Signs of Life: Artists and Writers Respond to AI

Artificial intelligence has only recently become mainstream, but its ubiquity and impact is undeniable. To engage this, we have created a special call for work that will result in a Broadsided Responds folio that focuses on the humans behind and inside the work.  Four artists involved with Broadsided have shared pages from their notebooks, that intimate draft-space and dream-space, that space where things begin.  Now we offer you four prompts.  The selected writing will be paired with one of the notebook pages and shared as a broadside in January, 2026. Deadline for Submissions: December 15, 2025.  Read the full call and get the prompts!

Issue 21.2, Fall 2025

Welcome, all. We are grateful to share an abundance of work in this folio of eleven collaborations. Each original, each accompanied by thoughtful conversations about process, response, and the creative life of the writer and artist. This folio also presents our annual Translation feature. Editor Inés Hernandez-Avila has selected work by two poets working in Mapudungun, the language of the Mapuche people of Chile, and she also offers history, context, and story to the beautiful work (read the full note on the link for each broadside):

According to Mapuche linguist and Indigenous rights activist Elisa Loncón, the Mapuche population is about 10% of the population of Chile…. The belief-system of the Mapuche, “people of the earth,” is the Azmapu, in which kinship with the earth, the value of good living, spiritual balance, the fervent centrality of their Word, and an infinite tenderness towards life are key principles…. Graciela Huinao is the first Mapuche woman to have been published and the first Mapuche writer to have been inducted into the Academia Chilena de la Lengua in 2014. Many of the creative writers, poets, and novelists, are also leading scholars whose work focuses on the Mapuche people, such as Maribel Mora Curriao, Daniela Catrileo, and Lara Millapan…. 

—Inés Hernandez-Avila

We also have a new lesson plan for teachers out there who’d like to use these broadsides in their classroom.

Read the full Editors' Note