This month, Yad Mizrah invites submissions exploring the many meanings of borders.
In the modern world, borders shape our histories, our identities, and our imaginations. They define states and nations, separate communities, preserve traditions, distinguish languages, and determine who belongs—and who does not. Few subjects today are as politically charged or fiercely contested. Yet borders are never merely lines on a map. They are cultural, political, religious, linguistic, and psychological. They are inherited, contested, crossed, and redrawn.
For Jews, our borders have rarely been static. Ours is a history shaped by exile and return, migration and settlement, shifting empires, and changing frontiers. Jews have inherited traditions that have crossed continents and outlived states that once contained them; the Jewish experience has long been defined by negotiating the borders between diaspora and homeland, tradition and modernity, East and West, public and private life.
We invite submissions that explore these themes—and any others that the idea of Borders may inspire—through history, reportage, memoir, criticism, literature, photography, poetry, or visual art.
As a reminder, Submission Guidelines:
Send all submissions to yadmizrah@gmail.com as a Microsoft Word document. In your email, please write a brief cover letter about your background (who you are, previous publications, etc) and the piece you are submitting. Don’t forget to include a 3rd-person bio, two lines max!
For poetry: Writers may include up to 3 poems in a single submission.
For fiction/non-fiction: Up to 2500 words max.
For op-ed: Up to 1500 words max.
For book reviews: Up to 1000 words.
For visual art and photography: Artists may include up to three works in a single submission, PNG files.
Is there a deadline?