Every so often, we leave our theme open to whatever may be on the minds and hearts (and also in the files) of writers and poets around the world. It feels important for us to not always plan ahead.

For this, our July 2022 issue, that decision has brought about a collection of work that together feels like a humming hive of connected and separate stories and ideas, people, images and laments.

Life happens both inside and outside of the news cycles.

Since our May issue, my own life has moved nearly 4,000kms east of where I was. From Canada’s Northern Alberta Rockies (where I spent three years after leaving the Sea to Sky region of British Columbia), Chefhusband and I drove to Southern Ontario, near the banks of one of the Great Lakes, well below the 49th parallel.

This is wine country. Culinary farms country. A sometimes progressive province. And it is also close enough to the Canadian-American border that I felt the ground move when our neighbour’s Supreme Court stripped away the reproductive rights of women, girls, trans men and non-binary people who can become pregnant.

It felt almost across the street when a ten-year-old Ohio rape survivor had to travel to another state for access to an abortion. (I hesitate to invoke her experience. Not because of the horror, to which we should all bear witness, but because a child becoming a lightening rod feels like a violation of its own).

For people who may be or become pregnant, and may need abortion care, it is a terrifying time.

Because of this, and because access to abortion care is not only an American, but a global, concern that affects millions of women every year, WordCity Literary Journal’s September issue will be dedicated to reproductive rights.

Beyond that, we will also focus on all other kinds of rights and experiences of women and girls, including those of trans women and girls, and people whose physical bodies are or were capable of pregnancy or who couldn’t conceive. The voices of all allies will be welcome, as well.

If you write, or are a visual artist, we hope you will consider adding your voice. If you read, we hope you will watch for us in September.

Our September call for manuscripts can be found here.

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WordCity Literary Journal is provided free to readers from all around the world, and there is no cost to writers submitting their work. Substantial time and expertise goes into each issue, and if you would like to contribute to those efforts, and the costs associated with maintaining this site, we thank you for your support.