South Side Weekly is seeking stories, essays, poems, fiction, nonfiction, lists, photos, illustrations, and more for our annual Housing Issue, which comes out February 7, 2018. With the Housing Issue, the Weekly aims to explore the places that people call home on the South Side, but we also want to complicate this picture, examining places that, through decay, development or disinvestment, are no longer homes, or perhaps have become new homes.
In past years, we’ve written about treasured neighborhoods and favorite intersections, but we’ve also taken a hard look at homelessness and unaffordability, as well as their possible solutions. In that spirit, we welcome submissions across a wide variety of topics: a photo essay about a tight-knit Beverly block, an illustration of your childhood home, an interview with somebody displaced by gentrification in Pilsen, a deep dive into affordable housing development in Woodlawn, and anything in between.
Apart from the theme of the issue, the only requirement is that pieces be about, or relevant to, life on the South Side. For examples of what we have in mind, take a look at Rayshauna Gray’s essay “Chiasmus: A Narrative of Ascent,” a reflection on migrations from Mississippi to Roseland to New England that we republished in our 2017 Housing Issue, and Jasmine Sanders’s essay on her life in the Robert Taylor housing projects, “Home on the State Street Corridor.” All writing submissions should be no longer than 1,800 words. Any and all submissions should be sent to submissions@southsideweekly.com by January 24, 2018.
Any questions or comments should be directed to editor@southsideweekly.com or to Facebook and Twitter.