Writing for change emphasizes writing as something we deploy with thoughtful and deliberate intention to affect change and to make better relations within the diverse communities in which we engage. Effective community writing can and should bridge people, ideas, organizations, and movements while deepening our understanding and sense of personal and collective responsibility. Community writing is driven by what brings us together, rather than what divides us. It can and should dissolve barriers to meaningful understanding. In doing so, community writing has the power to lift up the written, spoken, and lived experiences of marginalized peoples and identities. Like a pry bar that finds a fulcrum point to make new space, community writing can and should be a means of leveraging power and privilege to make way for equity, justice, creative inquiry, and collaborative action.
With these commitments in mind, The Writing for Change Journal is a multimodal online publishing space that focuses on and challenges our understanding of the two key words, writing and change. Writing for change, or composing in the context of change, can take on many forms, from traditional and nontraditional approaches to nonfiction writing like essays and interviews, but also through the increasingly expansive possibilities of visual art and the sonic landscapes of video, podcasts, photography, performance art, and so much more. And what we mean by change can signal the ways in which our writing affects and is affected by change, which can refer to social, cultural, political, and environmental change. At the heart of community writing in the context of change are the many ways we affect change, how we grapple with change, and the ways our writing and work is accountable to change.
While the scope of the journal’s content is intentionally broad, likely touching on issues that are part of national and international conversations, the work featured here is always local. Because of the journal’s focus on place-based writing and tangible action-oriented goals, the Writing for Change Journal welcomes individual or collaborative submissions from students at Boise State University and community members from the greater Boise area. The Writing for Change Journal also welcomes collaborative work. Selections will be made collectively by the journals team of BSU students, faculty members, and community members.