Time Issue
Today is my 20th birthday. It hit me recently that I have no concept of age. My family does not celebrate birthdays. Mama has been 39 for the last 7 years. Baba has always been “in his forties.” My siblings’ ages are reflected by which grades they are in. My grandparents seem immortal. And the only reason I know my age is because I was born in 2000 and do not have to go through the mental math to calculate it. I grow older each year by finishing a school year and going into another one. I celebrated my birthday for the first time two years ago and became aware of that date only because I had to get my national ID card issued and apply to college. Today, I submitted the last final of my first year at college and attempted to celebrate the first day of a new year in my life. But this celebration was accompanied by a sense of uncertainty and temporariness. Instead of using finishing a school year and getting into another one as a way to highlight growing older as I have always tended to, time now is designated by how soon could I spend Eid with my family, how soon a vaccine that is safely used could be approved, how soon could life get back to what life used to be like. Yet what has been keeping me grounded is finding solace in songs, poems, journals, sketches, and all forms of expressions people use to document their day-to-day lives through these media. That is why I founded Ward in the first place — its purpose is to document and collect our stories, struggles, fears, and joys that create our collective memory. Share with us the notes you scribbled down your journals or sketches on your sticky notes or any other way that help you make sense of time and how it passes in this unusual period of our lives in the upcoming issue of Ward. Deadline: August 15, 2020.
Warmly,
Khaled Alqahtani
Founder and Editor-in-Chief
Follow these steps to submit:
General info
First and last names
Hometown
Short bio (interests, background, experience, etc.)
Submission title
Submission description (what inspired it?)
Social media accounts
Submission type
Text:
Includes poetry, short stories, articles, plays, etc.
Accepted file types:
Sent as text or in doc or .docx
Visuals:
Includes all types of art, and must be scanned and sent 300 dpi resolution.
Accepted file types:
.pdf, .png, or .jpg
Video:
Includes performance art, short films, documentaries, etc.
Accepted file types:
URLs to uploaded videos on YouTube, Vimeo, etc.
Hybrid:
Includes a combination of the previously mentioned types.
Sending your submission
Email general info + submission to wardemag@gmail.com by August 15, 2020. You will be contacted shortly after submission.