Dwellers in the Land...

“But to become dwellers in the land, to relearn the laws of Gaea, to come to know the earth fully and honestly, the crucial and perhaps only all-encompassing task is to understand place, the immediate specific place where we live.  The kinds of soils and rocks under our feet; the source of the waters we drink; the meaning of the different kinds of winds; the common insects, birds, mammals, plants, and trees; the particular cycles of the seasons; the times to plant and harvest and forage–these are the things that are necessary to know.  The limits of its resources; the carrying capacities of its lands and waters; the places where it must not be stressed; the places where its bounties can best be developed; the treasures it holds and the treasures it withholds–these are the things that must be understood.  And the cultures of the people, of the populations native to the land and of those who have grown up with it, the human social and economic arrangements shaped by and adapted to the geomorphic ones, in both urban and rural settings–these are the things that must be appreciated. 

That, in essence, is bioregionalism.”

Kirkpatrick Sale, Dwellers in the Land, p. 42

Bioregionalism: Themes and Prompts

Thematically speaking, there are two options for submissions to our bioregionalism section: writing about bioregionalism, and taking a bioregional perspective.

We expect most pieces submitted specifically about bioregionalism will be nonfiction, or visual narratives which map out and/or explain a bioregion, but we're certainly open to surprises!

We welcome any submission types listed below which provide a clear bioregional perspective on any subject matter.

Submission Types

For or bioregionalism theme, we accept three different types of work:

1. Fiction
2. Nonfiction 
3. Photo essays and visual narratives

Submission Guidelines

We do not require blinded submissions.  We prefer knowing as much about the author/creator as possible.

Remember, The Upper New Review is a hybrid publication.  We encourage the use of hyperlinks and embeddable media: images, audiovisuals, datasets, visualizations, etc.  (It is our job at The Upper New to convert these embeddable elements to printable ephemera when and if the time comes.)

We welcome simultaneous submissions, but ask that you notify us immediately and withdraw your submission if it is accepted for publication elsewhere.

Prose (fiction and nonfiction)

For prose, the minimum word count for a manuscript is 3000 words.  We consider a short story to be no longer than 20,000 words, so our maximum word count is 20,000 words for fiction and nonfiction manuscripts.

Properly formatted manuscripts, including 12pt font, double-spacing, page numbers, etc.

For nonfiction works, please include properly formatted citations, using whatever system works for you (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.)

.DOCX or .ODT file formats preferred.  

PDF files are acceptable as well, but more difficult to parse in our system.

Note: All fiction works will be considered for Ecotheater script conversion and production.

Photo Essays and Visual Narratives

We accept Photo Essays and Visual Narratives that contain at least one dozen (12) images in a well curated series, with or without accompanying text, depending on the nature of the narrative.

When submitting these narrative works that are primarily a series of visual images (photographs or other forms of visual art or data visualization), your initial submission should take the form of a single PDF file, with the image series and accompanying textual content properly formatted (e.g. horizontal vs. vertical orientation), as if a finished, printed artifact.

Should your work be accepted for publication, our team will reach out with instructions for providing original high resolution images and a text manuscript that will allow us to structure the visual narrative properly for online and print publication, as necessary.

LifePlace

“A bioregion is literally and etymologically a “life-place”—a unique region definable by natural (rather than political) boundaries with a geographic, climatic, hydrological, and ecological character capable of supporting unique human and non-human living communities.  Bioregions can be variously defined by the geography of watersheds, similar plant and animal ecosystems, and related identifiable landforms (e.g., particular mountain ranges, prairies, or coastal zones) and by the unique human cultures that grow from natural limits and potentials of the region.  Most importantly, the bioregion is emerging as the most logical locus and scale for sustainable regenerative community to take root and take place.  In reaction to a globally shallow, consumer-driven, technologically saturated world where humans are alienated from nature and offered simulations of it instead, the bioregion offers an appropriate venue for the natural predisposition toward graceful human life on earth.  The bioregional or “life-place” concept suggests the efflorescence and emplacement of biophilia, our innate affection for the totality of life in all its forms.  Although by no means a unified philosophy, theory, or method, the bioregional approach suggests a means of living by deep understanding of, respect for, and, ultimately, care of a naturally bounded region or territory.”

