Fall 2026 Issue: IRL
A Call for Submissions
“He was gazing down at his phone, his shoulders tense, his spine curling toward it.
She had the urge to call out to him, startle him with her voice: What’s in your phone that isn’t right here in front of you?
There is a naked person in your bed. There is a breeze in the yard.
Yet she knew there was plenty in his phone that wasn’t right here in front of him. The entire universe.”
― Helen Phillips, Hum
“I love them but I haven’t met them IRL yet”
This is a phrase I’ve used to describe life changing friendships but not a phrase my Grandma would use to describe any of her friendships at my age.
IRL stands for “In Real Life” and is quintessential internet slang. The phrase has come to describe the life we lead offline and outside of the internet. You may be one way on the internet and another IRL. Your online community on the internet may be stronger than the one you share with those in your IRL community. Online you might be an out and proud queer person but IRL no one knows you are gay. What does it do for the soul to have a huge separation between our online and IRL selves?
The phrase “IRL” asks the question: what is our “real life”? You may only truly feel yourself in the safety of AOL messenger or Discord chats. Is that not your “real life”? The internet can also warp our perceptions and act as a fantasy land that doesn’t correspond with how offline life operates. We can find that people can be both kinder and crueler at our local grocery store than on Instagram. With the rise of AI, will there be even less separation between online and IRL? We may soon find that kids will grow up with AI companions perfectly designed for them. Adults may also soon turn to AI lovers over human intimacy.
In this fall issue, we welcome essays, poems, and other literary pieces that explore and grapple with what it means to live IRL in our internet age. What does it mean to live as a Side B Christian IRL? What does it look like to build community offline and online? Why are these communities important for flourishing? What can be lost when we give up or don’t cultivate an IRL or online community? What are ways that our personas online influence our IRL lives? Can our internet personas be more real than our IRL selves? What is there to be preserved about “real life” or in person human connection?
Message Shelby with any questions about submission
Oooooh. Excited about this.