Opportunities
Calls for work
A Public Space Call for Writing
Impenetrability as a Generative Force
Deadline: July 13, 2026
What would you do if you encountered a door and didn’t own the key? Or if you met someone and didn’t speak the same language? Or if you read a book and it felt inscrutable? You could try to break the barrier one way or another. You could get angry because you couldn’t pass through. Or you could stare at the barrier and examine it to see what it can tell you. We have been trained to get closer, to go deeper, to reach a point. But what if we celebrate impenetrability? What if we champion those things that cannot be entered, pierced, or understood? What if we treat them as something worth protecting?
For this open call, they would like to see prose that explores impenetrability as a generative force, as a quality that unlocks unexpected doors. I’m not interested in impenetrability as a stylistic choice that makes a text illegible or snobbishly abstruse. I want to read authors who understand impenetrability as a rare opportunity, as a channel toward clarity. I invite you to redefine our relationship with that concept, to expand its meanings in playful, surprising ways.
A Public Space is an independent, nonprofit publisher of an award-winning literary magazine and A Public Space Books. Additional programs include fellowships for writers and editors; online classes and workshops; and the reading series APS Together.
Panatrope Call for Writing
Activate your voice — storytellers, poets & independent journalists wanted
Deadline: August 31, 2026
Panatrope wants you for the launch their new journal!
They are accepting written work of any genre: Poetry: up to 5 pages
Short Fiction or nonfiction: between 400-5000 words.
Write Action Circles
Margaret Hasse offers a guide to start your own Write Action Circle
According to the ACLU: "Letters and emails are an extremely effective
way of communicating with your elected officials. Many legislators believe
a letter represents not only the position of the writer but also many other constituents who did not take the time to write."
What / Why
A Write Action Circle is a group of people committed to conveying their opinions about current events to leaders in order to influence decisions, and to meet together periodically to exchange ideas and rally commitment.
The main task of each person in a Circle is to take action: write, email, or call leaders
such as Congresspersons, members of the MN Statehouse, top officials in government, etc.
and express their opinion on specific issues that the group takes on.
The group may also play a role in encouraging more people to stay abreast of issues and opportunities in order to shape the direction of political events by writing newspaper editorials, posting on social media sites, starting new Write Action Circles, writing friends to get them involved, and more.
Call for Storytellers
New show to launch in July
"Humans evolved opposable thumbs to be able to hold on. We evolved Story to know what to hold on to."
What’s your story? We’re celebrating the art of oral storytelling —
the every day way we all communicate with each other.
For our new podcast, 'North Star Lane', we’re collecting personal stories about connections —
to place, to the past, to each other.
Stories should be 3–10 minutes in length, and can range in tone from funny incident to elegy and everything in between.
Michael Goldberg is collecting the stories.
Send audio to him — or a note to arrange a phone call or zoom —
at goldberg.actionmedia@gmail.com.
He is also looking for storytellers for a live storytelling show in Grand Rapids,Labor Day weekend, themed On the Job. Let him know if you’d like more information about that.
North Star Lane is produced by Michael Goldberg, who lives in the woods of northern Minnesota and collects stories from his friends and neighbors. They tell stories about their connections – to place, to the past, to each other – and about things that are important to them. We think a lot of the same things are important to us all.
Journalism Matters ^
30-Year Sentence for Transporting Zines Is a Five-Alarm Fire for Free Speech
The harsh sentence for a defendant who wasn’t even at the Prairieland protest is likely only the start of the Trump administration’s efforts to outlaw free speech.
"Supporters of the Prairieland defendants display pamphlets and artwork after their sentencing outside a Fort Worth, Texas, courthouse on June 23, 2026. Photo: Matt Sledge/The Intercept
"Seth Stern is the director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation.
"Jeremy Busby is a writer and activist incarcerated in Texas.
"The Trump administration attacking the right to publish or report information is a given at this point. The president has threatened journalists for everything from questioning the wisdom of his failed war with Iran to touching the peeled lining of his renovated reflecting pool.
"Tantrums like those may now feel routine, but this week marked a new front in Trump’s war on information: Daniel “Des” Sanchez Estrada was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for transporting a box of zines he didn’t even write. He’s one of eight defendants sentenced on Tuesday to a combined 450 years — the first prison sentences against so-called “antifa” handed down under the framework of NSPM-7, President Donald Trump’s sweeping “counterterrorism” memorandum to clamp down on dissent from the left."
