CALLING ALL WRITERS, ARTISTS, AND DREAMERS

THEME: MEDICAL WASTE

DUE: 31 AUGUST 2025

We need to talk about medical waste

How do we open a discussion on medical waste in the face of saving human lives?

When we think about medicine in the western world, we’re obsessed with doing whatever it takes to keep people alive. In privileged enough societies, this obsession extends to our pets. But for the most part, we are single-minded and focussed. And over the course of the industrial revolution, we’ve developed habits around medicine that we often take for granted. Needles. Gloves. Alcohol swabs. Face-masks. Band-aids. Metal forceps. All of these things are “essential”. And in our current structures, all are single-use. Are we satisfied with this status quo? HELL NO.

PROVOKE US.

We’re looking for bold, speculative stories from the perspectives of the unexpected. All within the various ecosystems of ICUs and waiting rooms. Entangle us in the ethical conundrums of perpetuating human life against the horrors of polluting our planet.

Successful submissions will be published on our website.

The finer details:

Due date: 31 AUGUST 2025.

Genre: fiction or poetry from the perspective of a single-use medical device.

Word limit: 500 words.

Remuneration: $25 per story or poem.

Copyright: You will retain copyright in your story but you grant us permission to reproduce your story on our website for the purposes of Nature-Human and for potential publishing in a physical anthology.

Submit here

This link will take you to a Google Form.

On anthropomorphism

We know anthropomorphism can be complicated. But we also believe it can be done effectively with the right intention. Your work should break away from ideas of domination or ownership and should think carefully about what it means when humans are not at the centre of everything.

Help?

Not sure how to approach the subject?

Follow us on Instagram to get the latest updates and tips.
Check out our previous exhibition Nature Human Dialogues to get an idea of how your story might be presented.
Check out our Resources page for more ideas. We’ll try to keep this updated.

Special thanks

Nature-Human is proudly supported by the Wattle Fellowship at the University of Melbourne.