“You know, you should edit an anthology about COVID-19. Capture the raw emotions and coping mechanisms of people from all over the world—while the pandemic is still ongoing.” I shook my head to rid it of that crazy thought.
It came back stronger. “Millions of people throughout the world are experiencing the same emotions—anger, anxiety, fear, sadness. But they don’t realize their feelings are universal—truly universal.”
I couldn’t argue with that, so I ran a small ad, thinking I’d be out a few bucks and that little voice in my head would finally take a nap.
Instead, hundreds of submissions from new writers to well-published authors and from art students to world-renowned artists poured in. Entries arrived from six continents (all but Antarctica!). From throughout the U.S. and Canada. From South Africa and Zimbabwe. From Australia and New Zealand. From England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands. From India and Bangladesh. From Argentina. Writers and artists from ten years old to somewhere in their nineties sent poems, original artwork, fiction, essays, photographs, and scripts.
