Green Observer
Green Observer is the only student-run environmental publication at the University of Illinois. As a publication of Students for Environmental Concerns (SECS), we strive to amplify environmental awareness and advocacy through writing and art. We foster creative expression and thoughtful journalism that engages our campus and community.
We seek to publish two times a year, compiling editions for Fall and Spring. Anyone is welcome to submit.
To submit or learn more, email us at samholt2@illinois.edu or mls15@illinois.edu. To get involved with the team, join us at a SECS meeting on Wednesdays at 6:30 pm in the Channing Murray Foundation (1209 W Oregon St.)
Check Out Our Spring 2026 Edition!
Call for Submissions
Migrations
If one thing on Earth is constant, it is the absence of constancy. In minutes or millennia, our world becomes unrecognizable. Given time, even continents are as fluid as wind. Migration is the movement of life in space, time, and culture. It is a survival tactic that unites species across biomes. These movements may be gentle, from one tree and town to another. Or these movements may be grand, spanning oceans and ancestry.
Birds flock south to keep warm, emptying gray winter skies. But, they always flit back to raise their chicks at home. In boats and planes, people sail the globe to build new lives out of broken ones. Childhood houses are emptied and shuttered. Even forests, fixed by their roots, take their slow walk of trees. A sojourn so subtle, it can’t help but be noticed generations too late.
For the Fall 2026 issue of the Green Observer, we invite work that explores departure, with and without the promise of homecoming. Consider what migrations brought us here. What did we leave behind, and what might lie ahead?
Send us your poetry, prose, visuals or music that explores these connections.
Drafts due October 2nd at 11:59 pm
via email to Sam Holt (samholt2@illinois.edu)
Submission Guidelines
We welcome submissions of prose, poetry, photography, and visual art. Prose submissions may include journalism, reported articles, personal essays, or memoir-style reflections. Please keep in mind the following:
- Word count: Submissions should be under 1500 words.
- Theme: Submissions should loosely connect to the issue’s theme (see below).
- Alignment: Work should align with the values of SECS by promoting environmental advocacy, care, and respect, and must not include hateful, discriminatory, or violent content.
- Images and Art:
- Submit high-resolution files. (150 PPI or higher)
- Avoid overly edited, filtered, or blurry photos.
- For physical or 3D artwork, use good lighting and a neutral/plain background.
- Optional: include a short artist’s statement (under 200 words) explaining the piece and/or its connection to the theme
- File formats: Text as .doc/.docx, images as .jpg/.png