There is an assumption among much of the Western world that freedom is an inherent aspect of life. For many, growing up with the freedom to say, do, and act as we like is a privilege often overlooked. The word freedom is nuanced, though. It conjures images of broken shackles, protests, and power, but what we often don’t see are the invisible trappings of race, religion, gender or sexuality.
We may not notice the silencing of marginalised voices or pay attention to the lack of freedom outside of our own experience. Even when we do, we so often focus on the big issues that we may not see the internalised struggle for personal freedom, freedom from issues of mental health, freedom from our own repressive tendencies.
Freedom comes in many forms and in varying degrees, and so does oppression, marginalisation, and disempowerment. For our fifth print issue of aAh! Magazine, we invite you to send us your creative work centred around the word: ‘Freedom’. What does freedom mean to you? How do you interpret it? In what ways are you or your characters free? What shackles are yet unbroken?
We are accepting works of prose, poetry, flash fiction and art on the theme of FREEDOM. All work will be considered for publication, but only work under 300 words in length will have the opportunity to be featured in our print magazine. Longer pieces of poetry and prose will still have the opportunity to be published on our online magazine.
To send us your submission, please email a word document or PDF to aah.creativeteam@gmail.com with the subject line ‘FREEDOM Creative Submission’.
Ryann Overbay on behalf of
The Creative Editors, aAh! Magazine
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