Call for Pitches for STOP!

C161—Autumn 2025

Accepted until: January 15, 2025

In Experiments in Imagining Otherwise, Lola Olufemi writes of a will to live differently as “that thing which keeps you alive, or the ferocity with which you detest this world.” After Olufemi, this issue asks: What must be stopped, in an untenable world, so that we arrive elsewhere? To stop—as act, strategy, and sign—counters the relentless, forward pace of progress myths. “STOP!” is a wish, a call, an imperative.

For this issue, we invite pitches that consider “STOP!” in relation to the aesthetic and political. This encompasses the limitations and possibilities of failure, silence, slow time, and so much more. What role, if any, might cultural production, or even the withholding of cultural labour, have in placing the genres of empire under pressure? The stop is the gum in the machine: a pipeline blockade by Wet'suwet'en land defenders, the labour strike, disrupting the flow of weapons killing Palestinians, the refrain of “shut it down,” and ultimately, the end of this world—and all of its attendant violences—as we know it.

Thematic feature, artist project, and column pitches accepted until January 15. Review pitches, not required to be on theme, are accepted on a rolling basis.

Send pitches to pitch@cmagazine.com, with a subject line that starts with the word PITCH and indicates the submission type (review, essay, interview, One Thing, for example).

Please include ~150 words about your subject and how you’ll approach it, including hyperlinks wherever relevant. An estimated word count is appreciated. If you have not written for us recently, include a link to your website—or a copy of CV—and one or two writing samples (ideally ones in a style similar to your pitched piece). We do not publish reprints or previously written pieces. Please see our writer’s guidelines for more information.

Thank you for understanding that due to capacity, we are unable to reply to all pitches.

Note about conflicts of interest: we do not accept pitches from platforms regarding their own programming.