The past several months were unprecedented and filled with racial injustice, political unrest, a global pandemic, remote learning, and financial recession/depression. Our University of Arkansas community was not sheltered from these issues; our campus community has been and continues to be impacted. We have each felt these past months together but very much in our own way. The months have impacted us all in vastly different ways. The differential impact of the events of 2020-21 has made clear to all that, while we may share in our campus community, we experience this community in vastly different ways.

The hope of this anthology is to give voice to our diverse student body. Voice your experience. Voice the good and the beautiful that most do not see. Voice the bad and the pain that most do not feel. Voice the experience that you have as a member of this campus community. Think of this anthology as a way to creatively express and share your unique perspectives, your unique experiences, and how these shape your individual interactions with our campus community.  

Are you a non-traditional student happy to be able to walk at commencement in front of your child? Express what that means and how that feels. This past year we saw many individuals share their pain, anger, and fear with the #BlackAUARK social media movement. We would love to share these experiences in a way that defines you. Did remote instruction suddenly mean that you were relying on WiFi in a parking lot 20 minutes from your home because the hills interfere with the signal? Can you express that feeling and that experience in prose or poetry? Are you an international student that is looking at this campus through a lens many of us in the campus community cannot know? Do you have a disability (seen or unseen) that alters your view of this campus or has connected you with a sub-community that you wish to share to all? Are you feeling that (by definition) you are in the "majority" but feel you have a unique voice or view that you wish to share? Whether prose or poetry, collage or critique, song or synthesis, share your experience. Share you!

We often emphasize the YOUofA, but what does this mean and how do our UA students (with different backgrounds, different circumstances, different everything) experience our community?

Submissions can be of any text form (e.g., short story, poem, letter unsent, etc.). However, submissions must be between 350-400 words and must clearly express a unique/diverse voice, perspective, and lived experience as a member of our campus community. All submissions will be reviewed by faculty members on the Fulbright College DEI Council (similar to a peer-review process) for possible acceptance in the anthology.  

Note: While your freedom of expression will be guaranteed, please do consider typical limitations to that freedom of expression. To be clear, typical limitations relate to libel, slander, obscenity, pornography, sedition, incitement, fighting words, classified information, copyright violation, trade secrets, food labeling, non-disclosure agreements, the right to privacy, dignity, the right to be forgotten, public security, and perjury. Justifications for such limitations include the harm principle, proposed by John Stuart Mill in On Liberty, which suggests that "the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others." Prior to submission, consider if the language being used in your submission, especially as it relates to obscenity and/or other offensive statements, is necessary to voice your unique perspective or actually distracts from your message.

For information about the Fulbright College Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Council, please visit our website: https://fulbright.uark.edu/diversity/

For additional informations or questions regarding submissions, please contact Dr. Samantha Robinson via email: sewrob@uark.edu

To make a submission, which will be then reviewed and considered for this anthology, please complete the following form.

Best,
Samantha Robinson, PhD
Warrington Sebree
(Co-editors)