The Great Lakes Review Narrative Map Project

Though places are tangible, how people experience them is not, for two people can perceive a single space very differently. Here at GLR, we want to construct a representative virtual map of the Great Lakes region one person and one pixel at a time. Here’s how it works. You write a short piece of nonfiction that involves a location in the Great Lakes and submit it to us, being certain to identify the place. A past GLR editor once called these pieces of writing “literary postcards,” a moniker we feel still fits well. However, a postcard doesn’t just depict a place. It also details an account of a person experiencing that place. We want to meet the family who runs the only funeral home in a small town and whose job it is to bury every resident there. We want to see the sights of your city and taste the cuisine of your culture. The Great Lakes region is home to country and coastline, cities and hitching posts, sea glass and Petoskey stones, sex trafficking and opioids. Regionally, it is a rainforest of diversity capable of transcending its natural geography through the written word. Without humans, the earth has no name. We bring meaning to space. Now, bring meaning to your space. Send us your “postcard” from the Great Lakes so that we might share your experience with the world.

Country of Publication

United States