this is a call for subs and also a vengeance piece against google maps. issue 8: cartography wants your maps!! do you love them, hate them?? write about cities, toronto’s relationship to indigenous peoples, immigration and settling, borders and zoning, responsible travel and also pirates. obviously.
send all proposals or initial drafts to ucgargoyle@gmail.com by january 16th at 5 p.m. with “issue 8 proposal for section x, contributor’s name” as the subject line. include a sample paragraph (about 200 words) with your proposal. final drafts are due january 21st at 11:59 p.m. pieces can be anywhere from 1 to 1000 words. production night will be january 29th at 5 p.m. show up with your sharpest pen (pls someone bring a fountain pen) and a bad sense of direction.
we are also looking for front and back cover art!! pls send a pitch/sketch by the 16th at 5 pm!
some great prompts to map (hehe) your thoughts
uc: we want the kind of map that would get you kicked out of a museum gift shop. give us your bootleg treasure chart, your “do not enter” coastline, your fake landmark that you swear is real. write from the perspective of a compass that hates you. show us the route to something you “lost” on purpose. if you’re lying, we’ll know. we have cartographic instincts.
arts & culture: write about places you know through art before you ever saw them. your pilgrimage to a concert venue, a gallery, a library, a movie theatre that raised you. how do stories, images, and sounds give somewhere a pulse? what fictional map lives rent free in your brain? when does art teach you a place, and when does it remind you you’re visiting?
politics: maps are not neutral and neither is toronto. write about the lines that decide everything: zoning, borders, transit deserts, property boundaries, neighbourhood “brands,” and the histories they hide. how do maps naturalize colonial claims, or erase indigenous presence? what does “ethical tourism” even mean under capitalism? who gets to move freely, and who gets policed for existing in space? bring us counter-mapping, refusal, and routes of resistance.
opinions: draw us a map of your life. what are the landmarks you orbit? map your inheritance: foods, rituals, languages, surnames, cities you carry like luggage. where did your family come from, and what does “belonging” feel like in your body? rant about airports, streetcars, detours, and the special hell of “arriving” but not being welcomed. is memory its own kind of geography?
avant garg: make cartography weird again. give us coordinates to a feeling. write a poem that reads like directions, then deliberately miss the turn. annotate a map like it’s your diary. pin significant locations and tell their stories, queer-the-map style. or refuse the whole assignment: submit a piece about getting lost and liking it.
comics: draw us the map to your heart, or your group chat’s favourite corner store, or the secret campus route that avoids everyone you’ve ever awkwardly waved at. label the real landmarks that matter: the best crying stairwell, the safest bench, the building that always feels like a loading screen.
stay greasy,
amareena saleh
communications editor
