Calling for Submissions

Submissions open UNHOUSED Yearning for Home

Subject on migration, asylum-seeking, illegal-and-legal-immigration, homelessness, and a verge of homelessness.

Calling for submissions of poetry, flash writing, cover art

Lived experience or observation

Submit here or scan QR code below.

Teaser – “Unhoused Yearning for Home” Anthology

The call for submissions is coming up soon…

I am working with Candice Louisa Dequin to co-edit this anthology, and it will be published by Prolific Pulse Press.

UNHOUSED – Yearning for Home shines a light on: Migration, asylum-seeking, illegal-and-legal-immigration, and other factors resulting in being without a home, national-identity, country, or security net. Whether you have immigrated and found yourself isolated and unable to fit into your adopted country’s identity, or lost status in a country you identify with, been out-of-status, living-below-the-radar, a Dreamer or undocumented, or forced to flee your homeland because of discrimination, war or other destabilizing forces, this is your opportunity to share your experiences on the hardships and often invisible struggles so many endure.

Prolific Pulse Press’s background in publishing social justice anthologies, continues with ‘Unhoused – Yearning for Home’ – an anthology of poetry and flash-writing on the current epidemic of unhoused, homeless, stateless, and country-less people and how this lack of safety affects generations. We seek to highlight the writer’s resilience and determination to survive and thrive whilst sharing their truth and experience(s).

‘Unhoused – Yearning for Home’ will be edited by Carrie Yang and Candice Louisa Daquin. Carrie Yang works in the Homelessness and Employment services in Australia and is herself an immigrant. Candice Daquin is also an immigrant, currently in America, and has worked in crisis centers in the US/Europe and Canada. Their combined professional experience, alongside having produced over twenty anthologies, is the pulse behind this project. The editors are fortunate enough to work with Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld, Manager of Prolific Pulse Press LLC. Given Prolific Pulse Press’s history of publishing exceptional anthologies, including Cadence (finalist in the American Writing Awards), Social Justice Inks, Dear Heart, and Heartbeats, our goal is to be a powerful platform for erased voices on this neglected and often inaccurately understood subject.

‘Unhoused – Yearning for Home,’ doesn’t seek to become mired in politics, but rather through the lens of human experience, help others comprehend the unique social and physical challenges surrounding this kind of limbo. Poetry and creative writing is an ideal vessel for this and we welcome all forms of poetry, flash-fiction and accompanying artwork. ‘Unhoused – Yearning for Home’ is scheduled to be published in early 2026.

Rain

The rain makes her feel pretty
In the mirror reflection of
A subdued and purified backdrop
Softly glow cheeks
Luscious parting lips
Reciting poetry
Like falling petals

Lullaby

(Image by Josh Knight)

This poem was first posted on 29 November 2018

rushing rain

twirling dust

wind, the ballerina

orchestrates the masterpiece

consoles my sleepless nights

soothes me with sweet dreams

破天急雨

尘埃降下
婀娜来风
淅沥交响 
昨夜辗转
今宵恬梦

Mental Health First Aid

I was a bit down

yesterday

I stuck in that melancholy rug

I even took a walk

to the bluest sky

and bathed in the most

striking sunshine

I restrained myself from

looking at the shadow patch

where no grass would grow

I turned off the sad tunes

of agony moans

I even played aeroplane

when dining alone

So one spoon full after the next

I conducted self care

By the nightfall is

when the vampires roar

I wrote myself a cheeky poem

to dig myself out of the

depressive hole

We are cute

I write, you read

side by side

I bite on your arm

signal for a kiss

you turn to me

smile

meteor streaking across

the sky

thousands kisses fall

You and I to the end

I am sitting upon the same rock

facing the ocean

thinking how all these years

I keep calling, calling…my heart

There has been always empty echos

And yet, I am still here

calling, calling..my dear heart

as if I stop

all these 22 years fulfil a lie

My heart will cripple in emptiness

not an ounce of strength to grief

I keep calling, calling…my only heart

Till my hair all grey

Till my heart frail

I will go in peace knowing

Across the seas

your eyes are dim

your bones are aching

You lived the lie that I would never stand smiling at you

just like the day we first met

curious, unpretentious and loyal.

An ocean dream

The rolling waves

sometimes quiet sometimes roaring

like the pleasure in my belly

Your hands are soft like the sea breeze

sweeping through my growing sensitivity

Your caress stirs my desire

The millennium longing lips searching for answers

Singing ancient primal tunes to your being

Gearing to the rhythm of clockwork

Dripping sweat melts into the salty sea

The moonlight reflects the burning amber

flames intertwined

The trembling bodies convey consuming current

unreserved offer and acceptance

back and forth

back and forth

like waves crashing the rocks

broken in splendidness

rebirth in harmony

無盡無邊的愛浪
一潮接一潮
翻滾的波浪正如腹下的快感
有時寧靜有時咆哮
你的手軟如海風,掃過敏感的地帶
你對我的愛撫,翻起我心底的慾望
我們滴的汗融進鹹鹹的海里
皓月下折射著激情的紅蘊
緊貼的肌膚互放著愛的能量
猶如齒輪一樣磨合著千年的渴望
愛的節奏跟隨著海的叮嚀,喃喃細語
在耳邊細訴對你的渴望與愛戀
在咬著你的肩膀時發出壓抑以久的呻吟
顫抖的身體傳送著燃燒的飢渴
急促的呼吸向你表達著深遠的需要
从遠古到如今,對你悠長的盼望
不斷地尋找你的唇去共享極樂的呢喃
互相毫無保留的付出與接受
來來回回一如潮來潮去
時兒平復,時兒澎湃
就如浪花沖擊著岩石
發出情侶們相知的呼嘯

Perfect Love

A picture says a thousand words

This kind of love

I adore