Lists, notes, journals, blogs.
Human beings. Whether or not we are budding writers, we all share the same impulse to write things down so that we don’t forget. Sometimes, more pressingly, we do so in order to remember better.
Instax prints, mixtapes, visual diaries, TinyLetters.
What was it that compelled the earliest men to carve their mark into stone? To etch effortful strokes indicative of their presence in a particular space, during a particular time?
What is it about laying down extensions of ourselves that feels so gratifying, not only has it become an art, but – in the realm of non-fiction publishing, especially – even a vessel of mass commodity?
Photographs. Flash haikus. Personal essays.
In the September issue of The Galvanizers, we take a look at the records we keep and the driving forces behind our impulse to document.
You might be writing a memoir, or considering the idea. What about, and why? Or you might be a diarist, an obsessive journal-keeper. What’s behind the need not to miss a single detail?
We want to know.
The camera you can’t put down for the moments you can’t stop capturing? Give us a glimpse of the other sides of that lens. What did you see? And what was going through your mind, as you saw?
Maybe you remember differently.
Maybe, for you, memories come in plates at the dinner table. Or sequenced like tracks on a mixtape. Maybe they are geotagged by coordinates, filed and archived according to place.
How do you remember? Does it lend a rosy hue? Does it embalm the way you need it to?
Truth is a fluid thing, and also a very personal thing. For our fifth issue, we pay tribute to the truths, memories and experiences we hold dear, in whatever form we’ve recorded – and remember – them.
The subject matter is specific, but its expressions are broad. We’re looking for personal and photo essays, narrative non-fiction pieces, reviews on existing (and recommendations) on upcoming memoirs. Excerpts of works-in-progress. Journal entries, or photographs of journal entries. Listicles, of everything from record-keeping apparati you own, to online journal accounts that’ve housed seasons of your inner life.
We also hope to compile a list of your favorite recordings, particularly memoirs that’ve left you an impression in one way or another.
If you’d like to contribute to our upcoming issue, please email thegalvanizers@gmail.com with a brief description of what you’d like to write about.
We aim to reply within a week.
Looking forward to it.
We are also excited to announce that a special guest editor will be joining us for the September issue. As an experienced personal essayist, lover of memoir, and previous contributor to the magazine, we can think of no better person to challenge our own perceptions of this theme and take our understanding to new heights.
We have her to thank for this brief: if you’ve read the articles in Issue 1 and Issue 2, perhaps you can recognize her writing style? More on this next week!
