Welcome and thank you for considering participating in this literary project. Below is a brief introduction to Territory and some information about how you might fit in.

Concept

Maps are powerful tools of representation and meaning-making. They are foundational to discovery but also to conquest and colonization. The map is not the territory; it is a reduction, a projection, a representation, and yet its promise of a neat objectivity is seductive, so much so that maps often mask and suppress the territories they describe.

Our core idea is to use the map as an object to inspect the paradoxes of representation. Each issue will have a theme and a collection of maps (broadly speaking) that embody that theme. Our solicited writers, musicians, and other artists are invited to respond to these materials however they see fit, all within the loose guideline of exploring the territory represented by the map. The actual issue will be a digital publication, an atlas that collects maps and their artistic responses.

The theme and maps are merely starting points. We encourage contributors to do their own map collecting, making, editing, deconstructing, etc. and to push beyond familiar genres and forms, which is one of the reasons we're seeking designers, illustrators, and cartographers to join our team. Many of the resulting artworks will be multimodal and will push the boundaries of this generic Squarespace site, which itself is only provisional.

What We're Looking For

We're looking for people with backgrounds in web design, illustration, data visualization, and/or cartography to help out in the follow areas:

• Website design
• Issue layout
• Interactivity design and coding for maps and other hyperobjects

We don't expect any single person to be able to handle all of these responsibilities, nor do we expect a single person to handle a responsibility across every issue. We're open to people contributing on an ad hoc basis, for specific issues/themes, or in collaboration with specific artists. Whatever works for you.

However, our ideal is to partner with someone who can manage all of the design/visual aspects of our publication. This person would be considered a masthead editor and would not just take care of day-to-day stuff, but would also shape the vision of the publication.

Caveat: We're two recent MFA Creative Writing graduates building this publication out of pocket, so we don't plan to compensate contributors with money (for now). If you're interested in participating you'll be doing so because you like our concept and are looking for a venue to publish your own work.

Next Steps

If you're interested in participating please read our introduction to solicited writers, musicians, artists, etc., which gives more detail to Territory's concept and what solicitees will be providing. Then, send us an email with the following information:

• Your skills
• Your desired engagement level
• Your vision for how to design any one of the first four issues
• Any questions you have

Thank you!