CEArts is preparing to publish our 2025 edition of The Polk Street Review!
2025’s Optional Theme: Behind The Veil
We always seek your creative responses to our themes, and 2025’s theme is Behind the Veil. The questions below were just to get creatives thinking about the unlimited possibilities evoked by this prompt ~ innermost thoughts, secrets, spiritual insights, beliefs, desires, and so much more ~ it’s always up to YOU to creatively interpret our optional theme!
What lies behind the veil? What has remained hidden for too long and has now been exposed as we draw the curtains back? What’s the excited or nervous bride thinking under her veil? What happens when the veil between life and death thins and loved ones pass beyond? How does a veil shift how we perceive different cultures?
Some of our favorite “veiled” images & quotes for inspiration
Note: veiled females in Art do not always represent a virgin/Virgin Mary/Vestal Virgin, etc. The figure of the veiled lady frequently represented country/culture; for Italian artists that was Italia in the same way as Britannia represented England, Hibernia represented Ireland, and Lady Liberty represented America.
Draw the Curtain by Nicolas Party (click link for art installation that enwraps a circular building!): https://www.flickr.com/photos/gaphiker/52043734252/in/photostream/
“I draw the curtains, and I wait. Actually, I am not waiting for anything, I am merely making myself absent. Scoured, if only for a few minutes, of the impurities which dim and clog the mind, I accede to a state of consciousness from which the self is evacuated, And I am as soothed as if I were resting outside the universe.” – Emil M. Cioran
“Shut the windows, draw the curtains, keep the rumour out!” – L.P. Hartley
New Submissions Information:
In 2025’s book, we added two additional designations, along with our global one. One is devoted to submissions from Northwest Arkansas (NWA) and the other to submissions from Northwest Arkansas’ Native American Nations. Our partnership with The Empowerment Initiative (which is based in Bentonville, AR) has brought the people of NWA into our global family. We’re excited to add these two designations to our TPSR books (https://transwellness.org/trans-wellness-pharmacy/).
Also new, we now accept Oral Histories:
1) Audio or video files accepted. With submission, we strongly urge a Microsoft Word or Google doc English-language transcription be included for the print publication.
2) Audio/video files will be uploaded online on our website on the year’s/edition page for which they are submitted, on our podcast channel, and (possibly) our YouTube channel with appropriate credit given to the person submitting (if audio-only, then we may include some accompanying “generic” imagery for videos).
3) If accompanying transcriptions are not submitted by the 01 November annual deadline, the oral history submission may be included in the print edition as a QR code linked to the online audio file.
Pre-Orders, Patron donations, and Advertising Space buys help us cover project costs.
Asalways, we ask tha when you submit, please consider pre-ordering at least one book.
2025 pre-order copies of the book: https://square.link/u/zPMs9N8a Note: all pre-orders must be received BEFORE 15 January each year. Books will be shipped/available for local pickup in Februry 2025.
Patron donations can be made with PayPal and Square:
PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=EYUZBTW7297XQ
Advertisers and Patrons
DEADLINE 01 November!
Use the form below or Square link to send in your Advertising Space buys & images. Patrons may also use the form below: