Call for Submissions (Closed) – The Understory: Roots of a New India
“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way.
On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
— Arundhati Roy
The Understory is not strength through force, but through interdependence, interconnection, empathy, community, and care. It envisions solidarities woven across caste, religion, class, gender, and geography—solidarities that make justice possible.
In a time of polarization and systemic injustice, The Understory asks:
- Where can we choose empathy over apathy, dialogue over division, bridge-building over withdrawal?
- How might our voices, in all their difference, converge to imagine new solidarities and possibilities?
This anthology brings together:
- Voices from the margins naming lived realities and offering testimony
- Personal acts of connection where individuals reimagine how to live in relation with others and the environment
- Collective efforts by artivists, nonprofits, and movements building solidarities at scale
- Visions of futures rooted in empathy, care, and shared belonging
Freedom Tunnel Press grew from the spirit of underground movements depicted in Country of Under. The Understory’s power similarly lies in coming together, in singing our stories into a shared country of possibility.
Contributors include Delhi-based graphic narrative artist and our Editor-at-Large Ita Mehrotra; independent documentary filmmaker Nakul Singh Sawhney; author, Assamese translator, and Director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Georgia Aruni Kashyap; Panjeri Artists Union, who work at the intersection of art, memory and political resistance; Conflictorium, a participatory museum and initiative in Ahmedabad, Gujarat that uses art, dialogue, and community archives to address the history of conflict, caste, religion, and communal violence in India; and a journalist and filmmaker based in North India engaged in grassroots peacebuilding across caste and religion.
We’re planning launches in both the US and India, along with ongoing meetings to exchange knowledge and foster dialogue.
Complete Contributor List:
Aagaaz Theatre Trust — An arts-based organization that uses theatre, play, and community arts to nurture active citizenship and social health. It runs Khwāb Ghar, a community arts centre and library in Nizamuddin Basti, engaging children, adolescents, youth, and women through long-term theatre and arts pedagogy
Abhijit Sarmah — Poet and PhD candidate in English at the University of Georgia; Willson Center Graduate Fellow and Ruth Pack Scholar at the Institute of Native American Studies
Aparna Thankaraj — is a graphic narrative practitioner working across illustration, text, comics and mixed media art. Her practice explores how visual and narrative forms can be used to examine lived experiences of gender, sexuality, neurodivergence, and power within intimate and social environments. Her works include comic book series ‘Miss Android’ and ‘Same Red’ – a handbook for schools and caretakers that work with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Aruni Kashyap — Author, Assamese translator, Director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Georgia, and Harvard Radcliffe Fellow
Arya Mehta — Early-career researcher and writer; graduate of the Sarah Parker Remond Centre at UCL London
Aswathy K Raj — Writer and translator working in Malayalam and English who recreates oral stories from her grandmother’s tradition
Conflictorium — Participatory museum and initiative in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, founded by Avni Sethi in 2013; uses art, dialogue, and community archives to address the history of conflict, caste, religion, and communal violence in India
Giaura Fenris — Latine trans advocate who channels Hindu deities in her work helping undocumented and other marginalized people access HIV and gender-affirming care
Gopa Roy — Delhi-based multi-media artist, originally from Tripura, who explores the intricate relationship between land, memory, labour, and materiality, drawing inspiration from her farming background. An MFA graduate from Santiniketan, she employs various mediums, including land art and installations, to investigate themes of agriculture, climate change, and ecology
Hameedha Khan — Educator, writer and poet (US-based) whose work explores identity, interconnection, and the landscape and ecology of the Sahyadri mountains.
Indrani Nayar-Gall — Interdisciplinary feminist artist-activist working across installation, moving image, and documentary film; founder of Yes She Rises LLC; her work weaves global narratives of patriarchy, caste, and marginalization rooted in her mixed north-south Indian background; MFA from Visva Bharati University; her documentary String of Stories won the Humanitarian Award at the 2022 Rhode Island International Film Festival.
Ita Mehrotra — Graphic novelist and artist educator based in New Delhi; author of Shaheen Bagh: A Graphic Recollection (Yoda Press, 2021) and Uprooted (Westland, 2025); Staff – The Third Eye; Visiting Faculty at Ashoka University; Editor-at-Large for The Understory: Roots of a New India
Kalyani B —An animator and comic artist from Kochi, India. Working across graphic novels and animated short films, her character driven work mostly centers on the lives of the women she observes around her. “Matinee”, her debut graphic novel, was self-published in 2023. She is also the writer, director, and animator of “Mareechika” (2026), an animated short currently on the festival circuit, with a selection at Annecy.
