She Is Not Gone
Poetry and Flash Fiction Bearing Witness to the MMIW Crisis
Rolling Submissions Open Now | Anticipated Publication: Aug 2027
This collection is dedicated to those missing; to the families mourning and still praying; to the communities that will never stop looking.
They have names.
They have mothers and grandmothers and daughters and aunties. They have languages in their mouths and medicines in their hands and songs rooted in culture, prayer, and hope. They have lives and legacies that were interrupted.
She Is Not Gone is a gathering of poetry and flash fiction from Native writers across the Americas that bears witness, names what has been lost, and insists on remembrance.
This is not an archive of a distant past. Rather, it is a living document. Relatives are still missing. The crisis is present tense. And literature is one of the ways that communities hold what institutions will not.
What We Are Looking For
There is no single right way to bear witness. We welcome the elegy and the rage. The documentary and the surreal. The prayer and the indictment.
We are seeking poetry and flash fiction that speaks honestly and specifically into the MMIW crisis.
We seek work that mourns and celebrates and demands, as well as writing that reaches to the ancestors and work that is raw with the present.
We welcome poetry in any form, from free verse, traditional, experimental, prose poetry, as well as forms rooted in specific cultural and oral traditions.
We welcome flash fiction under 1,000 words. We welcome work in Native languages with or without English translation.
We welcome work that has been previously published, provided the contributor holds reprint rights and discloses this at submission.
What we ask of every piece is that it is honest, that it is crafted with intention, and it can speak into the weight of what and who is missing.
Who This Call Is For
This call is for Indigenous writers.
She Is Not Gone is Native-centered space. The communities most affected by the MMIW crisis deserve to tell this story in their own words from the inside of their own grief and their own resistance.
We welcome writers from every Nation and Indigenous community: Navajo, Cree, Lakota, Pueblo, Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Cherokee, Métis, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and all First Nations, Tribal Nations, and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, including island nations and the far North.
On Naming
If a contributor wishes to dedicate their work to a specific person, or to name someone within the work itself, we ask that this be done with the full knowledge and consent of the named person’s family or community.
We recognize that naming protocols vary across Nations and that many families are still within their grief and their search.
Please proceed with care, with respect, and with the guidance of those closest to the loss.
Art by David Bernie
We remember the murdered, the missing, and the disappeared.
We fight for the living.
Submission Guidelines
Please send submissions to submissions@goodmedicinepress.com with the subject line:
SHE IS NOT GONE — [YOUR LAST NAME] — [POETRY or PROSE]
What to include:
- Your work Up to 5 pieces of poetry or flash fiction. Flash fiction must be under 1,000 words per piece. Please submit all pieces in a single document.
- A short author bio (100 words) Tell us who you are and your Nation or community affiliation.
- A brief note on your connection to this subject (1–2 sentences) This need not be extensive. We simply want to understand how this work lives in you.
A note on acceptance: No more than 2 pieces from any single contributor will be included in the final collection. We encourage contributors to send their strongest work across multiple pieces.
Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis.
We encourage early submission. We anticipate closing submissions by May 5, 2027.
Good Medicine Press does not charge submission or reading fees.
Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Please notify us promptly if your work is accepted elsewhere.
A Note On Proceeds
Good Medicine Press will donate a meaningful portion of proceeds from She Is Not Gone to organizations actively engaged in MMIW advocacy, justice, and family support work.
If you represent or know of an organization doing this work that should be part of our consideration, please reach out at info@goodmedicinepress.com
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