The Seventh Wave is a BIPOC- and queer-led organization. We are committed to meeting folks wherever they may be in their creative journey.
We invite writers, artists, and activists to take part in global conversations that examine the complexities of our deep-seated narratives. In general, there are three ways to work with us: through our 1) annual literary magazine, 2) digital residency program, and 3) Community Anthologies platform. You can see more info about each below:
- Annual Literary Magazine: If you have work that is ready to be edited toward publication, our annual literary magazine may be for you. We publish one issue per year, elevating up to 16 artists and writers. The call for submissions for the magazine opens in November of each year. Is our magazine for you? The short answer is: if our call interests you, then your work will interest us. Read our past issues here. Our calls are open to all writers and artists, as well as all genres and forms. Specific guidelines (length, etc.) may be found on our FAQ page here. Each contributor is paid $100.
- Digital Residency: This process-based program is for folks who are seeking accountability, community, and resources (but not necessarily publication). Our digital residency, Narrative Shifts, is a genre-agnostic, generative writing program that includes seven sessions over seven weeks, centering specific aspects of craft that any writer, reader, or thinker could wield both on and off the page. In 2025, we will be running two intakes — Spring and Fall — each with three cohorts of 12-16 residents. This program costs $895, but payment plans are available, and there are two fully-paid scholarship seats per intake. See more information here.
- Community Anthologies: This cohort-based storytelling platform gives our editorial keys to four editors-in-chief to create their own anthologies on our site. Each Community Anthology publishes 6-8 artists/writers, so 24-32 people in total. Our applications to be an EIC open in March of each year, and our submissions to the anthologies open in June of each year. You can see more info here. Each contributor is paid $100.
Any open calls/opportunities will be below. For any questions, reach out to submit@seventhwavemag.com.
We are thrilled to open up applications for our Narrative Shifts mini, our first in-person iteration of our digital residency. For more information about this program, please visit our site here. We have summarized some of the pertinent information below:
- Partnership. We are so excited to be partnering with Common Area Maintenance, a Seattle-based, artist-built space and community, to kick off this inaugural intake and to bring Narrative Shifts into off-screen reality.
- The logistics: Narrative Shifts Mini is a genre-agnostic writing program that includes four sessions over four weeks, centering specific aspects of craft that any writer, reader, or thinker can wield both on and off the page. The program will run on Sundays from April 19 through May 10, in-person at Common Area Maintenance's Common Objects space, from 10 a.m. to noon PST.
- Benefits: Over the course of four weeks, participants will learn tools of the craft, receive resources and insights into their own creative processes, and build community with a cohort of 12-16 writers, artists, and activists from the Seattle area. Residents will get access to Seventh Wave's specially curated resources, an optional one-on-one with their facilitator, and the opportunity to practice public speaking by performing their work during a celebratory reading that will take place after the program, which will be free and open to the public.
- Costs: This program costs $450, but CAM members will receive a 20% discount ($360). Payment plans are made available to any paying participant to help offset costs.
- Application materials: In addition to general information, the primary application requirement is filling out our statement of interest, which asks three questions about you, your work, and why you want to join the residency.
- No fee. There is no application fee to apply to Narrative Shifts Mini.
We are excited to open up applications for our 2026 cohort of editors-in-chief, who will be curating our next round of Community Anthologies. For more information about this program, please read our announcement post, visit the FAQ section of our Submit page here (scroll down to "Anthologies"), and check out our latest Community Anthologies here. We have summarized some of the information below:
- Four editors-in-chief: We will be selecting four individuals to be our 2026 EICs. Each EIC will curate and publish a "Community Anthology," which is a digital anthology that publishes 6-8 writers or artists on Seventh Wave's website here.
- Budget + stipends: Each EIC will receive a $1,000 stipend for curating their issue. Each anthology has a budget of up to $2,050: $1,000 of that goes to the EIC, $600-800 goes to contributors (each contributor is paid $100 for their work), and there is a $250 stipend that an EIC can use to work with a featured artist for the issue. If two individuals want to apply as co-EICs, they would split the EIC stipend, with the understanding that they would most likely be divvying up the work as well.
- Overview of work: Seventh Wave will guide the four EICs through five phases of work together: call curation, submission/selection, editing, staging, and publication. EICs are required to attend a monthly meeting, each of which focuses on one of the five phases of the work. For example, our first monthly meeting will focus on the call curation process, and during that month, EICs will work to produce their own 1-paragraph prompt for their anthology, which will serve as their call for submissions.
- Application materials: As you'll see in the form, we're asking folks to submit a bio, your topic of interest, intended submission method, and a statement of interest that addresses a few simple questions. Please note: your topic and submission method can change once selected; however, we want to get an idea of what topic you are thinking of curating to ensure that we are bringing in a diverse set of potential topics. There is a $5 application fee, which honors the time it takes our team to read and respond to every submission. If the $5 fee is cost prohibitive, you can submit your full application to submit@seventhwavemag.com for free by April 10.
- Zoom info session: Seventh Wave will be hosting a Zoom info session on March 11 at noon PST to answer any and all questions about application requirements, EIC roles and responsibility, and the program in general.