Skip to content

Go Far Anthology

An illustrated bus with text: GO FAR: An Anthology on Public Transit

Call For Pitches

We have closed our call for now. If you need to get in touch about your pitch, you can contact us at gofaranthology@gmail.com.

We are seeking creative writing pitches for an anthology on public transportation.

Eligibility: All writers are welcome, but priority may be given to writers living in Canada.

Creative non-fiction, short fiction, poetry, and short comics are welcome. A story about meeting the love of your life on a streetcar, a personal essay about how your buspass brought you freedom (or should have), science fiction imagining cities without cars—as long as your proposed piece engages with the subject of public transportation (buses, trains, light rail, streetcars, etc.), we’d love to hear about it.

 Accepted pieces will:

      • celebrate public transit at its best;
      • recognize areas where public transit needs to improve; and/or
      • imagine a future with free, accessible, reliable public transit.

We are particularly interested in pieces that creatively address the following:

      • barriers to transit access
      • city planning
      • safety
      • car dependency
      • transit and public health
      • transit organizing/community building

A note on rates: This is intended to be a paid project. We’re only asking for pitches at this time to reduce unpaid labour, and we will update with more specific pay rates once we have further solidified publishing plans.

More About The Anthology

Why should I need a car to get to an appointment across the city? Shouldn’t we be investing in buses to help with climate change? What if improving public transportation got as much attention as improving highways?

Thousands in Canada use public transit. In June 2022 alone, 96.6 million passenger trips were made on Canada’s urban transit networks.[1] Many of these transit users rely on buses or railways to work, access essential services, and enjoy times with friends and family. Yet accessibility issues, rising fare costs, and non-democratic governance leave many of us feeling like the car will always be prioritized in our communities—even when we know the continued use of fossil fuels is destroying the planet.

GO FAR is an anthology of essays and creative writing about public transit. It aims to celebrate public transit at its best, recognize areas for improvement, and imagine a future with free, accessible, and reliable public transit for all. Go Far will appeal to the environmentally and community-conscious readers and fans of mixed-genre anthologies.

About The Editors

Emily Stewart is a writer (Arc Poetry Magazine, Humber Literary, Oh Reader, Deathcap, and Women Writer About Comics) and editor living in Ottawa. She has publishing certificates from NYU and Toronto Metropolitan University and is the founder of Shelf Potential, which offers editing and creative services to writers and small presses. She is also the programming chair for Editors Ottawa-Gatineau and the reviews editor for Arc Poetry Magazine.

Nick Grover has a Master’s degree in History and has been active in the Ottawa community since 2018. He is an executive member of Free Transit Ottawa and a writer on many transit-related topics and has been published in the Ottawa Citizen, The Leveller, and Canadian Dimension.