Robert  Thayer, LifePlace: Bioregional Thought and Practice. (pp. 3-4)

Submissions Policy

Any submission not strictly adhering to the guidelines will be automatically rejected.  Resubmissions adhering to guidelines are allowed.  You will start a new submission and pay the requisite fees.

Unfortunately, The Upper New cannot provide refunds for any submissions.

We accept submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.  

Currently, due to staff limitations, submissions must be written in English.

These are open themed submissions, so please consider anything as a potential for publication in The Upper New Review.

Submissions must be previously unpublished, in print or online.  Publication does not include personal blogs, social media posts, etc.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere, and withdraw your submission from consideration.

We’re open to all subject matter, with the exception that we will not publish erotica or anything containing gratuitous sexual content.  For example, we would happily read a personal reflection on the mating habits of river otters in your local river basin.

Responses for any submission can take up to eight months, with variations depending on the contents of the submission and the time of year.  Typically,  we will strive to have a response for your submission within two months.  If it has been six months since you submitted, and you have not heard from us, please do send us a follow-up inquiry!

Specific Rules

For your submission, you may submit one document: either fiction, nonfiction, or poetry.

Up to three additional documents may be submitted (with an additional media fee for each) allowing a total of four documents per submission.  Additional documents must match the first submission.  Combined submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry are not permitted.

For prose, the minimum word count for a manuscript is 3000 words.  We consider a short story to be no longer than 20,000 words, so our maximum word count is 20,000 words for fiction and nonfiction manuscripts.

For poetry, limit each poem to three pages.  Do not put multiple poems in the same document.

Any submission not strictly adhering to the guidelines will be automatically rejected.  Resubmissions adhering to guidelines are allowed.  You will start a new submission and pay the requisite fees.

September 27, 2024.  Hurricane Helene.

As we watched the waters rise and subside, what did we learn about ourselves?

What did we learn about our rivers and the watersheds through which they flow?

What did we learn about our upstream and downstream neighbors, human and nonhuman?

What did we learn about what we need to unlearn: as individuals, and as a species, sharing the biosphere with all other living beings?

Winding along next to the Pigeon River, Interstate 40 imposes itself through the mountains of western North Carolina: a road that was notoriously difficult to build, and has been equally difficult to maintain.  Mountains were demolished to finish the road.  When Interstate 40 was completed across the border between North Carolina and Tennessee in 1968, NC Governor Dan Moore is reported to have said, “The genius of modern man has shown itself to be superior to the adversities of nature.”

In his recent book Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping The Future Of Our Planet, journalist Ben Goldfarb reminds us:  "We built roads to subjugate nature, and by the time we learned the consequences, we had no choice but to subjugate it further. We are forever at war with the world we've built." (p. 109-110)

We wonder if perhaps Gov. Moore’s coffin was found floating somewhere down the Pigeon River in late September or early October of 2024.

Since the reconstruction of Interstate 40 began, controversy has been at the forefront, with the US Forest Service agreeing to build a rock quarry in Pisgah Forest to provide material for rebuilding the Interstate.  Sure, the NCDOT can buy over a thousand acres of adjacent land to “make the forest whole again”, but, well, you can’t exactly put back the rocks you blasted out of the ground.

There will now be a massive hole in the middle of this “whole” forest.

A few questions to reconsider as we recover our relationships with rivers, with forests, with ecosystems, with the biosphere: Why do we need to build back Interstate 40?  Why did it really get built in the first place?  Wouldn’t a smaller road suffice?  

Or, actually, how about this: what if we had no road through there at all?

What’s the big hurry to get so many people in so many individually operated motor vehicles back and forth from NC to TN on that particular route?

The consequences of the flooding brought on by Hurricane Helene were not the result of a natural disaster.  This was a manmade disaster.  This was OUR manmade disaster.  We humans, driven by comfort and convenience, by capitalism and corporations, by greed and growth mindsets… we humans built too much, too close, and too big.

We destroyed the functionality of flooding.  

We got in the way.

Are we really going to return to business as usual, or will we use this as an opportunity for growth?  And not the kind of growth defined by planetary pimps, those among us stuck in the ruts of capitalism (limitless growth, empty value, real estate development, technological salvation, etc.), but individual and collective growth as ecocentric, posthuman, multispecies communities of practice sharing the biosphere and maintaining its habitability through intentional stewardship.

