26 Oct 2017

Call for Submission: hākārā: an online bilingual journal of creative expression

The question of what is there in 'now' is persuasive. We can-not 'touch' now. But we can only feel it. Thus, now is not real though it 'exists'. Never singular experience, 'now' is being shaped and re-shaped through contentions, assemblages and appropriations. So the question arises: Can we separate 'now' from 'before' and 'after'?

We come across an experience of meeting a person. We are talking to some-one: 'Hello, nice meeting you. Have I seen you before? (pause) I hope to see you again.' Meaning, our 'now' could be in experiencing something that has already been experienced and expressing the hope of re-experiencing it. Thus, we complicate 'now' by collapsing it into moments, stretched in time and space. We wonder whether 'now' is singular or distinct in a cascade of temporal experiences. For 'now' may exist at once through various spaces, geographies and societies.

'Now' could be living in the glorious or disturbing historical past, or dizzying present, or in the fantastic world dreamed for future. Or 'now' could also be in a moment of observing a flower. And then, all such 'now(s)' could be in dialogue with each other enabling to create newer forms of experience and expression.

Hakara is interested in simple, complex, layered as well as unusual ways of understanding 'now'.

If you are a fiction writer, poet, visual artist, critic, photographer, translator or curator; you are invited to send your work in English and/or Marathi in response to 'Now / आता', as you may perceive it.

You may send your work by October 30, 2017 to info@hakara.in. Select works will be published in the forthcoming issue of हाकारा । hākārā.