Welcome to Memento Mori: A 26 Publication
This is a year-long project for members of 26 to engage with, explore, and celebrate that, one day, we will all die. It goes live 21 December 2024, the longest night of the year, and will track the life cycle of the year, closing again on 21 December 2025.
Memento Mori: Remember you will die. It’s the only certainty we have in life, and yet most of us ignore it, try to hide from it, don’t want to acknowledge it.
And that is not healthy.
This year-long 26 project will act as an outlet for members to explore their relationships with death and dying, with grief, with the darkness. How they do that is open – no dictates on format or word count – as long as it relates to the idea of ‘memento mori’ and is suitable for publication on the open internet.
How it works
This is a 26 project, and features writing and creative responses from 26 members. Anyone is free to subscribe and enjoy our output, but to pitch your own work you’ll need to join 26.
It will run for an entire year, acting as an online magazine that publishes at least monthly, based on demand
You’ll need to pitch your ideas via this form (members only - join us here)
There will be an (informal) editorial committee who will discuss and accept pitches and proposals and run the editorial calendar
As always, there is no payment for this work; this is a 26 creative project open only to members, just like the projects we made our name with
Alongside the commissioned works, the project will also feature regular writing prompts (both visual and text-based) to help stimulate subscribers’ creative muscles.
We’re looking for:
Flash fiction (up to 1000 words)
Creative non-fiction
Personal essays
Journalism
Interviews
Features
(Fictional) copywriting / ads / marketing copy
Reviews
Photo essays
Photo galleries
Sestudes / centenas / other poetry as appropriate
Want to pitch something else? Music? Art? We’re open to it!
Publication leadership
Project Lead: Lauren McMenemy
Editorial committee: Regina Beach, Leah Royden, Wendy Jones, Irene Lofthouse, Margaret Cheng.
26 Chair: Sophie Gordon
Why subscribe to 26: Memento Mori?
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About 26
26 is a not-for-profit organisation that celebrates the creativity and craft of writing through our community of members. Find us online here.
Most of our members work with words for a living – as copywriters, content creators, journalists, communication specialists, marketers, branding experts, and more – but we welcome anyone who cares about words and writing.
At our heart, 26 is about celebrating the power of words. We were founded by a group of writers who saw writing being sidelined by design, who were given finished pages that had “words go here” in ever-smaller boxes. We know that words are so much more than an afterthought; that words have power and meaning. We take that ethos into everything we do.
26 was founded in the UK, and that’s where most of our members are based. But we’re delighted to have members from across the globe, including a mighty New Zealand contingent.
At 26, we bridge that gap between work and play by offering a creative space and inspiring opportunities for people who work with words.
We offer a creative outlet and opportunities to connect with others through creative writing projects, workshops, events and more.
Not a member yet? Get involved.
Individual membership to 26 costs just £40 a year, giving you access to all of our creative projects, most of our events, and discounts to training and other initiatives.
We also offer corporate memberships which allow up to 15 people in your company to participate as members, starting at £400 for the year.
Find out more – or jump to joining in – here.
