Be Heard: Where to Submit Essays Related to Current Events

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Hello, friends! As lovers and publishers of creative nonfiction we’re aware that, right now, it’s so important to express ourselves through words. As writers, putting pen to paper is how we move forward, either to help ourselves or others understand things more clearly or to speak the truth and influence change. While some might be journaling privately, others may be urgently submitting their stories to lit mags, websites, dailies, and more.

Hippocampus publishes our regular issues bi-monthly; as of today, that means our next issue is our July/August 2020 issue.

But… much of the work being created now
needs to be heard NOW.

As we aren’t the right outlet for a timely piece, we wanted to point our readers/submitters to places where their submissions will get more immediate attention, whether literary magazines or outlets that publish personal essays more frequently, even daily, or to special calls for submissions, either for special issues or forthcoming anthologies.

Curated Lists of Opps from Our Friends Around the Web

Other publications and outlets have spent time creating lists and curating opps, so we’d like to link directly to their work:

 

Literary Magazines & Other Publications: Specific Calls

  • COVID Lit – various genres/forms (rolling submissions)
  • The Seventh Wave – Before/After Issue – deadline June 14

    • “For this issue, we want to examine the truths and the lies that we’re uncovering amid this global pandemic. With this call, we seek to elevate the already and the always, the ordinary and the overlooked.” — from the submission guidelines
  • The Syndrome Magazine – Black Voices Matter – submissions from women/non-binary writers – deadline June 30
  • Uncomfortable Revolution – seeking timely articles/stories on the intersection of pop culture, disability, race, and ethnicity. (rolling submissions)
  • The HerStories Project – GenX women and impact of COVID-19 – June 30 deadline
  • Awake, Lucky Jefferson’s digital zine (rolling submissions)
    • essays, poems, and art, “… that amplify the experiences of Black and African American writers in American society.” — from the guidelines
  • Twyckenham Notes – Voices of Color – deadline June 7
    • “Art as resistance is not naïve or futile—it is bold and courageous. It embraces that which makes us human—our love, our anger, and our passion.” — from the guidelines
  • Allegory Ridge – open to personal essays with the theme “Grow” (complete or pitch) – deadline June 12
  • Vessel – op-eds (complete or pitch) – (rolling submissions)
  • Ang(st): The Feminist Body Zine – Queer Loving theme issue – deadline June 25
    • “…Queer Loving while also elevating Black and queer voices and creating a space of love, courage, and solidarity…” – from the guidelines
  • PlanPhilly/WHYY – op-eds (Philadelphia-related) for the Eyes on the Street Section – (rolling submissions)
  • Policy Network (based in Europe) – op-eds/articles for new series, Aftershock: Society and Politics After the Pandemic
  • Longreads – current themes include Life in the Time of Covid and Amplify: Stories of Racism in America
  • Entropy – new series, Food and COVID-19 (rolling submissions for now)
  • TMI Project – COVID-related submisions (rolling submissions for now)

National Publications & Other Outlets: General Rolling Submissions

These publications traditionally accept personal essays, op-eds, and story pitches. (We linked to submissions pages where we could find them; others only list contact information.)

 

Miscellaneous

Our suggestions are geared toward personal essays/literary CNF because that’s our main audience, but because we’re sharing this post on social media, we know a broader audience might see this. So we also wanted to include ideas for other ways to publish work/share your voice:

  • An op-ed to your local or regional newspaper
  • An op-ed to a local, independent online news publication
  • A letter or story pitch to your alumni magazine or college publications (if they are publishing online during the summer)

 

If you’re working on something super-timely, we hope that this list of resources is helpful in finding your words a home. Hippocampus Magazine is always open to simultaneous submissions, so you may also submit work to us and withdraw it if it’s accepted elsewhere.

 

Special Note About Our July/August 2020 Issue

Right now, Hippocampus Magazine is selecting and finalizing pieces for the July/August issue. Typically, we have a 3-4 month lead time to review submissions, since we read pieces in the order that we receive them. However, given the gravity of the moment and the urgency and necessity of writing that reflects the world as it truly is, we plan to keep a close eye on more recent submissions as well.

(If you know of another opportunity not listed here, you can share it with us in the comments; we’ll try to update this post to add new suggestions, elevating them from the comments.)

 

P.S. Additional Opportunities (related, but longer-term deadlines)

While not timely in the sense of being published within the next few weeks, the following are related calls for submissions for magazines, special projects, and anthologies; we discovered them in our search and thought we should still share them here:

  • 805 Lit + Art – special 19th Amendment/Black Women Issue (August 2020) – deadline June 7
  • Flash Nonfiction COVID-19: 73 Short, True Stories from the Front Lines of the Pandemic (publishes fall 2020) – deadline June 30
  • CATALYST (from Prevention at the Intersections, debut issue, Sept. 2020) – Mind, Body & Gender theme – deadline July 31
  • Being Home: An Essay Anthology – Madville Publishing – deadline August 1
  • About Place Journal – Works of Resistance, Resilience (for fall issue) – deadline August 1
  • We’ll continue to add to this list as we spot opps or receive suggestions

 

IMAGE CREDIT: Flickr Creative Commins/Pierre Metivier

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