologists through a programme that explores the environment around us. How can we work together to lay the groundwork for sustainable and community-driven practices?

Traditionally written in the first person perspective, nature writing has long explored our position within the natural world from the gaze of the singular author. For this second issue of The Printing Room, we invite proposals for texts that challenge the conventions of nature writing, exploring pluralistic and multivocal perspectives on the climate crisis.

We invite you to take your own approach or focus on this broad theme. Proposals might engage with; Black Country ecologies, multispecies perspectives, plant systems, queer ecology, land activism, unloved spaces or 'edgelands' reclaimed.

How To Apply

Deadline for proposals: Midnight, Sunday 15 September

Please send us a completed monitoring form, and a separate single PDF to [email protected].

The PDF should contain:

• Your contact details (eg. mobile number, email), and your town and postcode.
• A short proposal for your piece, outlining how it relates to the themes of the issue (maximum 300 words)
• A CV and examples of previous writing (incorporated into the PDF or linked to if they are online)

Click here to download the monitoring form. The monitoring form will be stored separately to your application.

If you’d like to talk with someone in the team before you apply or tell us if we can do anything to make the application and/or the selection process more accessible for you, please contact us at [email protected].