How can we indulge ourselves in the ecological? What ecological pleasures can we embrace amidst trends of inhibition and moderation? What does indulgence mean to you, and what does it mean to other creatures? What combinations of settings, styles, and subjects seem delicious? What stories do you have that are arranged like three-course meals? What is succulent, intoxicating, sexy, refreshing like sour lemonade, relaxing?
Zen Master Dōgen writes, “The ultimate realm has one thousand kinds and ten thousand ways. When we think about the meaning of this, it seems that there is water for various beings but there is no original water—there is no water common to all types of beings.” Dōgen refers to abundant lifeworlds, to the proliferation of perspectives, sensations, and delights of an anglerfish fluorescing in the dark, a pinecone breaking open to seed in the midst of burning, a fire ant biting down.
In No Common Water, we seek stories, essays, and poems that reify one thousand kinds and ten thousand ways of being. We invite writers to abandon restraint and write towards abundance in a time of ecological scarcity. We want to devour flavors, choreographies, flirtations, delicacies, flora and fauna, desire and satiation in the widest and wildest terms. We are interested in what ecological familiarities romance gray whales and house Haleakalā silverswords. Take your time, relish, and tangle with the sublime of speculation.
We welcome works that experiment with form and scale: works that luxuriate, overindulge, or dissolve. We prefer literary works, but are open to stories that are genre-connecting or -bending if it helps engage indulgence. We are not interested in works that have gratuitous violence, sex, or offensive language if it is not serving the purpose of the piece. Write toward pleasure without apology, toward ecological worlds that are imperiled, and also irresistibly alive in the face of it all. Let abundance answer catastrophe.
Submissions Open:
April 22, 2026-August 10, 2026
Guidelines available on Submittable.