Announcement: Tap on the Glass Poetry & Short Fiction Contest

Wild We Stand is hosting a Poetry & Short Fiction Contest! We’re curating our first issue of Tap on the Glass–a journal focused on the intersections of culture, conservation, and collectivity during times of disconnection. Our first issue, scheduled for publication in October 2026, will feature a collection of essays, poems, and short fiction.

During this particular contest, we’re looking for poems and works of short fiction responding to the idea of THE MESH.

The philosopher Timothy Morton’s concept of the ‘Mesh’ posits that all living and non-living things are interconnected in an infinite network of processes and relationships. Why does the disconnection between humans, wildlife, and ecosystems continue to prevail? What stops us from being able to see ourselves in each other? What does it mean to be an Earthling when there are so many diverse worlds present on this singular rock floating in space? 

We may find these ‘other worlds’ to be different from us, but the closer we look, the stranger it is to view them as strange, and the easier it becomes to see what it means to have an earthliness. This exists within all of us. Morton proposes that art, as a space for processing grief, shame, and abjection, can confront us with the damage we inflict when we view ‘Nature’ as a detached aesthetic entity.  What art can we create when Nature is more than an image of idyllic country scenes, or of wild adventure, and is instead boundaryless and present in the everyday? Is it true that the less we know about ourselves, the less we know of the earth? What does reclaiming our connection look like, and might positioning ourselves more firmly within the ‘mesh’ of all things help us avoid extractive systems? 

These are the branching questions we’d like you to explore further. Please interpret them freely. We can’t wait to hear what you have to say!

Entry: Free, open to all 

Deadline: September 17th,  @ 5 pm BST

Prize: 1st $50, 2nd $35 x2 – Winners will be included in the printed physical copy of Tap on the Glass Issue 1 in October 2026. 

Text limit: Poetry up to 40 lines, short fiction up to 2,000 words.

To submit, please fill out this form before the deadline. You can fill out the form below or click on this web link: https://tally.so/r/kdXEZ6

If you have any concerns or inquiries, please email tapontheglass@wildwestand.com 

We’re eager to hear from you, so start tapping on that glass!

ANNOUNCEMENT ATTACHMENT: About the Journal

About TAP ON THE GLASS… 

You’re at the zoo.

The sign next to the sleeping lemur bears a warning: ‘Do NOT tap on the glass’.

And maybe, like us, you hear a hollow sound in the words. The hidden truth behind this commonly doled-out command. A command that says, "Keep your distance. Do not engage. Remain detached. Because if you tap on the glass, you just might shatter the illusion. 'An illusion that says this strange sense of sterility hides nothing uncomfortable. And yet it calls to mind old, insidious practices.... the looker and the looked-at, the subject and the object, the coloniser and the colonised. Don't tap on the Glass because this separation and hierarchy is the best way forward. 

This command has been forced onto people around the world in different forms, given to them in all kinds of ways, and it sells detachment as a normalised way of being. That detachment pulls us away from our connection to the planet and all living things that call her home. It teaches us to detach from our connection to our lands, so it’s that much easier to sell them off to private companies. Under this framework, detachment doesn't always represent respect for the animal. It's only really representative of a passive acceptance of what we've inflicted,  a sad withdrawal from the living beings and ecosystems we might have learned from, found joy with, or understood for their distinct places in our world. 

In a time when it seems we’re facing crisis after crisis, we have to build a contingency plan for the future. To do this, we have to repair our relationships with nonhumans and our extractive mindset toward Earth’s vast and diverse ecosystems. Now is the time to tap on that glass, shatter the illusions complicity and neoliberalism have fed us, and address the sellers of this illusion, their justifications, and the impact this has on conservation and culture. We urge you to get close. DO engage with the animals, people, and places and awaken your ache for connection. 

Next physical print edition: October 2026