19 Arts & Culture Magazines and Websites that Pay for Essays

Art Jewelry Forum (AJF) is a nonprofit organization that is a leading platform for critical thinking on contemporary jewelry. They are accepting proposals for articles and reviews. They pay $100 for shorter essays (about 500 to 1,000 words), $200 to $250 for longer reviews and articles (about 1,000 to 2,500 words), and $300 for research projects (about 2,500 to 5,000 words). To submit content, visit this page. To view their website standards, visit this page.

Temporary Art Review is “a platform for contemporary art criticism that focuses on alternative spaces and critical exchange among disparate art communities.” They pay $50 for reviews (500 to 900 words) and $75 for essays (1,200 to 2,000 words) and interviews. To learn more, refer to this page.

In the In-Between (In-B) is “an independent photo-arts journal that acts as a platform of support and critical examination of contemporary photographic authorship.” They welcome proposals from independent arts writers and organization affiliates. They pay $80 for essays and artist profiles (1,500 to 5,000 words), $50 for interviews (1,000 to 3,000 words), and $30 for book and exhibition reviews (500 to 1,000 words). To learn more, refer to this page.

Afterimage is a bimonthly publication that covers visual arts, photography, independent film and video, new media, and alternative publishing. They cover issues and debates within art history, visual and cultural studies, media studies, and related fields. They have features, essays, reviews, reports, news, media noted sections for writers, and double exposure, which are collaborations of photography and prose. The magazine is partly funded by New York State Council on the Arts. They pay $0.05/word for articles, max $300 for features, $150 for essays and $100 for news, reports and reviews. When I last checked, it was not clear whether their funding was still able to support paying writers. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.

Hyperallergic is an art blog, covering visual artists from around the world. According to their guidelines “while we’re technically an art publication, we’re not interested in speaking only to an art crowd.” They publish art reviews, reported stories, interviews, photo essays, opinion pieces, and more. Expect payment around five to fifteen cents per word. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.

American Composers Forum and I Care If You Listen are launching a 10-month series entitled “Out of Context” to help their “collective field open new channels for exploring and understanding cultural appropriation.” They are looking for essays and interviews about cultural appropriation. They especially encourage submissions from non-white authors. They offer an honorarium of $250 per article (less than 1,500 words). To learn more, refer to this Twitter post and this link.

theFold is an online magazine by Double Double store (an Australian store that offers curated streetwear and fashion from global designers). They publish “critical and exploratory writing on contemporary culture, broadly defined.” They “welcome writing about art, fashion, architecture, film, music, television, and more.” They are “particularly interested in personal essays that incorporate cultural criticism and critique.” They accept completed articles (1,200 to 1,700 words) and pitches. They pay $300 per article. For details, read their submission guidelines.

London Review of Books is Europe’s leading magazine of culture and ideas. They publish twice a month. Each issue of the magazine contains poems, reviews, reportage, memoirs, letters, ‘short cuts’, and a diary. They accept unsolicited submissions as well as proposals. Payment reports indicate that they pay up to $0.60 per word. For details, visit this page.

Kill Your Darlings is an online magazine that is dedicated to arts and culture. In November 2019, they are shining a spotlight on writing from Aotearoa New Zealand. They are looking for “writers from, living in or with a significant personal connection to New Zealand.” They are “particularly keen to hear from Māori, Pasifika, and other non-Pākehā voices, as well as writers living outside Auckland and Wellington.” They are seeking essay/commentary (short 1,000 to 1,500 words, or long 1,500 to 3,000 words), memoir or personal essay (1,000 to 1,500 words), cultural criticism (1,000 to 1,500 words), and short fiction (1,500 to 3,000 words). They pay at least A$250 per piece. The deadline for submission is September 30, 2019. For details, visit this page.

Gay Magazine is a new publication partnership between Roxane Gay (an author, editor, and commentator) and Medium (an online publishing platform). They offer interesting and thoughtful cultural criticism. They are looking for personal essays, short fiction, illustration and photography. They pay $1.00 per word for work up to 3,500 words. Details here.

Antithesis is a graduate run arts and humanities journal that is published annually in association with The University of Melbourne’s School of Culture and Communication. Contributors do not have to be students at the University to be published in the journal. They want scholarly essays, reviews, creative nonfiction, short fiction, poetry, artwork, and more. They pay $50 per piece. Details here.

Bright Wall/Dark Room is an online magazine that is dedicated to “exploring the relationship between cinema and the business of being alive.” They publish profiles, interviews, personal essays, cultural criticism, formal analysis, and humor pieces. Their critical essays are generally 1,500 to 3,000 words long. They pay $50 per essay. For details, refer to this page.

Exeunt is an online theatre and performance magazine for quality theatre essays, long-form writing, criticism, interviews, and podcasts. They are “open to everything from in-depth academic explorations of interesting topics, to visual responses to performances, to interviews, to rants, to games.” One payment report indicates that they pay $0.10 per word. To contact them, visit this page.

HowlRound is a “free and open platform for theatremakers worldwide.” It is based out of Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. They are looking for writers who are actively involved in theatre. They pay $150 for essays (1,500 to 2,000 words), $50 for blogs (750 to 1000 words), and $100 for NewCrit reviews (1,000 to 1,500 words). To learn more, refer to this page.

The Point is a Chicago-based print and digital magazine of “philosophical writing on everyday life and culture.” Each issue of the magazine contains three sections which are essays, symposium and reviews. Print essays are 4,000 to 7,000 words long, symposium articles and reviews are 1,500 to 3,000 words long. They pay authors whose articles are published in the print journal. One writer reports that they pay a flat $700 for “Symposium” essays. To learn more, refer to this page.

n+1 is a magazine about “literature, culture and politics.” They feature a limited number of pieces in their magazine which is published three times a year, and a wider range of work in their online-only section. Writers can send “new fiction, essays, criticism and translation” to submissions@nplusonemag.com. Currently, they are not accepting “poetry, art, illustration, or interview submissions.” According to reports, they pay 4 cents per word. To find out more about n+1, refer to this page.

Westerly Magazine publishes short stories, poetry, memoir and creative nonfiction, essays and literary criticism. Their reviews are between 500-700 words, to be published online or in print. They pay AUD75 for reviews, AUD75-100 for poetry, and AUD150 for features and short stories. Their style guide is quite specific about submissions. Details here.

Cineaste offers social, political and aesthetic perspective on cinema. Book reviews should deal with newly published books (or up to two years old), and may be single-book or multiple-book reviews. They encourage review-essays in which the discussion serves as a vehicle for a broader treatment of ideas or issues, and individual book reviews should be 1,000-1,500 words. They also publish feature articles, interviews, film reviews, DVD and Blu-Ray reviews, and columns. Pay is $18 for Short Take reviews, $36 for book or DVD reviews (in the case of book or DVD reviews posted on their website as Web Exclusives, no cash payment is offered), $45 for film reviews and short articles, columns, sidebar interviews, or essays, and $90 for feature articles or interviews. Details here.

Westerly Magazine publishes short stories, poetry, memoir and creative nonfiction, essays and literary criticism. Their reviews are between 500-700 words, to be published online or in print. They pay AUD75 for reviews, AUD75-100 for poetry, and AUD150 for features and short stories. Their style guide is quite specific about submissions. Details here.

 

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