𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗛𝗼𝘁 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗜 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲

SERIES LAUNCH

This summer at Giant Steps Press, we're writing about heat in all its forms: not so much summer pleasantries or nostalgia—more like grief, resistance, exhaustion, wonder, blooming, breaking. We’re asking: what burns where you live—inside a city, inside a room, inside a life? Heat is weather and mood, climate and culture, the ache of history and the spark that makes a voice flare. We’re starting a living series that treats “hot” in all its registers: literal, metaphorical, far-reaching, and wide-open to interpretation.

All season, we’re publishing originals, excerpts, and reprints from GSP authors and collaborators—with occasional touchstones from the wider literature on heat—essays, poems, images, and video: dispatches from where we are and what’s burning.

To open the series, we’re featuring work that meets heat head-on from different coordinates:

🔶 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞𝐚 𝐃𝐞𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐬, “𝐅𝐚𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐞” — From Queens burnout to Japanese civic grace: how small acts of attention can cool a culture—and what it would take to import that care home.

🔷 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐦 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐧, “𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐟𝐟” (Marrakech) — Djema el Fna at a hundred degrees: commerce, charity, and Bowles’s Sheltering Sky under a sun that never blinks.

🔶 𝐊𝐢𝐫𝐩𝐚𝐥 𝐆𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐨𝐧, “𝐄𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧” (East Village, 1977) — Inner fire meets blackout: Kabir’s ash and water, a laughing yogi, and a city that drums revelation out of chaos.

🔷 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐇𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐜𝐡, 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐨𝐞𝐦𝐬 — 𝘊𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘶𝘮, 𝘛𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘕𝘶𝘮𝘣 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘤𝘺, 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘞𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦?, 𝘒𝘦𝘺 𝘞𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘓𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘔𝘳. 𝘝𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦: domestic sparks, geopolitical blaze, mortality, and the strange comedy of survival.

🔶 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧 𝐑𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐨, “𝐁𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞” (song) — An original track where heat shapes tempo, breath, and attention—small moments turning fever-bright.

𝗪𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗲?

If heat is working on you, we’re opening a window for community submissions. To be considered, share original text, image, or audio/video piece about where your heat lives. Selected pieces will run in the series and on our channels with full credit.

✍️ 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗼: giantsteps.submissions@gmail.com

We’ll keep publishing new drops through the season—temperature doesn’t stay put, and neither do our stories.

Stay with us. The forecast is honest.