Calling all stubborn optimists!

Submissions open in 1 week: 6 –31 July, 2026

Hello! If the current heat-wave is keeping you inside you might like to know that our next submissions window will be open from 6 –31 July, 2026.

Thank you for reading Bending The Arc. We’re so glad to have you with us on this journey into the future!

What we’re looking for:

Poems, short stories, novel extracts and hybrid pieces that write the future into being from writers across all genres.

Thrutopian writing imagines ways through to a world we would be glad to leave to future generations. It tells stories about tangible change and walks us along the challenging path from now to a hopeful, liveable tomorrow. It accepts unpredictability and upheaval as foundational to the times that we’re living into, but doesn’t dwell in that fear.

The interpretation of thrutopian ideals in poetry and prose is wide. It could include practical elements of imagining a path from where we are now to where we want to be, or pieces that build collective action, or that express belief or yearning for a future that is achievable and liveable. For poetry, thrutopoetry takes us beyond the nature poem, the praise poem and the ecopoem to create longing for a liveable future on Earth.

Thrutopias are works of intention and longing, which aim to change our belief in ourselves as people who can and will make a future for our species on Earth, in ways that respect and integrate with nonhuman life on this planet allowing us all to thrive and flourish.

Full details of how to submit are on our Submissions page.

We’re also very keen to hear from visual artists so if your work has thrutopian themes, please submit!

We welcome suggestions for articles and reviews all year round – do get in touch with your ideas.

All best wishes

The Editors
Laura Baggaley, Ilse Pedler, Katherine Stansfield, Hilary Watson & Alice Willitts