Disability: The Revolution!
Special Issue Call for Submissions, Deadline November 30, 2025
Revolution: from the old French revolution, originally referring to the motion of the stars. Later versions of the word in the 15th century played on this sense of cyclical revolving — in the changing of the seasons, but also — crucially — the revolving of the wheel.
What does revolution look like from a disability standpoint? How do we remember that disabled writers just taking up space is revolutionary? How do we, as disabled writers, consider that question of the wheel and its many manifestations — literal, temporal, and symbolic? How do we celebrate it, remake, and open ourselves to the revolution, ongoing and future, that must usher in a more accessible world?
For our Summer 2026 issue, The Fiddlehead seeks work from disabled writers on the theme of revolution. You can interpret the theme as broadly as you like. If you identify as disabled and would like to answer this call, please submit! We would love to hear from you.
Send us your fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and review pitches that call for change — change in the world we know and change in the world that might come to be. How can the innovation that drives disabled experiences also help to drive a new and better world? What might a world beyond the revolution look like, especially for disabled people?
Imagine new worlds with us — worlds far away, and the world that waits close in our future.
The issue will be overseen by disabled author and activist Amanda Leduc, who will also serve as the fiction editor alongside poetry editor Phillip Crymble, nonfiction editor Therese Estacion, and reviews editors Grace R. Taylor and Christine Wu.
In an exciting first for The Fiddlehead we are creating audio narration for this special issue, and we are in conversation with the Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA) to offer even more formats for maximum accessibility.
While The Fiddlehead prefers to receive submissions via Submittable, we are aware that the platform is not available or accessible to all people. We always accept mailed submissions; see below for instructions. If you cannot access or use Submittable and cannot mail us your submission, get in touch with Grace at thefiddlehead@gmail.com for assistance.
To mail your submission:
Follow all guidelines for your submissions genre and print your submission single-sided on printer paper.
Please include a cover letter with the following information:
That the submission is for the disability issue
Your name
A short third-person bio (50 words or less)
Your mailing address
Your email (if you have one)
Address your mailed submission to:
The Fiddlehead
Campus House
11 Garland Ct
University of New Brunswick
PO Box 4400
Fredericton NB
E3B 5A3
Canada
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
The general rule of only submitting once per calendar year does not apply to the Disability issue.
For purposes of this issue, you may submit once in all three categories. Please submit as per the guidelines below (one story, one essay, and no more than 6 poems).
Fiction Submissions:
A submission should be one story, double-spaced, a maximum of 6 000 words, and in a legible font.
Pages should be numbered.
At the top of the first page, include the story’s title and word count.
If your story is less than 1000 words, you may include a second submission that is also shorter than 1000 words. This submission should start on a new page and include the title and word count at the top of that page.
Creative Nonfiction Submissions:
Creative nonfiction (CNF) is construed widely and can include personal essays, narrative non-fiction, think pieces, etc. Check out the Creative Nonfiction Collective Society’s definition here.
A submission should be one CNF story, double-spaced, a maximum of 6 000 words, and in a legible font.
At the top of the first page, include the story’s title and word count.
Pages should be numbered.
If your CNF story is less than 1000 words, you may include a second submission that is also shorter than 1000 words. This submission should start on a new page and include the title and word count at the top of that page.
If you have images (pictures, graphs, drawings, etc.), we are happy to consider them but you must have written permission to use them from the creator in a publication before you submit to us. AI-generated images will not be considered.
Poetry Submissions:
A poetry submission should be single-spaced.
It can be no more than 6 poems and no more than 12 pages in total.
Pages should be numbered.
Each poem should begin on a new page with the title of the poem at the top of the page.
If a poem continues onto more than one page, please note at the top of that page that the poem has continued.
Review Pitch Submissions:
A review pitch should be 250 words or less.
Include the title of the book, the author’s name, the year it was published, and the publisher (if applicable).
Include an outline of what you will anticipate to discuss about the book.
Reviews Pitch
The Fiddlehead is seeking book review pitches for Disability: The Revolution!, our Summer 2026 issue. We welcome pitches from disabled Canadians about Canadian books centred on disability in any of its many forms.
Please send us pitches of 250 words or fewer. Include the title of the book, the author’s name, the year it was published, and the publisher (if applicable). Your pitch should also outline why you want to review the book and offer an overview of what you wish to discuss.
The book you review must be by a disabled author and should focus on disability in some aspect. The book must also be by a Canadian author or be published by a Canadian publisher. Self-published books will be considered if they are widely available.
We aim to have a variety of reviews exploring different disabilities as well as intersectionalities (i.e. BIPOC, 2SLGBTQIA+, and low-income disabled authors).
If we are interested in your review, we will reach out by December 5, 2025. A draft of your book review will be due in early February. The finished review should be approximately 1000 words. All book reviews will be edited by Grace R. Taylor and Christine Wu.
All The Fiddlehead’s past book reviews are available on our website. If you would like to see the kinds of reviews we publish, feel free to read a review or two!
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: November 30
