These are calls for themed non-fiction pitches/submissions. Some of the themes are: the mystery of time; pushing boundaries; dog stories; censorship; music & tech; house & home; and fitness trends. A few outlets also accept other genres, like fiction and poetry. – S. Kalekar

Root Cause: Stories of health, harm, and reclaiming our humanity in an epidemic of loneliness
For this anthology, they want nonfiction work that “brings together diverse voices and offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of patients, healthcare professionals, and caregivers as they navigate the complex emotional and psychological landscapes shaped by solitude and illness.
These personal essays, memoirs, and reflective accounts illuminate the human side of healthcare, exploring themes such as the impact of chronic illness, the solitude of long-term treatment, mental health struggles exacerbated by medical conditions, and the unique dynamics between caregivers and those they care for.” And, “We are looking for nonfiction narratives that explore the profound and often overlooked experiences of isolation and loneliness within the context of healthcare.
In addition to the expected topics of cancer, mental and emotional health, and end-of-life care, we are interested in stories about:
women’s health, birth, abortion, and menopause;
stories specific to men’s health;
dental health;
navigating healthcare or insurance while experiencing financial hardship;
other health experiences that fall outside more commonly told health narratives.” They will also consider reprints. The project is affiliated with the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Pay is $50 for works of up to 1,500 words. The submission deadline is 15 October 2024. Details here.  

Parabola: The Mystery of Time
Parabola is a quarterly journal that explores the quest for meaning as it is expressed in the world’s myths, symbols, and religious traditions, with particular emphasis on the relationship between this store of wisdom and our modern life. “We look for lively, penetrating material unencumbered by jargon or academic argument. We prefer well-researched, objective, and unsentimental pieces that are grounded in one or more religious or cultural tradition; articles that focus on dreams, visions, or other very personal experiences are unlikely to be accepted.” They publish articles and translations (1,000-3,000 words), book reviews (500 words), retellings of traditional stories (500-1,500 words), forum contributions (up to 500 words), and poetry (up to 5 poems). The theme for their next issue, i.e. Spring 2025, is ‘The Mystery of Time’, and the deadline is 1 December 2024. Details here.

Writer’s Digest: Pushing Boundaries
This print and online magazine for writers aims to “keep readers abreast of industry trends, of the latest writers who found success and what they did to achieve it, and of innovative ways to improve and empower the inner raconteur” of their readers. They consider completed manuscripts on spec, as well as original pitches. They say writers should allow 2-4 months for a response. They’re accepting work for their March/April 2025 theme, ‘Pushing Boundaries’. “Sometimes, the most exciting writing is that which confounds expectations. Writing that combines tropes, ideas, or different genres in unexpected ways to create something entirely new (e.g., romantasy, comedic horror). Or novels that mix interactive elements with traditional storytelling to guide, or even misguide, readers (think: Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr). In this issue, we’d like to see articles about writers, stories, and techniques that effectively mash up seemingly disparate genres or elements of storytelling to push the boundaries of writing.” You can read about that, and other upcoming themes, here; pitching is now via a form on their website. Apart from features, they have several departments and columns. They pay $0.50/word for first world rights for one-time print use and perpetual electronic use. They do not pay for unsolicited online articles and guest posts, except in rare cases when the content is highly focused or unique, in which case they pay $50-$100. General submission guidelines are here.

Shooter Literary Magazine: Coming of Age
They want submissions on the ‘Coming of Age’ theme. “We’re looking for stories, essays, memoir and poetry on anything to do with the transition to adulthood: first love, hormonal angst, Saturday jobs, brushes with the law, experimentation, gaining independence, losing virginity. Literary reflections on books that made an impact during late adolescence would make particularly welcome essays. Tales of college and first steps on the career ladder are also relevant.” Length guidelines are 2,000-6,000 words for short prose, and up to 3 poems. They pay £25 for short prose, and £5 for flash prose and poetry. The deadline is 20 October 2024. Details here.

ENDS Europe: EU Environmental Policy
ENDS Europe is a European environmental policy news service; you can read about them here. They are looking for pitches for both news and features on EU environmental policy. See the pitch call here their masthead is here.

Channel Magazine
This Ireland-based magazine publishes non-fiction, open on an ongoing basis, and also has periodic submission calls for fiction and poetry (closed now). They have detailed guidelines, including, “Although we draw inspiration from local and international traditions of nature writing, as well as from the many dedicated platforms for writing on climate and ecology that exist today, much of what we publish falls outside common definitions of nature writing and eco-writing. We love work that speaks directly of a writer’s bond with and fear for our planet, and work that takes a local landscape, or a local flower, as its subject; equally, though, we love work that draws on an aspect of nature as setting, image or metaphor. We believe that all writing relies to some extent on historical engagement with nature, in that all human language has been shaped by our embeddedness in our shared environments. The kind of work we want to publish is the kind that takes this seed of connection and runs with it, revelling in its potential and exploring how it might grow. The best way to understand the range of work we’re interested in is to read our current print issue or some of the work available on our blog.” Non-fiction submissions are considered for both print and online, on a rolling basis. And, “prose non-fiction (… may include interviews and commentary on creative work or community-based environmental projects, as well as essays and narrative pieces). We also regularly publish non-fiction on the Channel blog.” They accept submissions in English and Irish. Pay is €35 per printed page, up to €250 per piece and with a minimum fee of €50 for single-page works. For work published online, they pay €35 per 400 words, up to a maximum of €250 per piece and with a minimum fee of €50. Details here.

HerStories Project: Midstory Magazine
HerStories is a community of midlife women who write; you can read more about them here. For Midstory Magazine, they say, “We accept original personal essay submissions for Midstory Magazine about life, love, loss, and friendship at midlife. These stories could incorporate coupling and uncoupling, keeping and ending friendships, and grieving the loss of relationships or loved ones during this messy middle of life. We are looking for a strong, clear writing voice and raw, honest storytelling, in keeping with our mission to elevate the voices of midlife women.” They want complete essays only, not pitches. Pay is $75 for essays of 750-2,000 words. Details here.

CBC Edmonton: First Person pitches
CBC (Edmonton), which publishes news, current affairs, and community stories from the region, is looking for pitches for their First Person column. See the editor’s pitch call here, and CBC’s general First Person column pitch guide here. They pay CAD560 for a First Person piece for Edmonton.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Dog Stories, and more
Chicken Soup publishes true stories and narrative poetry, of up to 1,200 words. They are open for works on specific topics and the next upcoming deadline is for their Dog Stories theme. They have detailed guidelines, including, “Dogs have always been considered companions and playmates that brighten our days and enrich our lives. What would we do without them? They are also wonderful and amazing teachers. The lessons we learn from our canine friends come in all shapes and sizes, just like they do. Tell us the new thing your canine friend has taught you. How smart she is or how she outsmarted you! How he made you smile. How she “rescued” you after you “rescued” her. How he brought your family closer together, helped you find love, inspired you to change something in your human life. Stories can be serious or humorous, or both.” The deadline for this theme is 31 October 2024. There are other themes listed on this page, including Cat Stories; Change your habits & attitudes / change your life; Holiday Celebrations; and Miracles, messages from heaven & angels. Guidelines here; also see other tabs on the guidelines page for more details.

Full Bleed: Censorship, and more
Their guidelines say, In this year marking the hundredth anniversary of the Manifesto of Surrealism, we look forward to featuring in our next issue a selection of new manifestos for our own time and poetry in the ars poetica vein. A separate section of Full Bleed 8 will explore the topic of censorship.”
On Manifestos, they say, “we are open to submissions calling for new directions in art, literature, politics, cultural life, and collective imagining. Send us your boldest ideas and headiest visions, in any genre and form you see fit. We’re open to the contrarian, the exasperated, the polemical, and the aspirational.”On the Censorship theme, they say, “we are open to submissions of visual art, criticism, literary prose, art and design history, reportage, and poetry considering acts of censorship, or that address censorship as a phenomenon in our time or times past, here in the U.S. or in other parts of the world. 
Additionally, we welcome narratives from the “front line,” so to speak. If you have been fired or punished for expressing your views or have had creative works, exhibitions, or acts censored, retracted, redacted, canceled, demonized, or de-platformed in some way, we encourage you to send us your work, or evidence of it, for consideration for inclusion in the issue along with a description of any related controversy and its consequences.”  They want prose of up to 7,000 words, as well as genre-defying work, poetry, and art. They pay a modest honorarium. The deadline is 15 November 2024. Details here and here.

The Iowa Review: Bodies In and Out of Control
Their guidelines say, “Bodies can be prisons, and they can be imprisoned. Bodies are socially defined, surveilled, regulated, contoured; and the mechanisms of these embodied actions are legal, medical, educational, environmental, familial, religious, cultural, political — above all, political. In recent years, we have watched Black bodies being assaulted by police and by vigilantes, women’s bodies being denied their autonomy, bodies on borders being beaten back, bodies collapsing incruel heatwaves, bodies denied medical care when they challenge gender norms. The precarity and vulnerability of the body are markers of the current moment.
But bodies are also resistant and rebellious: they push physical limits for the sheer thrill of it, joyfully couple across boundaries of race and gender, risk harm in activism for social justice, extend healing touches and caring gestures.
In this special issue of The Iowa Review, “Bodies in and out of control,” we seek submissions that engage with the body/embodiment, its management and governance as well as its multiplicity, its mysteries, and its vitality. Poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and other artforms are welcome.” They’re also accepting general nonfiction and visual narratives. For general submissions, they charge a fee for online submissions from nonsubscribers, but there is no fee for postal submissions. Length guidelines are up to 25 pages for prose, and up to 8 pages for poetry for the themed issue. Pay is $0.08/word for prose, $1.50 per line for poetry. The deadline is 1 November 2024. Details here and here.

The Reporters’ Collective: Investigative stories in India
The Reporters’ Collective has issued a pitch call. “Attention independent journalists in India!  If you have an investigative story, pitch it to us.” And their general pitch guide has detailed guidelines, including, “There are wide-ranging stories that deal with India’s political economy, social welfare environment, technology & digital security, governance & accountability, public health and much more. 
But the thread that connects them is that they all help Indian citizens see through government policies and hold the powerful accountable.” They pay INR40,000. See the pitch call here and their general pitch guidelines are here.  

National Geographic: Fitness trends/how the body works, and more
National Geographic is looking for “Smart takes on news moments
Deep dives on fitness trends/how the body works
Interesting history that is relevant today
Explainers on rising health concerns
(bonus points if you can make anime/videogames/supernaturallore *natgeo*)”. See the editor’s pitch call/thread here. 

Dirt: Music and Tech
Dirt is a newsletter about entertainment and cultural ephemera; they are looking for music + tech pitches. They want “music & tech +
evergreen with a timely hook ++
that one idea you’re obsessed with but have been repeatedly told is “too niche” +++” Their general pitch guide says, standard rates start at $0.50/word, negotiable for reported pieces, and Q&As are paid out at $0.30/word; pieces are generally commissioned at around 500-800 or 800-1,000 words. See the pitch call here, and their general pitch guide here.

Book XI: A Journal of Literary Philosophy – Experiments with Form
Book XI is a journal dedicated to publishing personal essays, memoir, fiction, science fiction, humor, and poetry with philosophical themes. The journal is affiliated with Hamilton College’s Arthur Levitt Center for Public Affairs. For the ‘Experiments with Form’ theme, they say, “We’re looking for stories or essays that use borrowed forms (memos, Yelp reviews, maps, encyclopedia articles, etc).
We will consider only previously unpublished and philosophically informed creative work (though our understanding of “philosophically informed” is capacious). You may submit text or images or both. All submissions should be made through Submittable.” Pay is $200 for 1,000-5,000 words of prose, and $50 for poetry.  Please note, they will close this opportunity when they reach their submission cap, or 15 December 2024, whichever is earlier. Details here and here.

MIT Technology Review: Security
MIT Technology Review is looking for pitches on the ‘Security’ theme for its May/June print issue. Their general pitch guide says, “Rates range from $1 to $2 per word, depending on the experience level of the writer, the story, and the publication route. Deeply reported features pay more than shorter news pieces.” The pitch deadline for this theme is mid to late November 2024. See their general pitch guide, which also includes themes for future issues, here.

Rough Cut Press: Splinter
They publish work from the LGBTQIA community, and have monthly themed submission calls. Send short prose of up to 650 words on the ‘Splinter’ theme. Pay is $25. The deadline is 27 October 2024. Details here.

BBC: History articles about the internet
The BBC is looking for pitches; a recent pitch call says, “I’m commissioning history articles about the internet for the BBC. Looking for pitches about chapters & corners of the web that people will remember, but haven’t thought about in the while. Nostalgia, surprising stories, foundational communities, get in touch!” Rates are about $0.57/word. See the pitch call/thread here.

