Society called us “brave” and “strong,” celebrating our resilience instead of fixing the problem. They praised our survival while leaving intact the systems designed to destroy us.
What happens to those of us who survived?
How do we live after decades of poverty, abuse, systemic violence, chronic illness, caregiving, capitalism & grief?
This project is an open call for poetry, essays, creative nonfiction, letters, eulogies, articles, visual art, illustrations, and hybrid/experimental work from those who spent years enduring systems that asked us to disappear.
We aren't asking you to re-examine the violence or prove how hard it was- we know what it took to stay alive. We want to know what comes after. What does the "what now?" look like when survival mode starts to quiet down—or when it never fully leaves, how do we go forward from here?
Show us what living after (or through) survival looks like across:
The aftermath in the body: What happens to our nervous systems, chronic illnesses, and bodies when the crisis shifts, but the residual weight remains?
The labor: How we navigate caregiving, grief, disability & aging after decades of pushing through hostile healthcare and legal systems.
crip space beyond endurance: Reclaiming identity, desire, neurodivergence and joy outside the demands of capitalism, poverty and class based survival.
The aftermath: What trauma, memory, reproductive choices and grief feel like when we move past (IF WE DO) active fight-or-flight into the long haul.
Drop the armor: How we let go of the expectation to be "brave" or "strong," and what we build, and how, in place of resilience, for ourselves, and for each other.
We are particularly interested in pieces that challenge the demand for strength, shifting the focus away from individual endurance and toward exposing why we were made to face these oppressive conditions in the first place.
What happens to us, the survivors?
What does survival leave behind in our bodies? For each other?
Have we stopped confusing survival with living?
Submissions are rolling. Submit new, unpublished finished drafts.
There is no deadline.
Submissions remain open until the anthology is full.
Full guidelines below.
The title By This Weapon is drawn from Audre Lorde’s poem “A Litany for Survival.” The poem has been personally significant to the editor, Noemi Martinez who wrote the zine Hermana, Resist, for many years, accompanying their own evolution and changing understanding of survival, fear, resistance, and what it means to live beyond simply surviving.