The Map of Lost Places: Call for Submissions

 

A SOCIAL HISTORY PROJECT  

by LISA D’ONOFRIO AND SIMMONE HOWELL

Supported by the City of Melbourne Arts Grants 

A collaborative map/zine/public walk exploring dimensions of women’s experience of the city and leisure through memory and story. By ‘lost’ we mean physical places that have been built-over but remain alive in memory, while ‘leisure’ embraces deliberate (commercial) and informal entertainment (gathering, loitering etc). 

Sample lost places: Nightclubs (Tenth Avenue Disco, Rubber Soul, Grunge, The Lounge, Thumpin’ Tum); cinemas, hotels, Art (The Angel, Vault (The Yellow Peril); sites of gathering, shops, cafes, youth/community clubs, pubs, dance halls.

We are seeking submissions of unpublished short form life writing and experimental memoir (vignettes, anecdotes, fragments, poetry) up to 400 words, that considers:

• How women encounter public space
• Ideas of leisure 
• How the city shapes us
• Nostalgia/solastalgia

Selected work will be published in a zine and will inform the site-specific public walk at Emerging Writers Festival (September 2026) It may also appear online. Copyright remains with the author.

Details

Submit completed pieces up to 400 words in 12 point font

Submit with cover page and no identifying details on the actual submission

Submission window: March 1- April 30

Submissions will be blind-read

Contributors will be notified by May 30

Contributers will receive $100 payment and a copy of the zine

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT