BNG: Voice, Routine and Rituals

An Update to the Submission Process

BNG Prompts

We have been reflecting on our prompts so far and wanted to thank all of you for your exceptional work. We were looking at the responses of some of our first prompts: Furzyth, Body Shame Rebellion etc. and frankly felt awakened by the empathy and openness of your work. Our latest prompts Rejection Letter and Black Out Integration have also seen some beautiful responses listed at the end of this post. You are still welcome to participate in any of these prompts; we would love to host your work.

We are revisiting our role in society and updating the publication process that we believe could feed into (attempt towards) fixing the system. We aim to use the creative process to foster individual and community reflection and introspection.

Voice of BNG

Intellectual diversity

We believe that the people behind intellectual diversity are automatically diverse in different ways. The labels we carry are important but here at BNG we are more interested in how diverse our writing and thought process is. We are striving for diversity in style, subject, thought of our writings, irrespective of our personal backgrounds.

We aim to look past labels and create work that is reflective of the diverse spectrum we live in. More than that, we want creativity to help us become more inclusive and use our writing strength to grow into ONE.

We have had a lot of discussions lately as to what makes Broads Non Grata the publication that it is, versus the publication we hope for it to be. While we know that we have a long way to go to we are starting with minor changes in the submission process.

Automatic Publication

We are updating BNG prompt process. We will now be putting out prompts every ~three weeks.

We seek to publish everything that comes through our doors.

Any piece that answers one of our prompts will be published as soon as we see it. We are always interested in the creative interpretations of our prompts, and want the world to see the creative perspectives of our writers.

That said, we will not publish your piece if we find it discriminatory in any way.

Double Checked Submissions

If you have a piece that you want to submit that is NOT an answer to a BNG prompt, then we ask that you go through the following checklist before submission —

1. Do you believe your article adds to the topics of diversity, equality and inclusivity in any sense? A lot of the articles we publish feed into this indirectly, so if you think your article adds to the much-needed reflection on oneness, self, inclusion — do submit. We are happy to welcome your level of abstraction towards these topics.
2. Are you feeling the urgency to be heard? We trust your instincts.
3. Is this piece vital to your self-exploration and mental health?
4. Does the subject of your article uncover less explored cultures, sub-cultures? You could be talking about a typical privileged family but is the point of view — new?
5. Is your article voicing feelings of rejection, being on the outside, isolation, bullying etc.? You, the writer, don’t have to be an ‘outsider’ or justify your standpoint. Is your piece voicing the point of view of a person feeling like an ‘outsider’ is the question?
6. Is the writing style or content in any way experimental, disruptive, question the status quo?

If the answer is yes to any one or more of these questions it will be published as soon as we have gone through the piece.

The articles could be anything — poems, stories, essays, reviews, art pieces, films so on as long as you believe it feeds into intellectual diversity.

We ask that for the submissions that are not responses to BNG prompts, please have patience with this, as we will also be checking this list and it might take us some time.

Please note that if we don’t think it forwards our agenda of intellectual diversity and inclusivity, we may have a conversation with you and try to see your perspective. If you like, this conversation might end in revision or further clarification of your piece.

Love, Ashley Evenson and Shringi Kumari

Would also like to highlight David S.’ outstanding piece —

Yamini MacLean, Yardena Schwersky, Gabriella Salazar, Johanna Naomi, Wolfie Bain, Lisa Alletson, Gianna Brachetti🐙Truskawa, Heidi Chase, Sarah Carter, Trixie Pacis, Jazz Ramsy, Martie Sirois, Christian Schoor, Charlene Fate, Sarah Book, G.R. MELVIN, C.S. Mathews, Trisha Traughber, Nadia Davidson, Riley Gordon, Tammy Ha, Janis Cox, Simon Heathcote, Agnes Louis, Shobha Roy, Rusty Alderson, Maymuuna, Justcallmejillybean, Sylvia Wohlfarth, J.J. Tung, Radhika Tara Kali, Jessica Archuleta, Michael Stang, Keara Lou, Austin Briggman, Anna Rozwadowska, Alex Carrigan, Chiedza Kikumi, David S., Anish Lamichhane, MD, Priyanka Srivastava, Vaishali Paliwal, Jessi Roman, Samantha Lazar, Shruti Sinha, Ashwini Dodani, Jenny Justice, Zarina Dara 🥀💃🏻, Tracy Aston, Dennett, wimpy af, Brian Fehler, Anitha Sankaran, schian H, Somsubhra Banerjee, Pablo Pereyra.