Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality would like to invite submissions to the June 2024 edition of the Smashing Times Newsletter. As June is Pride Month in Ireland and many parts of the world, our theme this month is ‘Pride’.

Pride Month is dedicated to the celebration and commemoration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) pride. This takes the form of events, marches, parades, festivities, and remembrances held throughout the month, typically culminating on 28 June, International LGBT Pride Day, which marks the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. The uprising involved a series of protests by members of the LGBTQ+ community in response to a police raid at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighbourhood of Manhattan in New York City. Patrons of the Stonewall and other members of the LGBTQ+ community fought back when the police became violent. The riots are widely considered the watershed event that transformed the gay liberation movement and the twentieth-century fight for LGBT rights in the United States.

Members of the LGBTQ+ community have contributed immensely to the arts. Notable examples include Donatello (1386–1466), Italian sculptor of the Renaissance period, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893), Russian composer of the Romantic period. Later examples include modernist writer Virginia Woolf (1882–1941); Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907–1954); American writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin (1924–1987); and Irish-British figurative painter Francis Bacon (1909–1992). Though the achievements of these artists was profound, the above list only scratches the surface of the impact of LGBTQ+ artists on artistic and cultural history worldwide.

For this edition, we are accepting submissions solely from members of the LGBTQ+ community. Submissions can be on any theme, although work relating to the theme of ‘Pride’ itself is more than welcome. Through providing a dedicated space for artworks by the LGBTQ+ community only, we aim to offer important exposure to artists from an often-sidelined minority.

We eagerly await your submissions. Please have a read of the guidelines below.

Artist Submissions

Artist submissions are welcome in any genre or form. A few notes:

• If submitting poetry, please send a maximum of two poems (of any length).
• If making a prose submission – a short story, non-fiction essay, or novel extract – please send no more than one piece, of no longer than 2,000 words.
• If submitting an article, please send one piece, of no longer than 1,500 words.
• If submitting a written excerpt from a play or screenplay, please send no more than one piece, of no more than 1,000 words.
• If sending a photograph, or an image of a painting, sculpture, or architectural work, please submit no more than two. Please ensure that the images are of a high quality, and provide the work’s label: material(s) used, dimensions, and year. Please include a few lines contextualising your piece and explaining how it relates to the theme. Lastly, please remember to state the title of the piece.
• In the case of videos, or video excerpts, of plays, please submit one piece only, of no longer than 20 minutes. Please ensure that the video is of a high audiovisual calibre.
• If submitting a song, a short film, a video artwork, a feature-film excerpt, or a dance piece, please send no more than two, and ensure neither runs over 20 minutes. Likewise, please make sure that they are of a high audiovisual calibre.
• If submitting in multiple artforms, please send no more than two artworks overall. (For example, one short story and one poem.)
• Submissions may have appeared elsewhere before, though new work is especially welcome. (If a submission has appeared elsewhere before, please state this and include the publication details.)
• Submissions can be made in English, Irish, or in translation. For Irish language submissions, our preference is that they be submitted alongside English language translations, though this is in no way compulsory. For translations of the work of another author, all relevant permissions must be obtained beforehand. We may also look to publish the original alongside the translation.
• Themes are always flexible; any subjective response is considered valid.
• Please submit to communications@smashingtimes.ie by the extended deadline of midnight on Sunday, 26 May, 2024. Subject lines should read: ‘Artist Submission, June 2024’. Please include a max two-line biography to accompany your piece, making reference to your previous publications (if applicable); any social media/website links you would like to be included in case of publication; a headshot or photograph; whether you would like to be signed up to the newsletter (so that, if selected, you receive the edition in which your work appears); and how exactly you heard of this submission opportunity. In order to ensure your submission’s eligibility, please make sure that you have included everything we have requested.
• Our preference for written pieces is that they be sent in a Word document. Please do not send them in a PDF.
• We are accepting artist submissions from members of the LGBTQ+ community only, as elaborated upon above.
• If we accept a written piece, the editor will contact you with at least one round of suggested edits, so please monitor your email closely.
• Furthermore, if your work is accepted, it will appear not only in the newsletter but on the Smashing Times website and possibly across our social media channels.
• Not all submissions will be accepted, unfortunately.
• The newsletter goes out on Thursday, 6 June, 2024.
• Publication is unpaid, regrettably, as we are a small charity with limited resources. The newsletter reaches around 1,250 people, however, including a range of major organisations in the areas of arts and human rights, both in Ireland and across Europe. Previous newsletter contributors include poets Jessica Traynor and Fady Joudah, Senator Lynn Ruane, 2023 Nobel Peace Prize-winner Narges Mohammadi, rapper-singer Saint Levant, visual artist Erika Diettes, and many more.
• We encourage submissions from individuals who, on top of their experience as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, face underrepresentation in other ways as well, such as ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities, members of the Traveller community, and women. Please let us know when submitting if you belong to any of these or suchlike minorities.

News Item Submissions

News item submissions are welcome from any organisation or individual either working in the arts, or in human rights, equality, or similar areas. Some notes:

• News items should be 150 words or less. They may be written in either English or Irish. They do not need to have any relevance to the theme. Furthermore, please note that a promotional piece about you or your organisation, or a specific project, with no reference to recent activities or events, is not eligible. For an item to qualify as news it must be based on you or your organisation’s recent work, event, or activity in the areas of the arts, human rights, equality, or social justice.
• Please include a photo to go with your news item and ensure it is of reasonably high quality. If there is no relevant photo, please send on your organisation’s logo.
• Any links should be included as hyperlinks.
• Please double-check for spelling, grammar, accuracy, and clarity.
• We will endeavour to include as many submissions as possible – though this of course depends on the number we receive. (In the event of a surplus, we will hold onto any items which would still be relevant in the following month’s edition, with your permission.) We will prioritise submissions from Smashing Times members. Sign you or your organisation up as a Smashing Times member here.
• The newsletter reaches around 1,250 people, including a range of major organisations in the areas of arts and human rights, both in Ireland and across Europe.
• Please submit in a word document to communications@smashingtimes.ie by the extended deadline of midnight on Sunday, 26 May, 2024. Subject lines should read: ‘News Item Submission, June 2024’.
• The newsletter goes out on Thursday, 6 June, 2024.
• Unlike artist submissions, news item submissions are not limited to members of the LGBTQ+ community alone. Nonetheless, submissions are especially welcome from individuals who have been underrepresented historically, such as ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities, members of the Traveller community, the LGBTQ+ community, and women. Please let us know when submitting if you belong to any of these or suchlike minorities. Likewise, we welcome submissions from organisations that advocate for any of these, or similar, causes.

Click here to quickly sign up to the Smashing Times Newsletter. To read past editions of the newsletter, please click here. To become a Smashing Times member, please click here.