We are delighted to announce that Specimen is one of five independent literary magazines and platforms partnering with Chinese literary journal One-way Street on its exciting New Voice project.

One-way Street Journal is owned by OWSPACE, a 19-year-old independent bookstore in Beijing. Its New Voice project is supported by Pro Helvetia Shanghai – Swiss Arts Council. Specimen will be joined by The Stinging Fly in Ireland, Jalada Africa in Africa, HEAT in Australia, and Cardenal Revista Literaria in Mexico. 

New Voice is a program dedicated to exploring new approaches to literature, and building new spaces for communication and literary collaboration in the post-pandemic era. Over the course of the project, each journal will select works from emerging writers in three forms: the short story, creative non-fiction, and poetry, bringing together a diverse group of eighteen voices whose translated work will feature in an upcoming issue of One-way Street Journal. One-way Street Journal also hopes to invite overseas writers to China for literary residencies and cultural activities. The eighteen chosen pieces will be released to global literary institutions and readers worldwide, encouraging further reading, promotion, and publication.

The project will run from 2023 to 2024, during which time One-way Street Journal will host international online events celebrating the short story, creative non-fiction, and poetry. Established writers from Switzerland, Ireland, Africa, Australia, and Mexico working in these disciplines will talk about their creative environments, experiences, and challenges, and discuss the current state of literature in their countries. It will be a unique opportunity for domestic and international writers and readers to learn more about the creative practices of authors working in different languages and cultures.

Specimen will select 3 Swiss writers from its previously published authors and from new submissions.

Submissions can be sent to: here
Genres: short story, creative non-fiction, poetry
Word limit for prose: approx. 2.000 words (entire texts or excerpts)
Number of poems: 5
Deadline: September 30, 2023