Literary Anthology Issue 3: “The Sensualist...”

The 2025 theme for the Wellspringwords platform is “Living our freedom…”. 

Using our Literary Anthology, we will explore, as a collective, some of the more nuanced and subtle aspects of freedom. Our freedom encompasses our embodiment as much as it touches on our sense of psychological openness and access to societal frameworks for success.

In this Spring/Summer issue, we are exploring the embodied experience of inhabiting oneself. In this publication, we get to define the role of sensuality in our lived experience. 

Here is some guidance to consider as you prepare to submit your work to this issue:

• What are the roles of presence, anxiety, healing, and aging in your sensual expression? 
• What is a body in joy? 
• What is the language surrounding your body and its relationship with life?
• Explore the experience of surrendering to sensation.
• Explore the continuum of shame and pleasure.
• We also welcome non-pornographic explorations of the erotic. 

Details about Issue 3:

Submission window: February 3 - March 26, 2025

Submitters will be notified if their submission is chosen by April 30, 2025.

Issue 3 will launch in May 2025.

General Guidelines 

• Themes to keep in mind + heart while considering your submission: Love, Body, Spirituality, Wellness, Identity
• You are welcome to submit if you identify as a woman of color. If you do not but are passionate about this platform and opportunity, please extend your passion by sharing this opportunity with a special woman of color writer or artist in your life.
• All submissions must be original and unpublished; we do not accept previously published submissions, either in print or digitally. We ask for First Electronic and Archival Rights: your selected submission will first be shared through our digital Literary Anthology before it is published elsewhere. We will then archive your work to be accessed for future purposes/inspiration/teaching. By submitting your work, you agree to this.
• The contents of your submission are original and your sole creation — no AI involved. We embrace your authentic creative intelligence.
• There is a USD $5 fee for each submission, and USD $10 fee for each writing submission requesting editorial feedback. All submission fees support the costs and maintenance of this important publication.
• We hold your submissions in strict confidence and privacy, whether or not they are published. Your submission will only be seen by the Wellspringwords editorial team.
• We do not offer monetary compensation at this time. If you desire to support our initiative of empowering writers, you may contact us to discuss sponsorship opportunities.

Specific to Writing

We joyfully welcome poetry, memoir/personal narrative, fiction, and experimental writing, all about what happens through your body, in your interior world, and in your material life on this unique journey of self-creation. 

We want to read about you as The Sensualist. Through your writing, demonstrate your physical, emotional, and spiritual sensations — and your experience with sensation itself. We’ll choose a few pieces from each genre to publish in Issue 3, our Spring/Summer issue.

• Maximum word count for prose: 3,000; you may submit up to 2 pieces for consideration Each piece may be up to 3,000 words. Ensure all pieces are on one document, each with its own title.
• Maximum word count for poetry: 500; you may submit up to 4 poems for consideration. Each poem may be up to 500 words. Ensure all poems are on one document, each with its own title.
• Translations from any language into English are welcome. Please note if your submission is a translation, and who it is translated by.
• As the mission of this platform is to amplify the expressions of women of color, any references/external quotes you consider using should be representative of that.
• Submissions requesting editorial feedback will undergo an intimate and trauma-informed editorial process that includes developmental feedback aimed at supporting the writer in deepening and refining their authentic voice.

Specific to Visual Art

We are excited to consider any rendering of visual art for the Issue 3 cover: photography, painting, collage, digital media, textile art, figure art, sculpture, experimental art, intuitive art — let your authentic creative power burn bright. 

For the cover, we’ll choose the artwork that best encapsulates the issue’s theme and the chosen writing for the issue. We will also include a number of artworks that inspire us and showcase them within Issue 3, our Spring/Summer issue.

• You may submit up to 4 pieces of artwork for consideration. Please ensure all pieces are high-quality images in PNG or JPG. Each piece should have its own title.