Despite having been on our list of potential themes for a while now, there’s something that feels rather timely about the theme of Hope. Although the mainstream media would probably have you think otherwise, it’s not that these are dark times or that hope is needed any more than it has been in the past. This isn’t the first occasion that we’ve had the threat of a lunatic in charge of a major superpower. Or that Britain has been on the cusp of a possible European fallout. Or any other current cause for concern outside of world politics. But for something as inherently timeless as hope, there is something that makes it feel strangely opportune.

Hope treads an intriguing path between darkness and light, positivity and negativity. It is the ground for believing that something good may happen, typically from a place where it hasn’t. And that dynamic from bad to good, wrong to right, dark to light is why we’ve decided to name Hope as the theme of our 16th issue — which is now officially open for literary submissions.

If you would like the opportunity to have your short fiction or poetry published and illustrated in the next issue of Popshot, find out the full submissions guidelines at our submit page:

www.popshotpopshot.com/submit