Open Call: Misrecognition

You insist you are not the person everyone, including the state, says you are.¹

Your nose detaches itself from your face, and runs off. It becomes more popular, more important, than you.²

You appear to your mother as a monstrous bird, and not her child.³

Have you been mistaken for someone else? Did they insist you really were that other person? Like catching a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and not recognizing yourself, misrecognition can destabilize. The present can contradict the surety of memory. For this open call, I want writing of any genre, that tells me what emerges from this encounter.

¹ Max Frisch’s Stiller (1954); It Was Just An Accident (2025)

² Nikolai Gogol’s “The Nose” (1836)

³ Jordy Rosenberg’s Night Night Fawn (2026); Monica (2022)

Eligibility: Only writers who have not yet published or been contracted to write a book-length work with a U.S. publisher are eligible. Writers who have self-published, published an academic text, published a book with a publisher outside the U.S., or translated another writer’s work are eligible to apply. Writers who have published a chapbook in the U.S. are ineligible to apply. International applicants are encouraged to apply. Work that incorporates multiple languages is eligible, so long as the primary language is English. Works of translation are eligible. Please note it is the translator’s responsibility to secure rights to the work before it is submitted. Only one submission per person is allowed. A Public Space reserves the right to invite submissions.

Timeline: Submissions will be accepted via Submittable from June 29, 2026–July 13, 2026. Submissions close at 11:59 p.m. (ET) on July 13. All submissions will receive a reply by the end of August.

Submission Requirements: Submissions are only accepted through Submittable. There is no submission fee. Please submit the following:

— A cover letter, including a short biographical statement and how your submission connects to the open call.

— One previously unpublished piece up to 6,000 words, double-spaced, or up to five (5) poems.

— Simultaneous submissions are allowed.

Note that we only accept PDF or Word files (.doc and .docx) are accepted. Please do not include your cover letter as part of your manuscript.

Questions? Write Editorial Fellow Sam Karagulin at [email protected].

Recommended Reading: Below are selections from A Public Space’s archive that were among my references in developing this open call. These pieces are part of this month’s Public Access—work from the magazine’s archive, made free and open to all.

“The Let-Out” by Jamel Brinkley (A Public Space No. 28)
But all of a sudden she started walking again, with more quickness and purpose. Her steps were bringing her in the direction she was looking, and it became clear, despite every self-abnegating doubt, that she was walking toward me.

“Again It Has Prepared Itself For My Awakening” by Patrizia Cavalli, translated from the Italian by Jorie Graham (A Public Space No. 19)
In broad daylight on the other hand I shall mistake them, / I shall not compete with them, / I shall act like it’s nothing…

“This Handwriting” by Matthew Zapruder (A Public Space No. 8)
Very / small horses attached to invisible reins attached / to facts is how I would describe my thoughts, / but what of my memories?

“Trans-Neptunian Object” by Suzanne Buffam (A Public Space No. 8)
Facts exist for whole centuries and then suddenly cease.

“Compromise” by Ada Zhang (A Public Space No. 29)
It was like receiving a new man, a new husband, and to me this was a relief.