According to Wackernagel & Rees we must focus on our individual and collective ecological footprint as a single species within the shared biosphere: "The first step toward reducing our ecological impact is to recognize that the 'environmental crisis' is less an environmental and technical problem than it is a behavioral and social one. It can therefore be resolved only with the help of behavioral and social solutions. On a finite planet, at human carrying capacity, a society driven mainly by selfish individualism has all the potential for sustainability of a collection of angry scorpions in a bottle. Certainly human beings are competitive organisms but they are also cooperative social beings.”  Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth, (p. xi)

Are we ready to start practicing systems wisdom?  To get the beat of the system, to locate responsibility, to build feedback policies for feedback systems, to go for the good of the whole?

The aftermath of Helene will be with us throughout the remainder of our meager human lifetimes, and for generations of humans to come.  Hopefully it will continue to be a lesson for learning and growth as ecologically literate citizens of the biosphere.

We want your prose, your visual narratives, your films showing us your thoughts on how and why we can and should recover our relationships with rivers.  

We want your ecocentric reality checks.

We want your paradigm shifters.

We want to shatter the bottle full of scorpions.

Why is the final deadline for submissions Sept 11, 2026?  This date marks the 50th anniversary of US President Gerald Ford signing the paperwork that protected the North Carolina stretch of The New River as a federally protected “Wild and Scenic River”, finally killing the Blue Ridge Project, an attempt to dam the New River and ship the generated electricity to the cities of the midwest.  This represents one of the biggest environmental protection victories that has ever been achieved in the United States.  

You can read a day-to-day recap of the entire fight leading up to victory in a locally published book The New River Controversy.

Submission Details

First deadline: June 11 2026 11:59pm

Second deadline: July 11 2026 11:59pm

Third deadline: August 11 2026 11:59pm

FINAL DEADLINE: Sept 11 2026 11:59pm

We want fiction and nonfiction, and geolocated photo essays.  We’ll take documentary and fiction films as well, up to 60 mins in length.

Submissions will be accepted on a rolling basis, so we encourage early submissions.

Prose works

For all prose works, the minimum word count is 3000 words.  Submissions under this length will automatically be rejected.

Our ideal word count for all prose submissions is between 8,000 and 12,000 words.

The maximum word count for fiction works is 15,000 words.

For nonfiction works that substantially exceed 15,000 words (e.g.20,000-30,000 words), we’ll consider serialization.

Regardless, please ensure manuscripts are properly formatted, including double-spacing and 12 pt serif font, etc.

Photo Essays

Our plan for all accepted photo essays is to build interactive story maps for each narrative.

For each completed photo essay submitted, all original photos must be geolocated.  To submit the photo essay, please create a single PDF or DOCX file that has a single web-resolution (72dpi) image per page.  On each photo page, there should be a Photo Title (“untitled” is not a title), and a Description.  Descriptions should range in length between 2-3 sentences and two full paragraphs.

All textual information on each page of the photo essay document should be 12-point, Times or some similar easy to read serif font.

To be clear, each page contents are as follows:

[the photo]

Photo Title: [the photo title]

Description: [the photo description]

To get a better sense of the Descriptions, if you were to place all the Descriptions in your photo essay in any order, the resulting lengthy prose would still read coherently.

Ten photographs seems like a reasonable minimum number to be included in these photo essays.  We don’t want to establish a hard maximum, but every photograph should fit as a relevant piece of the curated narrative.  If your essay has more than 40 photographs, we’ll need a really good reason to accept it.  If you’ve got tons of relevant photos, please consider multiple narratives, which can be added as “additional submissions” within your primary submission.

Documentary and Fiction Films

As we mentioned, we’re interested in relevant films up to 60 minutes in length (if the credits, etc. extend beyond 60 mins runtime, that’s fine).

For your submission, upload a PDF/DOCX file with a 500 word synopsis.  Below this synopsis, include a live hyperlink URL to stream the video online (Vimeo or something similar preferred).  Obviously, if it’s password protected, include the password.

For every film submission, we’ll watch the first five minutes and keep going if we get hooked.