Submit Work

Cicada challenges our talented and creative readers to answer the Call for Creative Endeavors. For the current theme and rules, cast your wondering eyes below. The Arbiters of Creative Endeavors will choose a few selections to run in upcoming issues of Cicada. Fame if not fortune is at your fingertips!

Your poem, photo, or artwork should reflect the theme of the current Call for Creative Endeavors below. If your work focuses on another topic, please check out The Slam or General Submissions. 

This Challenge theme will remain in effect through August 31 with selected poems and artwork to appear in the November/December 2009 issue of Cicada®.

YOUR CHALLENGE THEME: ESCAPADE

Escapade: life spiraling out of control; a wild or madcap adventure; a comedy of errors; a roller-coaster ride at 200 mph

" 'I give you one lil' charm, yaas, ' said the Wizened One when the séance was over, and Manuela, all white and nervous, leaned back in the rickety chair."
from "The Goodness of St. Roque" (page 5)

" 'I haven't done anything! I need to find Beth. I'm infected. Audrey could die. Please let me go! ' I was hysterical."
from "The Summer Student" (page 19)

" 'Don't touch me, Renata. You cursed Antonio, and he's going to die. He's got fever chills and can't hear us, not even his mama's voice. ' Johnny's eyes were wide."
from "The Witch's Daughter" (page 26)

"He closed the door and was about to carry the suitcase upstairs when he heard a piercing scream from the sitting room. 'Oh no! ' she was crying. 'No! No! No! ' "
from "The Surgeon" (page 40)

Send us an original piece of artwork, photo, or poem on the topic ESCAPADE, and if we publish your submission in Cicada, you will receive six complimentary copies of the issue to share with admiring family and friends. Your theme-related artwork will be (1) any amalgamation of black, white, and/or gray, (2) any style or medium, and (3) up to 8½ x 11 inches in size. Photos can be black-and-white or color, and poems 30 lines or less.

Send your Creative Endeavors online by using the form below. Any work received digitally will not be returned.

Optionally, you may mail your submissions to:

For artwork/photos:
Cicada Arbiter of Creative Endeavors
70 E. Lake Street
Suite 300
Chicago, IL 60601
Note: If you mail artwork, please send original art/photo or a digital file of the scanned work at 300 dpi. Any non-digital artwork received through the mail and accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope will be returned.

For poems:
Cicada Arbiter of Creative Endeavors
P.O. Box 300
Peru, IL 61354

Online Submission Form: