This year, we invite poets and artists to explore the theme of “Homeward Bound.” Home can feel safe and comforting, but it can also represent a place we have lost or want to escape. This theme asks you to consider the tension between where we come from and where we are going. Is returning home comforting or challenging? What does returning to a physical space, an emotional state, or an imagined place mean?
We want poems that explore these complexities without being overly sentimental. Challenge the usual ideas of home and reflect unexpected feelings: home as both pain and healing, as memory and transformation. Whether you write about longing, change, migration, exile, or ancestry, please submit work that shows depth and encourages thought. Share what it means to be “homeward bound” in a world where the idea of home is constantly shifting.
