ISSUE 8: Writing the wrongs

Image credit: Adele Todd. Blood Mas. Photographer: Joseph Yearwood.

News headlines of trusted “uncles” and pastors committing brutal sexual assaults, jaded lovers carrying out machete murders, and perverse taxi-men abducting girls have been too frequent and far too common across the Caribbean. For PREE’s eighth issue, we’re looking for submissions that bring the overwhelming violence against women and girls into focus. PREE invites you to take up your pen/ cursor/ mic and help to write the wrongs.

We call on you because writers must use their voices to bring attention to the stories of the voiceless, the invisible, and the exploited. We are unafraid to loud out the perpetrators and we know that our voices are our first line of self-defense.

Issue 8 is a way for us to say their names. Names like Clarabell Johnson. Names like Ashanti Riley. Names like Khanice Jackson. We say their names as mourning, as warning, and as a promise to do our part to highlight this pox that is upon all our houses. For those who have been silenced behind the iron gates of wealth, or stifled under zinc roofs of poverty, your lives matter and your stories must be told.

Writing the wrongs means asking the big questions and imagining real solutions. Are women and children entitled to safe domestic spaces? Do they have the right to speak about the traumas they are subjected to and name those who violate their bodies and minds? How do we protect girls so they can travel to their grandmother’s funeral safely in Trinidad? How will we keep young women safe who just want to get to their place of work in Jamaica? Who will protest for our girls and our women?

While violence against women is the focus, we are also open to stories of abuse and violence by women. As of this issue we also welcome off-topic submissions. The only price for entry is good writing. Flex your best with us.

Editorial
ANNIE PAUL