THE PERCH announces an open call for submissions for its new issue to be published in October 2027.

The PERCH is a creative arts journal with mental health themes focused on original voices. It is produced and published by the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health.

The title and theme of our next issue, THE MIX, refers to the double-sided nature of mental illness and mental health. Put together, it creates a complex, tangled and beautiful mixture of emotions, attitudes and experiences. To be more specific: there is no doubt that psychiatric illness is painful, sometimes excruciatingly so, and at times cruelly limit its sufferers from attain their hopes and dreams. At the same time, many psychiatric survivors have spoken about the newfound depth and awareness that their journeys have brought them, and their appreciation of every moment, and the new stories that they have experienced and learned to tell. Without romanticizing the burdens of illness, this issue of THE PERCH will attempt to get at the puzzle of it all: the highs and low, the joys and sorrows, and the brilliant things that can derive from the experience. 

We seek poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, artwork, visual art, and scholarly pieces that illustrate the profound melange of mental illness. We are most interested in personal stories.

This is a peer-reviewed open call—all are welcome to submit for consideration. Please submit by October 31, 2026. We anticipate an October 2027 publication and launch event. 

Email graziela.reis@yale.edu or jcriscola@ccsu.edu with questions.

SUBMIT TODAY  

See Vol. 8, 7, 6, 5