Anti-ICE Protesters in Minnesota Charged with Conspiracy
News Coverage
Guardian: "Fifteen people were charged over alleged interference in Minnesota immigration crackdown
"Prosecutors claim defendants were part of Minneapolis-based ‘antifa’ groups that ‘violently oppose’ law enforcement"
Democracy Now: "What we're really seeing is an expansion of these conspiracy charges across the country. I think the first one was in Plainview, Texas, for this noise demonstration outside a ICE detention facility, where it was expanded to prosecute all members of a political collective in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. We saw the use of conspiracy charges in Spokane, Washington to prosecute multiple people who were really only acting at a demonstration together without any evidence of an agreement or a conspiracy."
When ICE came for her husband, Linda Yang negotiated one more day with him.
But their luck wouldn’t last.
"Linda Yang became a single mom overnight to five sons, ages 3 to 17, when her husband was deported to Laos in May. The family is navigating a new normal as one of the many casualties of Operation Metro Surge."
Katelyn Vue, journalist for the Sahan Journal, is investigating Minnesota's family stories of deportation. She wrote: "What would you do if you found out your husband might be taken away from you tomorrow?
"Linda Yang had to ask herself that question on Feb. 4. While she was driving to work that day, federal agents surrounded her car. On the side of the road, the authorities told her they were looking for Zong, her husband of the past 20 years and father to her five sons."
ICE Caused Humanitarian Crisis in Minnesota
A new Human Rights Watch account details Operation Metro Surge’s reign of terror
"The global NGO Human Rights Watch released a report Thursday alleging widespread human rights violations by the federal government during “Operation Metro Surge,” the massive ICE deployment in Minnesota this past winter in which ICE arbitrarily detained approximately 4,000 immigrants, the vast majority of whom had no domestic convictions, killing two US citizens and injuring, harassing, and surveilling others."
The Data Center Dilemma
Minnesota Counties Look to Regulate the 'Wild West' of Data Centers
Star Tribune, June 23, 2026 by Eleanor Hildebrandt
"Angry residents already pushed several Minnesota cities to set tighter rules for data centers. Now some county officials are trying to set limits, too.
"Wright County recently put a moratorium on the facilities, and on Tuesday, Washington County considered its regulatory options. Dakota County has also discussed whether to step into the increasingly heated debate.
"Concerns over data centers have grown along with the size of the proposed facilities. But even as people pack meetings with concerns about noise, proximity to homes, and electricity and water usage, the laws governing data centers are piecemeal and vary from one place to another.
"While cities set the rules within their limits, counties have a say over unincorporated areas."
Data Center Proposed in Hermantown
"'We want clean land, air, water, and we believe that this data center is going to cause significant pollution,' said Eleanor Dolan, a protester stationed outside of the open house. 'There will be air pollution. There will be deforestation. There will be wetland destruction. We don't want to see any of that happen.'
"A recent study conducted by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health found that by 2030, global data centers powering artificial intelligence are projected to consume nearly triple the combined annual electricity use of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria, collectively home to more than 650 million people.
"Locally, though, Huebner said residents don't need to be concerned."
For now, the answers to the questions asked by local citizens remains unanswered. In the meantime, Goodhue County has delayed the decision on a data center, and the city of Superior, Wisconsin has declared a moratorium."
Inver Grove Heights has approved a one-year moratorium on data centers
Partyism Without the Party
Zohran Mamdani’s victory was rooted in organizations that took up the base-building and mobilization functions that once fell to parties
"Much has been made of Mamdani’s extremely effective use of social media, short-form video, and other digital formats that speak to the younger and disengaged voters many other campaigns struggle to reach. There’s no doubt this was a major ingredient in the campaign’s success; historically high rates of participation among Gen Z and newly registered voters testify to its effectiveness. But the sheer physicality of the Mamdani campaign, and the ways it used digital media to bring people together offline, has been underrated.
"So much of the campaign was in public and in person: mass rallies, a walk through the entire length of Manhattan, unannounced appearances at clubs and concerts, a 100,000-strong army of volunteers who braved countless walk-ups to knock over 1 million doors. From early spring through November’s general election, the campaign assumed the scale and spirit of a social movement, or a Knicks playoff run. There was a palpable buzz around the city—not just in what New York electoral data maven Michael Lange termed the 'Commie Corridor' neighborhoods, populated by young college-educated leftists, but in Little Pakistan, Little Bangladesh, Parkchester, and other places where nary a New Yorker tote bag can be found.
"When the polls closed, more than 2 million voters had cast their ballots, the highest turnout in a New York City mayoral election since 1969...
