02/03/2026
There is a continuous, mutual impact between the Antarctic and our daily lives, yet the majority of us will never physically be there. Imagined centuries before it was discovered, Antarctica is an idea as much as a geographical place. Owned by no one, it belongs to us all.
Documenting her personal journey to the Antarctic, writer Jenni Diski described it as a place
'so untroubled by itself that the heart ached… truly a dream place where melting and movement seem[ed] only to increase immutability. Nothing stays the same, but nothing changes.'
Antarctica is a paradox, a blank space, a white continent that harbours a dark subglacial world hidden from sunlight for millions of years, a place where all time zones converge, a place of connection, a natural laboratory, an archive in the ice.
This distant frozen landscape has been storied variously by mythic imagination, heroic endeavour and extraordinary scientific discovery. We encourage you to plunge its hidden depths through your poetry. We are excited to read poems which are formally inventive and full of wonder, poetry that takes us on a journey, not just to the Ice, but to a hoped-for future or a place within.
In the words of poet, activist and educator Nikki Giovanni,
'We have sent photographers, engineers, other science folk to Antarctica. It’s time for writers to serve… We need poetry. We need dreams.'
