SAND Journal

09/08/2024

Some impressions of our SAND 27 launch last week at ! Thank you to everyone who joined us for a wonderful night of readings, talks, and catching up with SAND’s Berlin community.

SAND 27 is out now and available to order via our webshop (link in bio). We offer this summer issue’s theme, “Bridging,” not as pat advice in the manner of “bridging differences,” but in response to the ideas that emerged and re-emerged throughout these pieces: a celebration of work created in the margins, an invitation and provocation to our readers to find more bridges for themselves. Cover art by and design by 🪡
📷 by

30/07/2024

Just two days until we launch SAND 27 at 🚀

We're excited to gather our wonderful SAND community again and to meet new readers and contributors!

This launch is extra special, as it marks not only the publication of SAND 27, but also 15 years of SAND. As many of you know, this project is run entirely by volunteers, fuelled by the work of talented writers and artists all around the world. We're very proud and grateful to have made it this far 💙

Join us on Thursday at the launch for readings and mini-performances from this new issue's Berlin-based contributors:

· Poet with self-translated work in English & Spanish

· Poet/translator duo &

· Poet who will also read translations by

· Fiction writer .kurlyka

· Artists & who will talk about the process behind their works in SAND 27

Follow the link in our bio for the full lineup (text version) and tickets 🔗

21/07/2024

"I crossed green seas on my knees, / sticky clubs and bars, /balconies bathed in violet blood / while the nightingale sang a couplet by Manrique."

An extract from "Aniseed Bird" – a poem forthcoming in both English and Spanish in SAND 27 – by Nicol Navas.

Join us at our SAND 27 launch on 1 August to hear Nicol reading her poetry live (follow the link in our bio) 🐦

Nicol Navas Gómez (Cúcuta, 2001) is a poet and playwright, whose work explores the complexities of urban realities and identity. Beyond her creative pursuits, Nicol’s research career focuses on counterculture and minorities with projects such as "Hearing New Voices of Venezuelan Migrant Women." Bridging academia, creativity, and social commitment, Nicol emerges as a strong voice at the intersection of literature, migration, and the city

02/07/2024

SAND 27 is coming soon – and our magazine is turning 15 years old! 🎂

Join us on Thursday, 1 August from 7 PM to celebrate the launch of *SAND 27: Bridging* and SAND's 15th birthday at the lovely in Kreuzberg, Berlin 🥂

There'll be readings and presentations from SAND 27's Berlin-based contributors, issues at special discounted prices, and a few more surprises 📚

Tickets via the link in our bio or here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/sandjournal/1292246?

Line-up (so far!):

NICOL NAVAS (poetry, SAND 27) is a poet and playwright born 2001 in Cúcuta, whose work explores the complexities of urban realities and identity.

RALPH THARAYIL (poetry, SAND 27) is a Swiss writer and translator of South Indian descent. An excerpt from his critically-acclaimed debut novel "Nimm die Alpen weg" translated into English by Jon Cho-Polizzi, appears in SAND 27.

SASHA KURLYKA (fiction, SAND 27) is a Kyiv-born Berlin-based artist and writer. Their work has been published pseudonymously (as i0 xen0) in digital and physical publications by becoming.press.

ÖZGECAN KESICI (poetry in translation, SAND 27) is a writer and translator. She translated Rakhymzhan Otarbayev’s Kazakh short stories (Dağyeli Verlag, 2022) and received the Irish Arts Council Literature Bursary for her poetry and the Berlin Senate Work Stipend for her prose.

SEDEF KARAYEL (art, SAND 27) was born in 1991 in Cyprus, and currently lives in Berlin, where she is studying for a PhD in neurosciences. Her work is an exploration of themes like incompleteness and uncertainty.

Tickets via the link in our bio or here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/sandjournal/1292246?

Flyer design by Jeannette Pang, featuring artwork by SAND 27 contributor

08/06/2024

"Golden Hour, Late December" by Melissa Spitz, as featured in SAND 17.

Find more of Melissa's work at

As the sunny days get longer, we're putting together our next issue – a summer child set to be published on 1 August, 2024 ☀️

Save the date for a special launch event on 1 August here in Berlin (info tba) and watch out for preorder info coming soon 👀

19/05/2024

"Sleeping and Waking" (2023) by Chengwei Xia, as published in SAND 26.