"Popularism seeks to mirror the current state of public opinion for the sake of electoral success, but public opinion is malleable and sometimes quite fickle. One need only look at the wildly fluctuating data on immigration attitudes since the 2024 election to see how quickly chasing public opinion can become a fool’s errand. Deliverism, by contrast, presumes 'a linear and direct relationship between economic policy and people’s political allegiances,' as Deepak Bhargava, Shahrzad Shams, and Harry Hanbury put it. But that’s not typically how real people operate. The Biden administration was, in many respects, an experiment in deliverism that failed to deliver. It implemented policies that brought tangible benefits to millions of people but still couldn’t prevent Trump from returning to the White House.
"The limitations of both popularism and deliverism have opened space for a new school of thought, one that tackles strategic electoral questions from a different angle (but also has a terrible name): partyism..."
Why Libraries Matter in a Fascist Moment
'If we lose this as a public good and as a free public service, we will have lost everything,' says Mariame Kaba.
"In this episode of Movement Memos, Kelly Hayes speaks with Kaba and organizers Alison Macrina and Katie Clark about why public libraries matter, not just as places to borrow books, but as vital public infrastructure. They discuss libraries as spaces where people can gather without spending money, learn together, and build the kind of shared intellectual life that authoritarianism seeks to destroy. The conversation explores book bans, censorship, austerity, AI, political education, and the bipartisan defunding of public goods, while making a powerful case for libraries as sites of struggle, possibility, and collective survival."
MN 250
Resources & events from the MNHS
"The Minnesota Historical Society is commemorating the 250th anniversary of the founding of our nation by highlighting Minnesota’s significant contributions to our nation's history. And with historic sites located across the state, MNHS offers great ways to explore American history without having to travel across the country, because in Minnesota…American history lives here."
How to Make a Literary Community
(and Why It’s So Important Now)
Carrie Olivia Adams on Her Reading Series, Poetry, and Biscuits
"Right now, I think we all need community. It’s the best weapon we have against despair in a society that continues to fracture and fragment. There is hope in shared experience. There is hope in words that can reframe our perspectives, entertain and offer humor, or commiserate in our rage or grief. And honestly, sometimes it just feels good..."
Visit Independent Bookstores From Your Armchair
Are you an arm chair traveler and want to visit independent bookstores? Check out the The Indie Bob Spot blog.
Strongmen Can Fail if We Act
Timothy Snyder and Joyce Vance
"The future remains unwritten. Whether America emerges stronger from this moment depends not on inevitability, but on the deliberate choices and actions citizens make now—and with each other.
...the answer is always action."
"Tim and Joyce started off by talking about how 'sugarcoating' political realities can become a form of collaboration, because it delays the public response necessary to defend democratic institutions. They both also reject the idea that democracy inevitably self-corrects, stressing that there is no political 'pendulum' that guarantees a return to normalcy. Tim also emphasized that democracies survive only when citizens actively participate in shaping their future."
Tech Companies Behind ICE
from Mijente, the National Immigration Project, and the Immigrant Defense Project
"Tech is transforming immigration enforcement. As advocates have known for some time, the
immigration and criminal justice systems have powerful allies in Silicon Valley and Congress, with
technology companies playing an increasingly central role in facilitating the expansion and
acceleration of arrests, detentions, and deportations. What is less known outside of Silicon Valley is
the long history of the technology industry’s “revolving door” relationship with federal agencies, how
the technology industry and its products and services are now actually circumventing city- and
state-level protections"
"Yesterday, the Supreme Court overturned two key rulings delaying the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Syrians and Haitian migrants. In just 31 days, hundreds of thousands will lose the protections that allow them to work, care for their families, and live without fear of detention and deportation.
"To resist militarized policing and the surveillance state, we need to understand these tools, how they’re used against us, and how we can fight back."
Organizing to Protect Democracy
Recorded training from the ACLU
In a moment when our right to vote is facing relentless attacks, understanding how elections work has never been more important.
Now, we have the electoral knowledge and skills to be active in protecting our democracy.
ICE wants to reopen the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, MN
What happens next depends on us. We keep us safe.
ICE wants to reopen the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, MN as a 1,600 capacity immigration detention center, run by private prison giant CoreCivic. If approved, it would become one of the largest ICE detention facilities in the US, ~60% larger than Delaney Hall.
They're betting this can happen quietly in a small town far from the headlines. Don't let it.
Call your elected officials and demand an end to for-profit detention. Organize locally. Talk to your neighbors. Learn from the protests and hunger strikes happening at detention facilities across the country.
