What is Relief looking for?
We are looking for original, unpublished poetry, comics, and stories that reflect reality – that is, reality the way you actually find it rather than the way you’re “supposed” to find it.
In terms of scope, the door is wide open, but not without boundaries. A decent yardstick is the Bible — not the churchified version, but the real, gritty scripture: Noah drank too much; Moses committed murder; David committed adultery, then tried to put his life back together; David’s daughter was horribly raped; poets expressed real doubt and exhilarating praise in the Psalms; Solomon spoke beautifully and unapologetically about sex; Jesus made fun of religious leaders, faced betrayal by a friend but still spoke highly of friendship, stared death down; Paul and Peter argued about race…
Christian authors need not only write expressly about God, faith, and church. When Christ said “I send you out as a sheep among wolves,” he didn’t mean that we should shut our eyes and pretend the wolves do not exist. Some of Relief’s content is about Christ or faith, but all of it is about raw, gritty, beautiful life. We are looking for pieces that push the envelope; however, work that is gratuitously obscene or that has a message in clear contradiction with scripture will not be considered.
