Where you’ll find my current open calls
Words I Held for You Volume 0.5
This is my first zine of prompts for my compilation series “Words I Held for You”. I’m sharing the images of my zine and providing image and text descriptions. As well as alternatives if there’s physical ephemera included in the zine. Anyone I accept will get one free zine copy and I can mail it to them or if we know each other personally, I’ll give it to them in person. However, I won’t be able to get the zine ready until Spring 2026. I chose a far deadline to ensure I get enough submissions and I really want to make this first outing great.
Background is a swirl of pink and blush. Front cover reads:
“Words I Held for You
for You
Volume 0.5
Curated by
Eileen Ramos”
Background is a peach color blending into a greenish beige. Text reads:
“Welcome to issue 0.5 of my new compilation series “Words I Held for You”! Where the .5s will carry the prompts and the whole numbers will contain your submissions. I’ve always loved curating readings and to do it in a zine—which has granted me so many amazing opportunities & friends—felt like a great step forward.
Here you’ll find a cutoff & a Classiky maroon tag to decorate & fill up as much as you wish—both sides. And a rolodex card with slots where you can fit a slim small item, that accompanies your piece. It could be a drawing, a cut out image, candy wrapper, etc. Please feel free to decorate this card too. I offer a Spotify playlist, a set of photos, prompts, questions, and definitions to guide your creations. I won’t publish anything hateful or discriminatory.
You can submit any and all three of the physical ephemera found in the coin envelope. Outside of these paper goods, you can submit up to three written works and up to three artworks and I’ll possibly accept 1-2 of each category. Tentative deadline is: _____________ 2025.
Submit up to 555 words per written work. The piece can also be mixed genre—just as long as I can print them in a zine, go for it. Please let me know which song, prompt, photo inspired you. There will also be a free online version of this zine on my site: www.eileenramos.com/open-calls Feel free to forward the link to anyone who might be interested. Stapled is a thrifted stamped envelope with my P.O. Box.
You can submit your work via mail, the google form link at the above site, or email me at wordsiheld at gmail dot com. I accept word doc, PDF, jpeg, google doc, and please have the images be 300 DPI minimum.
Email me or message me on Instagram at @wordsiheld if you have any questions or want guidance. I’ll be happy to help you with your submission and would be honored.”
Currently don’t have a P.O. Box but I’m working on it. And right now the deadline is November 23rd, 2025 I’ll share images of the ephemera when we get to the coin envelope page.
You can submit using the google form.
This is the Spotify playlist for this volume. You can listen to it here. Or you can scan the photo with the Spotify app. Background is of a light pink with blurry brown spots. There’s a photo of an abandoned blue mattress with silver blooms in Suburbia with the words “HOLD ON” which I gratiffied. The tracklist, (which I’m hyperlinking to their YouTube videos in case Spotify isn’t accessible for you) in yellow reads:
- Alone by Miso
- Pure You by Nothing But Thieves.
- Sinking Boat by Infinity Song
- For Days by RINI
- Evergray by Jiwoo
- Coldstar. by Gallant & boystrip
- Never Tell by Luke Chiang
- Wait & See by Echo Huang
- Insecure by Bren Joy & Pink Sweat$.
- everything will be alright by UMI
- Something About Us by Daft Punk
- hatemyself by Amber Liu
- Stay by Gen Neo
- Too Good by Christian Kuria
- That’s You by Lucky Daye
- Let Me Down Slow by New Hope Club
- Daylight by JAIE & NYK
Background is a very light pink. There are two photos, one labeled “A” in a yellow square. It shows a close up of an outside concrete steps—which are in the air—with a tiny two leaved plant growing out of the crack. There are yellow dirt stains.
The second photo has a “B” in a yellow square, it shows a ceramic dollhouse room, sitting on a banister railing outside. The three walls are a creamy beige with a square hole as a window and an etched yellow sun. The floor is glazed blue with four pink vases in each corner, three with a yellow stick, the lower right one without. There are two broken yellow sticks on the right side. A ceramic beige bluish couch on the back wall with a penny to show size. And there’s a stained beige table with a yellow beige lump, and a small bench in front of it.
The background is deep blush melding into a yellowish tan. Photo labeled as “C” is of the same image with the mattress on a previous page, only showing more of it. Bare metallic blue mattress with silver blooms and the words “HOLD ON” on blue thick sharpie and in the lower part, the word “sky”. It sits on the corner curb with cardboard beneath. There’s brown house and a white house in the background along with the street.
Photo labeled “D” is of a wooden tiled floor, with five small wood planks to make up a square formation, all ranging from dark brown to light. Two small planks are put aside to show a dirt floor.
Background is blush pink. Text reads:
“Prompts
P1: “We are nobody’s fucking things.” - Barbara Jane Reyes
P2: “Imagine who we could be if we weren’t so afraid of being who we already are.” - Rudy Francisco
P3: “When you do your own research, you learn your own language.” - Alice Sparkly Kat
Questions
Q1: In this moment—where is your heart?
Q2: What was one regret that in time, is no longer?
Q3: How did you last surprised yourself?
Definitions
D1: aflatus - (n.) a strong creative impulse; divine inspiration
D2: vade mecum - (n.) a book for ready reference: manual, something regularly carried about by a person
D3: vagary - (n.) an unexpected and inexplicable change in a situation or in someone’s behavior”
Background is a swirl pastel of orange, purple, blue, like smoke melding. At top is an illustration of a pink closed envelope’s back. Beneath the text reads:
“Decorate and fill them up and mail them in the stapled envelope. You can also send me scans/photos of them too: wordsiheld at gmail dot com or use the google form link at www.eileenramos.com/open-calls”
Here I would washi tape a small yellow coin envelope I got from Dollar Tree and insert the ephemera mentioned in the introduction.
This an example of the envelope filled with the three ephemera: rolodex card, classiky tag, and cardstock cut off. Each zine has an unique washi to keep the envelope flying, this one has photos of tiny various rainbow of stuffed plushes like chicks, bunnies with bowties, and bears. Some are in flowers, eating strawberries, on a wooden chair.
Here’s the stationery goodies laid out on the zine: top is a white rolodex card with slots to hold business cards but you can fit and submit anything that fits. Middle is a risograph cardstock cutoff in a bookmark shape with bleed florescent orange lines. The bottom is of a maroon Classiky tag that says “Classiky Fabrique Au Japon” then beneath a double line and at the bottom a dotted line and underneath it reads (la typographie).
Background is an orange pink with blurry spots of purple. Back cover reads:
“Recommended Websites:
jstor.org ~ a wonderful database where you can create a free account and get access to 100 free articles per month!
everythingimmersive.com ~ find a cool local or at-home immersive experience
naiveweekly.com ~ Sunday postcards with links to the quiet, odd, and poetic web
Eileen Ramos is a bipolar Filipina American writer, performer, artist, experience designer, and mental health advocate. She enjoys creating zines and vending at zine fests. As well as curating book packages for strangers via the mail or the street.
Feel free to say Hi and share any recommendations you have, I’d love to hear from you!
www.eileenramos.com
@wordsiheld
@booksiheld
wordsiheld at gmail dot com
Here’s the google form submission link again. Please contact me if you have any question or want guidance, happy to help. Take care!