Strangers. We were taught not to talk to them, perhaps advice given with the best of intentions. But, so often, there’s much more to those we don’t know. That’s the reasoning behind this year’s theme issue. Hippocampus Magazine is looking for creative nonfiction submissions of up to 4,000 words for its annual theme issue; this year, it’s Stranger(s).
You can interpret that theme and define that word how you wish, but here are some thoughts:
- Sometimes, we learn valuable lessons from people whose names we’ll never know.
- Sometimes, people we’re closest to drift away. Or we drift away from them.
- Sometimes, we reunite with someone we haven’t seen in what feels like a lifetime.
- Sometimes, our discomfort with the unknown is the motivation we need to change.
- Sometimes, people-watching is the best fodder.
- Sometimes, we feel like a stranger in a strange land.
- Sometimes, a stranger becomes a friend, a lover, a mentor.
- Sometimes, gosh darn it, our parents were right: we should not have talked to that stranger.
- Always, it seems, fact is stranger than fiction.
We invite you to submit your best creative nonfiction piece related to this theme for consideration for our July 2017 issue.
Deadline: March 15, 2017
About our theme issues: Hippocampus Magazine has produced an annual theme issue since its first year; past topics include: rock -n- roll, road trip, weather and mother nature, guilty pleasures and vices, and firsts.
