J o u r n a l of C r e a t i v e E c o l o g i e s

ABOUT

Ambient Receiver is published twice a year online to anthologise annually in print). Focussed on creative practice as a means to attune to our ecology, AR welcomes submissions of poetry, short fiction, creative non-fiction/lyric essay, visual art and sound works that explore the dynamic and complex entanglement of human and more-than-human worlds. We look to receive writing that considers humankind’s shifting relationship with ‘nature’ and the non-human; relationships that either limit or enhance our engagement with ecological and civilisational crises. It is likely that successful submissions will creatively challenge human exceptionalism, and or suggest new ways of being in the world—be that directly or indirectly. Ambient Receiver aims to showcase creative practitioners who, in various ways, mediate and/or ‘give voice' to  the non-human. Experimental work is welcomed. We are open to submissions of field-recording, audio-cartography, spoken word, ambient and drone that have a relationship to the biosphere.

Ambient Receiver is supported by a VC PhD Scholarship 'Writing with the More-than-Human', Creative Writing and Continental Philosophy, School of Humanities, Faculty of Creative Arts and Humanities,  Liverpool Hope University.

MASTHEAD

Founder / Managing Editor, Andrew Hykel Mears (he/him). Andrew’s poetry has been published by PN Review, Poetry Birmingham, Propel Magazine, Gilded Dirt, Berlin Lit, The Oxonian Review, Pariah Press, Anthropocene Poetry, and elsewhere.  He is a PhD researcher exploring  writing with the more-than-human. He has exhibited and performed work at Modern Art Oxford, Leeds Festival and the Moulin Rouge, Oxford University Poetry Society, Bath Literature Festival, All Tomorrow's Parties, British Anthems (Tokyo), and Cambridge Film Festival, among others. As a musician, he's composed for contemporary dance, performed improvised film soundtracks at the ICA, and backed poet & rapper, Saul Williams, author & musician Adam Gnade, and Can’s Damo Suzuki. His most recent pamphlet, Open Ribs are a Church Full of Sky, was released in the summer of 2024 by Bread & Roses Press.

Editor, Claire Carroll (she/her) is a writer and PhD researcher whose work explores how experimental short fiction writing can reimagine relationships between the human and non-human. Her fiction and poetry have been published by journals and anthologies including Prototype, perverse, The White Review, The London Magazine, Gutter, 3:AM and Lunate. Her debut collection, The Unreliable Nature Writer, was released in the summer of 2024 by Scratch Books.

Editor, Nimaya Lemal (she/her). Nimaya recently completed her MLitt in Environment, Culture, & Communication (University of Glasgow), where she wrote her dissertation on ‘play’ as an ethic for environmental communicators. She has a B.A. in Comparative Literature (Middlebury College); her thesis asked how Kafka’s short stories complicate a German literary fascination with Native Americans. She is now a freelance editor and nonfiction writer with a particular interest in how young people are re-writing humanness in a time of anthropogenic crisis. She has been published in the Modernist Review, Oxford Review of Books, was the recipient of this year’s Kirkpatrick Dobie prize for creative writing (University of Glasgow), and has a piece coming out in English Journal this spring.

Editor, George Crompton (he/him). George is an environmental philosopher currently pursuing a doctorate at Liverpool Hope University. His academic background began in environmental science at the University of Leeds and progressed at the University of Glasgow with an MLitt that delved deeper into the wider cultural studies of environmental communication, politics, and literature. His current work focuses on how rewilding initiatives are dismantling and reconstructing the relationship between humans, nature, and the more-than-human. This research is intended to inform future conservation efforts and an eventual bill of rights for Nature. Outside of academia, his poetry has been performed across the UK at events in Leeds, Devon, and Glasgow, and across the Atlantic for the CUPSI slam contest in Philadelphia. He lives in Southwest Scotland and is an original member of the Glasgow-based band Glass Veins, for whom he plays the keys and synthesiser.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Submissions are closed

[Please read the about section/read the journal to familiarise yourself with the kind of work that the journal is looking for]

SOUND: Please send 1 recording, saved as a wav or mp3, accompanied by a brief description of the work’s relationship to the bio-sphere. We welcome any work that falls generally into the categories of ambient, deep listening, musique concrète, sound poetry, audio-cartography and field recording.

POETRY: No more than 3 poems, saved as a single word document. There is no line limit in operation, and we are pleased to receive long poems. Please only submit one long poem if it exceeds 5 pages [no book-length poems, please]. Poems must be unpublished online or in print. If you would like your poem to also be considered for the contributor mixtape, please attach a recording with you submission (saved as a wav or mp3).

SHORT STORY: Work should be up to 4,500 words [there is no lower limit] and saved as a word document. Stories must be unpublished online or in print. No Novel extracts please.

NON FICTION: Work should be up to 4500 words [there is no lower limit] and saved as a word document. Work must be unpublished online or in print. We are looking for creative non-fiction/lyirc essay/hybrid work. No purely academic essays, please.

VISUAL ART: Previously unpublished (previously exhibited is fine) works in all media welcome. Please send no more than three images or one video. Where possible, please take photos in natural light on a neutral background. Save files by title. For large files, dropbox links are preferred. Images should no less than 300dpi, Jpeg or PNG. In the body of your email, please list: dimensions, medium, date when work produced, title; along with some background on the work illustrating how it relates to the concerns of the journal.

GENERAL: Submissions should be saved as follows [Name. Category. Title.] as a word document, preferably in 12pt garamond or similar. Please title your email [Submission. Category]. Please take a minute to introduce yourself (say hi) in the body of your email, giving a brief third-person bio as well as any social links.

If your work has an unconventional layout that you would like us to preserve, please attach a pdf as well as the word doc.

You are welcome to submit work in more than one category, but please don’t inundate us! 

We are happy to consider simultaneous submissions. Please let us know if work you have submitted has been accepted for publication elsewhere asap. 

We are committed to redressing imbalances of representation, inclusivity, and diversity, both within the pages of our journal and in the wider cultural landscape. 

Submissions are welcomed from creatives at any stage of their career. We strongly encourage submissions from underrepresented writers.

Please note! We’re experiencing some trouble receiving/replying to yahoo email addresses. If you can, please make contact from a different account.

We aim to respond to submissions within two months of the submission closing date. 

We are unable to offer feedback on unsuccessful submissions, but we will be in touch to let you know our decision.

We are currently unable to pay contributors, but are looking into ways of doing so in the future.

send to: submissions@ambientreceiver.org