The Wishing Fountain
Open Calls

We welcome submissions from the following creators, publishers, collectives, and small presses:

• Queer artists, writers, photographers, designers, researchers, and publishers;
• Creators connected to East and Southeast Asian queer communities and their diasporas;
• Publications concerned with queerness, gender, the body, intimacy, migration, language, family, memory, archives, and community practice;
• Independent zines, artist books, photobooks, poetry books, comics, research publications, printed matter, hybrid publications, and more;
• Individual projects, collective projects, and small press publications.

We especially encourage submissions from marginalised experiences, minor or multiple languages, cross-regional practices, non-academic contexts, and non-commercial publishing paths.

We are looking for works including, but not limited to:

• zines / artist books / photobooks
• poetry books / writing-based publications
• comics / graphic narratives
• queer manifestos / personal archives
• community publications
• research-based publications
• bilingual or multilingual publications
• experimental printed matter
• publications around queer Asian / ESEA / SEA diaspora experiences
• small-press or self-published works

Works may be in English, Chinese, bilingual, multilingual, or contain forms of expression that cannot be fully translated into one single language.

This open call is not a donation-based call. The Wishing Fountain will select a number of submitted works for purchase and formally add them to our queer publication collection. We will make selections based on the project budget, the direction of the collection, the content of the work, the publication format, and its potential for future display or use.

Selected publications will:

1. Be purchased by The Wishing Fountain;
2. Become part of our long-term collection / archive;
3. Potentially be used in future reading rooms, pop-up libraries, exhibitions, workshops, research, public programmes, or online introductions;
4. Be credited to the creator / publisher whenever displayed or shared;
5. Not be used by The Wishing Fountain for commercial purposes intended to generate profit for ourselves. We will not copy, scan in full, republish, sell, or license the content of the publication without further permission from the creator. If any future use goes beyond collection, display, research, or non-commercial promotion, we will contact the creator for confirmation.

We will consider the following aspects:

• Whether the work is connected to queer / ESEA / SEA / diaspora / gender / body / intimacy / community / archive-related themes;
• The artistic, narrative, experimental, or community value of the publication;
• Whether the work fits into The Wishing Fountain's long-term collection;
• Whether the work is suitable for future reading, display, research, or public programmes;
• Project budget and shipping costs;
• The balance of regions, languages, forms, and themes within the existing collection.

This open call is rolling and will remain open long-term. The Wishing Fountain will run purchase rounds from time to time, depending on project budgets, income from activities, and other forms of funding or support. In each purchase round, we will select a number of submitted works to purchase and add to the collection / archive.

After submission, The Wishing Fountain may not purchase or respond immediately. Works that are not selected in the current purchase round may still be reconsidered when future budgets allow. Before each purchase, we will confirm with the creator / publisher regarding availability, price, shipping method, and final consent.

Whenever The Wishing Fountain receives a new source of water, we will continue to purchase, preserve, and care for more queer publications.

Selected publications will be purchased by The Wishing Fountain at a price agreed upon by both parties. We will prioritise respecting the price proposed by the creator / publisher. If the price needs to be discussed due to budget or shipping costs, we will confirm with the submitter before purchase.

Payment methods will be discussed after selection, depending on the creator's location. Possible methods may include bank transfer, PayPal, Wise, WeChat Pay, Alipay, or other suitable options.

If the publication needs to be shipped internationally, shipping fees, customs duties, and shipping methods will be discussed and confirmed case by case.

By submitting your work, you understand and agree that:

1. Your submitted work will be reviewed by The Wishing Fountain team for selection purposes;
2. If the work is purchased and added to the collection, The Wishing Fountain will have the right to collect, preserve, lend, display, and use the physical publication for research purposes;
3. The Wishing Fountain may display the publication in non-commercial contexts, including reading rooms, pop-up libraries, exhibitions, workshops, talks, public programmes, and community events;
4. The Wishing Fountain may photograph the publication cover, selected inside pages, and display views for archive, promotion, documentation, and research introduction purposes;
5. In all public displays and communications, we will do our best to retain and credit the names of creators, publishers, photographers, writers, designers, and other contributors;
6. The Wishing Fountain will not copy, republish, sell, scan the entire publication, or upload the full content online without permission;
7. If future use involves full digitisation, commercial collaboration, republication, image licensing, institutional loans, or any other use beyond the scope of this open call, we will contact the rights holder for further confirmation.

Submitters must confirm that:

1. You have the right to submit and sell the publication;
2. If the work contains third-party images, texts, archives, interviews, photographs, or collaborative content, you have obtained the necessary permissions, or you confirm that the use falls within fair use / artistic research / non-commercial publishing contexts;
3. If the work involves real people, private stories, sensitive images, or community materials, you have fully considered consent and safety;
4. The Wishing Fountain is not responsible for copyright, image rights, privacy, or crediting disputes between the submitter and any third party;
5. If the work has specific display restrictions, such as pages that cannot be photographed, names that cannot be made public, or content that cannot be shown online, please state this clearly when submitting.

The Wishing Fountain's collection is not only a way to preserve objects. We also hope it can become a temporary space that can be read, touched, and brought to different places. We will do our best to preserve every publication in the collection with respect, safety, and care. However, as future projects may include pop-ups, reading rooms, exhibitions, or public events, publications may be read, photographed, or encountered closely by audiences in controlled settings.

If your work has specific preservation or access requirements, please let us know when submitting. For example:

• It cannot be handled directly;
• Only a reproduction copy can be displayed;
• Inside pages cannot be photographed;
• It needs to be displayed anonymously;
• Certain pages are not suitable for public display;
• It requires a trigger warning / content note.

We will do our best to respect these requirements.