Events & Calls to Action ^
Oppose USPS Rule Change Threatening Mail Voting
by July 2, 2026
On June 2, 2026, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) published a proposed rule to allow the federal government to control who can cast a mail-in or absentee ballot. The rule, a response to an executive order that Donald Trump signed in March, would require states to send USPS a list of every voter slated to receive a ballot by mail. USPS could then refuse to deliver ballots to any voters whose names are not on states’ pre-approved lists.
The rule threatens to disenfranchise the thousands of voters who rely on mailed ballots to participate in elections, including American citizens living abroad, people with disabilities, rural residents, and other communities that have long faced obstacles at the polls. Under this rule, a data or administrative error could block voters from receiving ballots through no fault of their own. Further, election administrators across the country say there is neither time nor funding to comply
with the new rule before November 2026 midterms.
Urge Governor Walz to do all they can to stop this rule from taking effect and protect state control over elections and mail-in voting.
Then, submit a public comment to USPS opposing this unlawful rule change. USPS is accepting written comments via email until 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, July 2, 2026.
Protecting Personal Online Data
Practical Guidance for Journalists from the Intercept
- When:
- July 2, 11:00am CT
- Where:
- Online
In this one-hour session, digital security specialist Ela Stapley will guide journalists through practical steps for protecting their personal data and online accounts. Participants will learn how to find and remove personal information, strengthen their digital security, and respond effectively before, during, and after an online attack.
MN Primary Election
Voting open now!
- When:
- August 11
A primary election determines which candidates will be on the ballot in the November general election
Book the Vote
from National WDA
A national drive bringing together readers, writers, booksellers, publishers, and librarians to register voters
"Democracies die by foreign invasion, but they also die by homegrown authoritarian malignancies. That is happening now in the United States, and Writers for Democratic Action calls on YOU to stop it! Join us in protecting representative government with the most powerful weapon we still have: the Vote in 2026.
"WDA is launching BOOK THE VOTE, a drive to bring together readers, writers, booksellers, publishers, and librarians to register voters before the next elections. Books themselves are threatened now, which is no surprise since books have always been essential to democracy. The Bookstore and the Library can be the frontline of the campaign to rescue it."
Whoever Tells the Story Writes History
from The OpEd Project
Check out the workshops and publication opportunities for those who like to write op-eds.
Write Postcards to Swing States
Progressive Turnout Project
Sign up for our Get Out the Vote postcards. We'll send you the postcards for free, along with voter lists and instructions with proven message options. You will need to provide the Postcard Stamps (currently $0.61). All the mailing dates for these postcards are in October.
Inspiration ^
Climate.us launches independent website for trusted climate information
This new website was just launched by the scientists at climate.gov (who were fired by Trump administration) in order to keep climate data available to those who rely on it.
"Climate.us today launched the full version of its new independent, nonprofit climate information website, creating a public-backed home for trusted climate science at a time when access to federal climate resources has become increasingly vulnerable to disruption.
The launch reflects strong public demand for reliable climate information. One-third of the funding to support the launch of Climate.us came from more than 2,500 small donations (approximately $250,000) from people who contributed to help preserve access to science-reviewed climate information. More than 80 scientists have volunteered to serve as subject matter expert reviewers.
Built by former members of the team behind the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's popular Climate.gov website, Climate.us will keep climate information accurate, accessible, scientifically rigorous, and useful for the people who rely on it, including educators, students, journalists, scientists, community leaders, local and state decision-makers, and members of the public."
Storytelling map explores hidden stories of LGBTQ communities in rural Minnesota
The history map participatory project dates back to 1790 and has more than 140 entries
"Public historian Lizzie Ehrenhalt didn’t mean to create a flourishing map of lesser known queer histories of greater Minnesota dating back to the late 18th century. But curiosity got the best of her.
Ehrenhalt, a native of Arlington, Va., moved to Minnesota wanting to know more about the state’s trans and queer history. 'I didn’t have any assumptions about where to look, so I kind of just looked everywhere,' she said.
That led her to initiate a participatory storytelling project called 'Greater Minnesota Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ History Map,' which explores the stories of queer Minnesotans outside of the Twin Cities."
Crowds Pack 2026 Twin Cities Pride Festival in Minneapolis for ‘queer joy’
"More than 500,000 people were expected at Twin Cities Pride events this weekend, according to programming director Kelsey Alto.
"New this year was the world’s largest rubber duck: the 61-foot tall Mama Duck. She and her son, Timmy, made their Twin Cities debut at the Pride festival.
"Alto said organizers brought the ducks to make attendees smile after the surge in federal immigration enforcement over the winter and legislation nationwide targeting LGBTQ+ people.
"'We really wanted to just do something that is queer joy because queer joy is an act of resistance, and I think we all could use a little bit of joy right now,' Alto said."
