Where creative voices meet critical ideas.
Fortresses Magazine publishes thoughtful, approachable critical writing that helps us see Kansas City’s art, and ourselves, more clearly.
You’re Invited
Join us as we celebrate the launch of our inaugural issue, Cravings, on Thursday, January 22, 2026, from 6–8 PM at Vulpes Bastille.
This evening brings our community together to mark the beginning of something new and full of possibility. It's an opportunity to gather with artists, writers, and readers, share ideas, and elevate the voices shaping contemporary art and culture. We can’t wait to share the evening with you, raise a glass, and launch our first issue together.
Issue II
Sandcastles
In sand, our hopes are filled with detail, and we're brave enough to start over when our castles fall.
Themed Sandcastles, our second issue opens the doorway to alternate realities by reawakening folklore, building impossible worlds, and writing futures, pasts, and sideways presents that never existed, yet feel just like us. Ask “What if?” not as speculation, but as an act of vision- a way to imagine how the world might transform, fracture, or become something entirely new.
Writers, consider if reality were unfinished. Let dreams leak into waking life, let spirituality shimmer as myth and question, let civilizations bend, collapse, or reinvent themselves on the page. Treat social structures as strange architectures- mutable, symbolic, alive- and explore how we collectively respond when the world begins to change its rules.
For artists, Sandcastles can be both shelter and prophecy. These structures exist only long enough to remind us that culture, like creation, is an ongoing act. Submit work that grapples with the present while imagining what might rise, or dissolve, in its wake.
We are especially interested in reimagined maps, blueprints, ship or aircraft manifests, and artifacts that suggest fragile systems, shifting borders, or speculative futures. Narrative-driven artwork, along with pieces that incorporate magical realism or surreal elements, are encouraged.
Open Call Details
We welcome submissions across a range of forms, including critical essays, reviews, curatorial analyses, lyrical essays, poetry, and visual and digital art.
Interdisciplinary and experimental approaches are especially encouraged.
Send submissions to fortressesmag@gmail.com.
The deadline for pitch submissions is January 25, 2026.
Submission Requirements
REVIEW, CRITICAL ESSAY, AND INTERVIEW PITCHES
Please attach a document to your email, with:
Your name
The name of the exhibit, artwork, or artist you will write about
The dates of the exhibit or the year the artwork was created
One to two paragraphs with a short summary of your review idea, the themes you plan to explore with your article, and why you've chosen this piece, artwork, or artist to discuss.
POETRY, PERSONAL ESSAYS, AND SHORT FICTION
Please attach a document to your email, with:
Your name
The year your piece was written, if it's not work created for this submission
One to three paragraphs summarizing your piece, and its relationship to the theme
If you’re submitting a finished piece, please send it in a separate document
VISUAL AND DIGITAL ART
Please attach a document to your email, with:
Your name
Your city and state
A link to your website or digital work, or links to hi-definition images of your work
The name of your work(s), the year it was created, and the medium
An artist statement about the work(s), and
One to three paragraphs about its relationship to the theme
While this issue will feature unpaid contributions, we are currently fundraising and seeking advertisers. Our primary fundraising goal is to compensate contributing writers, and we are committed to achieving this within our first three issues.