Submissions for Vol.3
are open

VOLUME 3: Imperfect Masterpiece

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"How do you love your body when it doesn't love you back, or makes it hard to love?"

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For Volume 3, we're inviting submissions that grapple with the complex relationship between self and body while living with chronic illness. We want to explore:

 

• How do you find ways to love your body while recognizing the ways it can betray you?

• In what ways do you celebrate your body and what it can do?

• What has your journey toward body neutrality, compassion, or radical acceptance looked like?

• Describe moments of tenderness, frustration, or acceptance with your physical self that you have experienced.

• How has chronic illness reshaped your body image, identity, and self-worth?

• How has your relationship changed with your body as you started to use mobility aids?

• How has treatment for your chronic illness changed your relationship to your body?

• How has your chronic illness caused you to reframe your relationship with sexuality, intimacy, and physical connection?

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Your reflection may take any creative form that feels comfortable—a personal essay, flash fiction, poem,  photograph, comic, or artwork. In this issue, COPE provides a space to share with others in the chronic illness community how they feel and offers the opportunity to discover new coping strategies.

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Written works should be a MAXIMUM OF 4 PAGES (double spaced, size 12 font).

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You may submit A MAXIMUM OF 2 WORKS for this issue, and please submit them IN 2 SEPARATE FORM RESPONSES.

You can choose to answer any question(s) that resonate with you. 

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COPE magazine will not accept work generated by or partially including AI. 

We will not accept graphic or detailed depictions of self harm. 

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DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION IS MARCH 16, 2026