Chengwei writes: "My works are not a grand or monumental narrative but are murmurs of micro and private feelings. In this series, I explore the experience of being a woman in an intimate relationship, and the meaning of home and belonging in sojourn and displacement."

Born in 1994 in Chengdu, China, Chengwei Xia studied and worked in architectural design and research in Hong Kong for six years, before moving to London to study art at the Slade School of Fine Art from 2021-22. In 2023, Chengwei completed the Drawing Year at the Royal Drawing School in London. Her practice centers around drawing, painting, making, and writing

Limited copies of SAND 26 are available via the link in our bio 🔗

12/05/2024

"Mom's Mask Pt. 1" (2011) by Melissa Spitz, as published in SAND 17.

Melissa writes: "Since 2009, I have been making photographs of my mentally ill, substance-abusing mother. The photographs are simultaneously upsetting and encouraging; honest and theatrical; loving and hateful. By turning the camera toward my mother and my relationship with her, I capture her behavior as an echo of my own emotional response. The images function like an ongoing conversation."

See more of Melissa's work at and in SAND 17, available via the link in our bio 🔗

09/05/2024

An extract from "Working Title" by Jay Ritchie, a perfectly-contained gem of a poem published in SAND 26 – follow the link in our bio for more 🔗

is a writer, editor, teacher, and McGill English PhD student. Author of the poetry collection "Cheer Up, Jay Ritchie" , a collection of short stories, and a poetry chapbook, he has an MFA in Poetry from UMass Amherst and was the Assistant Editor for and Managing Editor of . His latest work, "Listening in Many Publics," will be out on 23 May with 📚

IMAGE TEXT: The impermanence of enough and things / as you find them. Piece some knowing together / like a working title. Of the sun's "radiant / presence," of the shade's "cool line," about what / are you worried.

05/05/2024

Literary magazines offer a space for experimentation, while also functioning as sites of preservation, a documentation of a moment’s sensibility.

At SAND, each issue's titular theme is chosen at the end of our collaborative editorial process. First, we select the pieces which we'd like to publish from our open submissions call, and then we see what kind of theme emerges from our selections.

Our past three issues, themed, "Undone," "Lost and Found," and "Shifting," speak to change and shifting assemblages in uncertain times, and yet a consolidation towards safer spaces for expression.

Limited print copies of these three issues are available via our webshop – follow the link in our bio to order 🔗

11/04/2024

New on SAND Online: an extract from "Bear Hunting" by Brekan Blakeslee, brilliant tragicomic fiction from SAND 26.

Read more via the link in our bio to SAND Online, or read the full piece in SAND 26 🔗

Brekan Blakeslee grew up in the woods of Pennsylvania tending to an animal graveyard and now lives in Seattle tending to broken dolls and old bones. Their debut novel "Probably It Will Not Be Okay" is available from Publication Studio. Brekan holds an MFA from the University of Washington Bothell in Creative Writing & Poetics.

IMAGE TEXT: It had been three weeks since her girlfriend was eaten by a bear and she still couldn’t talk about it without laughing. Her girlfriend hadn’t been eaten so much as chewed, with bites taken out of some vital areas, so saying eaten ensured people knew that her girlfriend was dead, whereas saying mauled could lead to confusion.

22/03/2024

An image from the "Environmental Memory" series by Jane Boyer, as published in SAND 26.

Get your copy of SAND 26 via the link in our bio 🔗

Jane Boyer is a lens-based artist, curator, and academic researcher. 📸

Jane writes: "I'm intrigued with the way lens-based imagery bridges the gap between what is seen and what is remembered. I use the iPhone as a symbolic device that carries traces of my private world.

In my project, 'Environmental Memory,' I simulate or anticipate memories not yet formed. Trying to grapple with growing feelings of eco-anxiety, I found myself asking 'What will it be like if we are left with only memories of our natural environment?'

This disturbing thought has led to a body of work where the depicted landscape is fragmented, distorted and blurry, and where colours are exaggerated or perverted, all characteristics of fragile and inaccurate memory. Using vintage found slides, I scan the hand-held slide with my iPhone to capture these images."

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A blurred photograph of dark, bare trees against a pale, cloudy sky.