Slate: Essays with a tech bent
Slate is accepting pitches – “I’m looking for pitches for personal and reported essays with a tech bent for @Slate. How does technology impact your life, work, or worldview? What are the surprising/shocking/weird ways that tech is shifting our everyday lives?” Rates are usually $500-$750 for features of 1,000-1,500 words. See the pitch call here.

Ploughshares: Look2 essays
Apart from work for the literary magazine, Ploughshares is also accepting submissions for the Look2 essay series. “This series seeks to publish essays about underappreciated or overlooked writers. The Look2 essay should take stock of a writer’s entire oeuvre with the goal of bringing critical attention to the neglected writer and his or her relevance to a contemporary audience. … The writer can be living or dead and from anywhere in the world (if there are good English translations available). Essays should make note of biographical details that are pertinent to the writer’s work.” They accept only pitches/queries of 1-2 pages, not completed work, for this series. There is no submission fees for Look2 essays. Pay is $45/page, up to $450. The pitch deadline is 15 January 2025. Details here.

NPQ: We Stood Up column
NPQ (Non Profit Quarterly) is a US-based magazine of the nonprofit sector. You can read about the organization here. They have an ongoing submission call for the magazine for a column, We Stood Up.
“The past few years have seen a flurry of workers organizing across the country, from Starbucks and Amazon workers to new forms of cooperative ownership and governance sharing. NPQ announces a new column called “We Stood Up,” featuring the voices of people doing the hard work of realizing economic justice in their workplace. We invite writing from workers who want to share their experiences building a democratic economy and a fairer world, so that others can learn from their efforts.
We welcome pieces of around 500 words, with an answer to one or more of the following questions:
Why did you stand up and organize your workplace?
How do you build bridges and connect with other workers?
What has been the biggest barrier to making change happen at work?
In what ways have you implemented democratic practices in your workplace? We are offering $300 for contributions to this new space dedicated to showcasing worker voices.” See the pitch call here. Guidelines for the column are here.

Girl Dad Press: Sex Change & the City
For this call, they want submissions from queer writers only. “As we envision what a queer anthology of work about Sex and the City might look like, we couldn’t help but wonder if you have an idea for something that celebrates, critiques, questions, explores and/or expands the Sex and the City collected universe (including And Just Like That… and both movies)! We are open to personal essays, critical analyses, comics, fanfic, visual art, games, power rankings, personality quizzes, and anything else that could theoretically be printed in a weird little book.” Pay is $100 for written pieces up to 1,200 words. The submission deadline is 21 October 2024. Details here.

Financial Times: House & Home Pitches
An editor of Financial Times has issued a pitch call on 1^st October for their House & Home section: “I am currently (very briefly) acting as an editor on the FT’s House & Home section while a colleague is away. You have about four weeks to pitch me ideas you think might work for it! Looking for interesting stories heavy on narrative (who isn’t?). “ See the pitch call here.

Woods Reader
They want submissions from writers in the US and Canada only. “Woods Reader is a publication for those who love woodland areas: whether a public preserve, forest, tree farm, backyard woodlot or other patch of trees and wildlife. Our readers like to hear about others’ experiences and insights, especially those that make an impression that they think about long after they have finished the article. Submitted content should center around trees and woodlands.” And, “We buy articles in the following categories with woodland themes: Personal experience
Educational or nonfiction
The Woodland Philosopher
Fiction/fantasy
DIY article using woodland materials (accompanying photographs requested)
Humor blog or cartoon
Short poetry
Destinations
Book reviews (please contact us prior to submitting)
Assigned topic to authors we have previously published”. They want works of 500-1,000 words. They also buy the occasional longer fiction or true adventure story of 2,000-5,000 words, which may be serialized over up to four issues. They do not want hunting stories. Payment ranges from $25 to over $100. Details here.

The Polis Project: Culture vertical
The Polis Project is “a New York-based hybrid research and journalism organization that works with communities in resistance.” They are launching a new culture vertical. “Call for pitches & pitch guide for The Polis Projects new #culture vertical!!
#Art & #entertainment are the most powerful way to shape political ethos, & in this era of manufactured consent & propaganda, we are interested in creating a counter-narrative of resistance.” They welcome pitches from all over the world, particularly the Global South. Rates range from $100 to $400. See the pitch call and guide here.

Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.