Call for Submissions: "On Trash"

Folks, I’m beyond thrilled that my proposal for Seventh Wave’s Community Anthologies was accepted. Every time I go out on a limb, get a little cheeky, it works out. And cheeky was how I felt when I made my case for an anthology devoted entirely to the topic of trash, in all its glory and dimensions. “On Trash” is the first time I’m going to get a chance to handpick all the essays, short stories, poets, and translations that go into publication and work with the author to bring their work to the best shape we can.

Why trash? Well, I realized that I was constantly using the word and its synonyms to talk about my life and, quite frankly, the entire world. Trash, dumpsterfire, shitty, hellhole, slop, waste, basura. The meme that I constantly have on rotation is the one of Elmo, raised hands, a massive fire roaring in the background. Those are the vibes.

On the other hand, the Sesame Street character I relate to the most is Oscar the Grouch. The King of Garbage. The guy who makes a trash can his home, isn’t afraid to keep it real, and never lets his bad mood get in the way of taking care of his community. And while I don’t want to infantilize my thoughts or this topic too much, it’s a way of saying that trash can be generative and clarifying. Think of composting. Think of throwing everyone of your ex’s photos in the delete file. Think of that time you dressed a little trashy and were the life of the party.

So when it comes to this anthology, I want to encompass all of it: the good, the bad, and the rotten.

Here’s the official call for submissions:

Welcome to the dumpster fire era.

We live in a world that we often describe as trash, in both literal and figurative ways. We encounter a deluge of AI slop, we waste hours doomscrolling, we consume junk onscreen and on our plates. Our world is buckling under the weight of massive landfills, the debris and human cost of war and genocide, the excesses of data center waste, and the rotting ideologies of leaders who treat humans as disposable.

At the same time, trash can also be liberating. Being trashy, in certain instances, means going against repressive gender, class, and capitalist norms. We embrace trashy novels, films, looks, and music as sources of pleasure and individuality. We trash-talk to boldly say what others are too afraid to admit. We dream of burning everything to the ground, hoping the ashes can finally clear the land for something new.

This anthology invites you to explore the many tensions, contradictions, and possibilities of trash. What are we willing to discard, and in the name of what cause? How do we discern filth from what is proper, without falling into the traps of purity and sterility? How do we resist being swallowed whole by the muck? What can we create with the rubbish we have; what can we salvage from a wreckage? And how do we reclaim trash as fertile soil instead of decay?

We’re looking for the strange, the weird, the unexpected, and even the humorous, something that expands or shifts our understanding of trash. This call is open to fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and translation. Up to 3,500 words for prose and up to three poems for consideration.

I’ve had a few friends say, “But I don’t write about trash” and then I point out one of their brilliant stories or essays that would totally fit the theme, at least the way I’m interpreting it. You probably DO write about trash. If you’re looking for inspiration, here are a few things I’d love to find in my inbox:

• Anything regarding food! Food systems, food waste, food mismanagement or food productivity. Doesn’t have to be non-fiction either. Think scenes of extravagant banquets, chaotic kitchens, festivities gone awry, meals gone to hell.

• Whether as subject or as a stylistic choice: camp, tacky aesthetics, purple prose, melodrama, telenovela, fan fiction, drag, artifice, anything that would be described as declassé

• Stories of enshittification, AI gone wrong, tech overlords, disgraced edgelords, dystopia, utopias. Ecofiction and ecocriticism are welcome.

• That time you or your protagonist were shitty, felt shitty, treated someone like shit, were treated like shit.

• Necropolitics

• Detoxes and its discontents, purity culture and its discontents, purging and its liberation, lasciviousness and its liberation

• Texts created from scraps, vignettes, outtakes, mashups, collages

• Reality TV, influencers, TikToks, social media slop as subject, setting, conflict, projection

• Trash talk

• Trash as action

• Overconsumption

• Recovery, rebuilding, and regeneration whether in literal terms or figurative ones.

• Non-fiction writers: this is your chance to send your funny, snarky, humorous bits yearning to break free.

Some of the writers that I think approach the topic of trash very well, even if they might not think about their subject matter that way, are: Samantha Irby, Kristen Arnett, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Manuel Puig, Pedro Lemebel, John Waters, Tony Tulathimutte, Rufi Thorpe, Lindsay Hunter, Susan Steinberg, Isle McElroy, Lydia Millet, Patricia Lockwood, Anthony Bourdain, Ruth Reichl, C. Russell Price, Megan Fernandes, Marlow Granados.

If you’re like, “Oh my God, can you just link to examples”? Sure:

• “How to Make Bin Soup” by Imogen West-Knights

• “America’s Greatest Work of Art is Trash” by John Paul Brammer

• “Pirates of the Ayahuasca” by Sarah Miller

• “Friday Black” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

• “Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One” by Kristen Arnett

• “Bisquick: Origin Poem” by C. Russel Price

You’re in? AWESOME. The submission deadline is July 31, 2026 and this is a paid opportunity. You can find all the info here and Seventh Wave is also hosting an info session on Wednesday July 15, 2026 at 3pm ET/2pm CT. If you don’t have anything that fits my theme, you might have something that fits “On Friendship”, “On Desire” or “On Disappearance”, which are the other three anthologies selected this year.

Can’t wait to read your work! Feel free to ask me any questions in the comments.