Gayatri M — A visual designer based in Bangalore. She works on visual assets and websites, previously she made artworks as an environmental designer at Wework and book covers for children’s encyclopedia at Dorling Kindersley (The Random House) . However, she claims that she turned into a designer so that people stay hooked till the end of what she has written.
Karthika Pari — Animator, illustrator, writer based in Chennai
Kiran Oshin — Designer and poet based in Bangalore
Mayookh Barua — a Los Angeles-based writer from Northeast India. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in USC’s Creative Writing and Literature Department. His work explores sexuality, art, mythology, education, and family through a queer South-Asian voice.
Mithran — Editor and independent cultural producer working between London and New Delhi. He is the co-editor of the collection, The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF.
Mitra Kalita — Veteran journalist, media executive, and author; CEO and co-founder of URL Media, a network of Black and Brown community news outlets; publisher of Epicenter-NYC; former SVP at CNN Digital; Nieman Fellow at Harvard; of Assamese heritage.
Nakul Singh Sawhney — Award-winning independent documentary filmmaker; alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India; founder of ChalChitra Abhiyaan, a grassroots film and media collective in Western Uttar Pradesh documenting the lives and struggles of marginalized communities
Panjeri Artists’ Union — 14-member anti-caste art collective based in West Bengal; featured at the 6th Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2025–26); works span visual art, literature, cinema, photography, design, and music.
Priyadarshini Oshin Gogoi — Presidential Graduate Fellow and PhD candidate in Creative Writing and English Literature at the University of Georgia; writes coming-of-age fiction rooted in Northeast India
Priya Sircar — Filmmaker, writer, arts administrator and cultural worker; founder of Road Openers, a social enterprise supporting artists and social impact; founder of Available Light Film Club; inaugural Arts and Culture Officer for the City of Charlotte; former Arts Director at the Knight Foundation.
Revati Laul — Founder-director of the Sarfaroshi Foundation in Shamli, Western Uttar Pradesh, working on grassroots Hindu-Muslim peacebuilding; journalist and author whose work has focused on political and mass violence in India; author of The Anatomy of Hate (2018).
Rona Ramjas — Guyanese-Indian-American storyteller and cultural observer based in New York, exploring memory, displacement, and collective histories; Managing Story Editor at Freedom Tunnel Press; 2025 Women in Power Fellow; founder of The Late Edition, a volunteer-led newsroom honoring the lives of unhoused individuals through obituaries
Sanid Asif Ali — Co-Founder of independent comic publisher, Studio Niyet, and comic artivist based in Kochi
Snehashish Das — PhD candidate in Sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; poet and essayist whose work explores queer identity, folksong as cultural memory, and the experience of moving from rural to urban India
Sonia Arora — Indian American healer, grappling with questions of hierarchy, caste and gender
The anthology includes:
Essays (up to 5,000 words): Political, personal, historical, cultural. We seek creative nonfiction pieces, including personal essays, profiles, reportage, literary journalism, and New Journalism.
Fiction (up to 5,000 words): We welcome short stories that illuminate the lived and imagined landscapes of a new India—stories that reckon with rupture and repair, with what divides and what binds. We are drawn to work that foregrounds empathy, complexity, and the multiplicity of voices and experiences across caste, class, gender, sexuality, religion, and region. From realist to speculative, intimate to collective, we seek narratives that imagine connection and courage in the face of polarization, and that ask what belonging might mean in times of change.
Poetry (up to 3 poems): Especially those grounded in rage, grief, defiance, and collective memory.
Interviews (up to 3,500 words): Grounded in the anthology’s themes.
Visual Art: Digital illustration, paintings, prints, photography, collage, protest art. Submit high-res JPG/PNG + a brief artist statement.
Hybrid Forms: Lyric essays, visual-poetic collaborations, graphic narratives, comics, illustrated text, performative scripts, etc.
Submission Guidelines
- You may submit in English or any Indian language, as long as it’s accompanied by an English translation.
- You can submit in more than one category.
- Please include a short bio (100 words max) and any relevant social media links.
FAQs
Do contributors get paid?
We are a small, mission-driven press. Contributors will receive a copy of the book and full credit. Proceeds from this book will go to non-profits chosen by the contributors.
Can I remain anonymous?
Yes. We understand the risks. You may use a pseudonym or publish anonymously.
Is this only for Indian citizens?
No. We welcome anyone in the Indian diaspora, or those whose art engages deeply with the Indian context and its global echoes.
Can I submit previously published work?
Yes, as long as you hold the rights and note where it first appeared.
Any other questions?
Feel free to write us.