18/03/2024

Whatever there was or is wherever it is or / will be. Start here in the park. There is a Jack Russell sniffing the /walnut tree and a Shih Tzu named Brian."

A glimpse at "Here in the Park" by Maureen Siegel, as published in SAND 26. Scroll down for the full poem text.

Print/digital copies of SAND 26, published November 2023, are available via the link in our bio. Our print run is limited, so get yours soon before they're all gone 🔗

Maureen Siegel lives and works in Marseille. Originally from Missouri, she studied in Boston before moving to France in 2005. Her work has been published in English and French in .media, , POSTblank, The Op**te and ASH (Oxford University Poetry Society).

IMAGE TEXT:

"Here in the Park" by Maureen Siegel

You begin to learn English by compiling lists of what there is and /what there are. This helps to understand the di erence between /the countable (like apricots, or chairs) and the uncountable (like /water, or love). You can start by naming something in your home /(there is a bed), or in the office (where there is work), before /advancing to more complex topics like the future, or even the past /if you’re feeling up to it. Whatever there was or is wherever it is or /will be. Start here in the park. There is a Jack Russell sniffing the /walnut tree and a Shih Tzu named Brian. There are crows, /butterflies and children. Joggers, frisbees and a southern breeze. /There is a man sitting on a bench in the afternoon sun, observing /a young couple as they teach each other new words. Watching /what there is, as it passes. As it is, as it is – and then it passes.

07/03/2024

A glimpse at the "The Backwaters" by Paloma Ruiz, an incredible fiction work about grief, deep diving and deep-sea internet chatrooms, among other things, as published in SAND 26.

We selected this work from hundreds of prose submissions, because it took us to places we never expected – striking a balance between bold, playful, poignant and sad.

Read Paloma's full piece in SAND 26, available in print and digital format via the link in our bio. An extract from "The Backwaters" is currently also available to read on SAND Online for a limited time 🔗

Paloma Ruiz is an editorial assistant at and a former contributing editor at the – she loves to read and write all things magical realism, marine biology, Sci-Fi, Cli-Fi, and women’s health.

03/03/2024

"In 2015, a German doctor wrote the diagnosis of transsexuality (F64.0) into my medical record for the first time... F64.0 there — like a headline that affects every interpretation of my body."

An extract from "Pain Care" by Lukas Kofoed Reimann, as published in SAND 26.

This creative nonfiction piece was also the runner-up in the Berlin Writing Prize 2022 in collaboration with and

Read the full piece in print in SAND 26, and for a limited time, you can also read the full piece free on SAND Online – follow the link in our bio 🔗

Lukas is a trans* scholar, writer and educator who lives in Berlin. His writing is centered around themes like body and identity, and explores topics such as transiton and chronic pain. He is continually curious about the way we can interact with and shape our worlds through writing and reading, and is especially passionate about trans* literature and empowering others to tell their stories.

01/02/2024

*Art submissions have been extended until this Sunday, 4 February*

All other genres are now closed. Thank you for all of your submissions, we can't wait to read them!

We are interested in art that has a contemporary context and makes something visible about our world - from the smallest everyday details to wider social issues. We are interested in experiments with colours, shapes, tones and textures as well as layers of meanings and stories.

We accept all forms of visual art, including photography, drawing, painting, printmaking, mixed media, sculpture, installation, performance and film/video stills, as well as trans/inter/multi-disciplinary work.

SUBMIT: https://sandjournal.submittable.com/submit/

25/01/2024

We're not the only ones open for submissions at the moment! If you're in Berlin, how about submitting to Stadtsprachen, too?

authors of berlin: our submissions are once again open! send us your (non-german) poetry, prose, non-fiction and anything else you want to submit for a chance to be featured in #27 of our stadtsprachen magazin. head to stadtsprachen.de/en/submit/ to find our more or mail us directly at [email protected]!

24/01/2024

We're open for art submissions for SAND 27, as well as poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, flash, and translations!

We are interested in art that has a contemporary context and makes something visible about our world – from the smallest everyday details to wider social issues. We are interested in experiments with colours, shapes, tones and textures as well as layers of meanings and stories.

We accept all forms of visual art, including photography, drawing, painting, printmaking, mixed media, sculpture, installation, performance and film/video stills, as well as trans/inter/multi-disciplinary work. We are interested in both full-colour and grayscale images.

Artwork may have previously appeared in an exhibition or online, as long as it has not been included in a magazine, catalogue, or other print publication.

DEADLINE FOR ART: 30 January – follow the link in our bio to submit 🔗

IMAGE: "Rockface" (2021) by Gayathiri, published in SAND 26

18/01/2024

Hello! We’ve gathered quite a few new followers recently, so just to (re)-introduce ourselves...

SAND is a fully self-funded, independent journal of writing and art that was founded in 2009 by Becky Crook. Over the past 15 years, the journal has been handed down generations of international creatives in Berlin, and we’re now a team of 16 with roots in around a dozen different countries.

We’re all volunteers, and we juggle SAND alongside our day jobs: Outside of SAND, we’re managers, students, translators, bartenders, parents, teachers, and many other things!

It’s a lot of work, but we love bringing SAND out into the world and collaborating with so many talented writers and artists via our open calls.

We’re currently open for submissions, so send us your fiction, creative nonfiction, flash, translations, poetry, and art before 30 January for the chance to be a part of our next issue!

IMAGE: SAND 26, with cover art by Chengwei Xia

06/01/2024

An extract from "Aubade" by Erin Wilson, as published in SAND 26.

Erin Wilson's poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in B O D Y, , Tar River Poetry, , Verse Daily, The Honest Ulsterman. Her first collection is "At Home with Disquiet"; her second, "Blue" (whose title poem won a Pushcart), is about depression, grief, and the transformative power of art. She lives in a small town on Robinson-Huron Treaty Territory in Northern Ontario, Canada, the traditional lands of the Anishinawbek.

Interested in submitting poetry – or fiction, translations, creative nonfiction, or art – to our next issue? We open for submissions on 10 January ⏰

While our website undergoes maintenance, you can find all submissions info via Submittable – head to the link in our bio 🔗

IMAGE TEXT:

Morning takes her lovely hands and / pulls me into her lap. / I am a kitten lapping milk. / Morning's fingers enfold my skull, / entangle my hair. / The pulling is love. / The answer is hunger.

04/01/2024

We open for submissions for SAND 27 on Jan 10⏰

We'll be looking for poetry, fiction, flash, translations, creative nonfiction and art, and we welcome both emerging and established creatives to submit.

We love submissions that push the boundaries of form, message, and voice in fresh and unpredictable ways. Take risks, experiment, and subvert expectations. We want submissions with soul, edge, and truth from a wide range of perspectives. Send us the sensitive and the rough, the enigmatic and the joyful, the unruly and the disorienting, the work unanticipated. We pay featured writers and artists (modest) publication fees and offer a free subs option to anyone who needs it.

https://sandjournal.submittable.com/submit

11/12/2023

SAND 26: Shifting is out now, with cover art by Chengwei Xia 🌊

Chengwei Xia was born in 1994 in Chengdu, China. In 2021, Chengwei moved to London to study painting at the Slade School of Fine Art and received her Master’s degree in painting in 2022. Currently, she is studying in the Drawing Year at the Royal Drawing School in London. Her practice centers around drawing, painting, making, and writing.

Order your print or digital copy of SAND 26 from SAND journal.com via the link in our bio. Perhaps we're biased, but we think a copy of SAND also makes a great holiday gift!

01/12/2023

Some impressions of our SAND 26 launch on 15 November 🥂

A big thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate with us, especially to our readers Frances, Lukas and Max, plus Bachittar, Brekan and Zack, who joined us virtually with readings & talks from the UK and US.

We had a brilliant night celebrating all the talent behind this new issue and are thrilled to finally have SAND 26 out in the world.

Last but not least, thanks to the lovely team at who kindly let us use their space for the launch, complete with disco ball 🪩

Order your copy via the link in our bio or pick one up from our stockists around Berlin!

Photos by Jeannette Pang 📷

15/11/2023

Happy launch day, SAND 26 🎂

We'll be at this evening to celebrate our new issue with readings and mini-talks from some of our wonderful contributors:

~ Flash fiction from Max Steiner

~ Poetry from Frances Rebollido

~ Creative nonfiction from Lukas Kofoed Reimann

Plus virtual contributions from some of our international contributors: Bach Singh, Brekan Blakeslee & Zack Lesmeister ✨

There are a handful of tickets left via the link in our bio – join us!

06/11/2023

Meet some of our SAND team members! Over the past months, we’ve been working on carefully putting together our latest issue which we’re so excited to share with you. SAND 26 issues have now arrived (pictured on the last slide with our managing editor )!

Join us for the launch of SAND 26 next week on 15 November at . Get your launch tickets via the link in our bio - we can’t wait to celebrate with you soon!

24/10/2023

"enantiomeric response" by Dr. Patricia Falkenburg, as published in SAND 25.

Patricia is a molecular biologist, a poet writing in English and German, and a visual artist. Born in Mannheim, she currently lives in Pulheim near Cologne. Find her online at www.patricia-falkenburg.com.

🔗 SAND 25 is still available in digital form via our webshop and in print at our partner bookshops around Berlin.

🔗 We've got lots of delicious poetry in store for you in SAND 26, out on 15 November. Head to the link in our bio for tickets to the issue launch!

IMAGE TEXT:

"enantiomeric response" by Patricia Falkenburg

you’ve got to forgive me . me so old now . and no idea still . you know . so old . and not knowing anything . of life really . studying all my life . still knowing not . a single thing . that comes from living . behind the mirror . all the time . behind . or maybe . was it in front . of the mirror is the same . as stretched-out . in the plane of glossed glass . when i look in the mirror i . see no-one but . myself . you see no-one . so what . shall i ever know . when what i see is . nothing behind . nothing through . nothing in front . self flattened . to oblivion . to memory . in a plain pane . glossed with yesterdays . and that’s how . i know nothing . that’s why . that’s how . you know . forgive me

20/10/2023

Impressions from our last launch – SAND 25 at this spring, featuring contributors , .seatides, , , .gotic and more.

📚 SAND 25 is now sold out in print online, but digital copies are still available via the link in our bio. A few print copies are still available from our stockists in Berlin and Paris, but be quick before they're all gone.

📚 SAND 26 is coming soon, and there are just a few weeks to go until we launch our brand new issue at on 15 November – follow the link in our bio for tickets and the line-up. We hope you'll join us!

13/10/2023

SAND 26 is almost here! This autumn issue is full of shape-shifting, creatures, and alternate realities, and we can't wait to share it with you 🔮

Come and join us at in on 15 November from 20:00 for readings and mini-presentations from SAND 26 contributors and the team behind the magazine.

SAND 26 will be available on the night alongside a range of past issues – online pre-order info coming soon for international folks!

Tickets and lineup via the link in our bio 🔗

22/09/2023

SAND 25 is officially sold out online in print! A huge thank you to everybody who supported us by ordering a copy of this issue, which has beautiful cover art by .

SAND is currently funded via sales and donations alone, meaning every purchase goes directly towards printing our next issue and paying our contributors small publication fees.

Digital issues of SAND 25 are still available to order via our webshop.

If you're in Berlin, our bookshop stockists still have a few print copies of the issue left. You can currently find SAND in Berlin at:












And in Paris at:

16/08/2023

Now live on SAND Online: "Clown School" by Rachel Swearingen, the incredible winning entry to the Berlin Writing Prize 2022, a collaboration between SAND, and . The theme of the competition was "Escape", and Rachel's uniquely witty yet poignant story certainly takes you on an unexpected journey... Before we give away too much, head to the link in our bio to read the full piece! Rachel Swearingen is the author of "How to Walk on Water and Other Stories". Her stories, essays, and interviews have appeared in , , , , Agni, American Short Fiction & elsewhere. Her writing has won the New American Fiction Prize, the Missouri Review Editors’ Prize, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, & the Mississippi Review Prize. She lives in Chicago.

14/08/2023

"I have been told that writing is about laying bare your experiences, that even those who stood beside you cannot know your heart unless you choose to share it with them, but I still cannot arrive at words that feel significant enough to share." - An extract from "Letters" by Kimberly Rooney 高小荣, as published in SAND 24. Find & order the full issue via the link in our bio.

Kimberly Rooney 高小荣 is a Chinese-American adoptee from Jiangsu Province. They now live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with their cat Toaster, and their writing has
appeared in The Offing, Longleaf Review, Chestnut Review, Waxwing Magazine, and
more. They are a 2022 Best of the Net Finalist, and when they aren’t writing or working, they enjoy calligraphy, singing, and crocheting.