Submission Guidelines

Submissions are open from July 1 through August 1, 11:59PM CDT.
See below the link to the submissions portal.

Humans and Nature Press Digital publishes creative work that explores and promotes human responsibilities in relation to the whole community of life.

Ongoing publication themes include: relationships with and among animals and plants, land and water, care, climate change, community, culture, healing, justice, kinship, language, practice, reciprocity, sacredness, and sovereignty.

Additionally, in connection with the expertise and interests of our Editorial Advisory Board and the Center’s current programmatic initiatives, we also welcome work that focuses on the themes of:

Seasons of life: What happens when we attend to cyclical patterns, sunrise to sunset, new to full moon, growth to harvest, the cycle of a year, the journey of a life? What does a seasonal ending or beginning impart? We’re looking for your stories and ideas that speak to the seasons of life and what seasonality means for connection and reconnection at this time.

Deep time: How do we reimagine our understanding of time? For most of us, the clock rules our lives. But what if we lived by biological time, geological time, cosmic time, or even ancestral time? How might we break out of our experience of time as an arrow? Is it possible for us to experience time as a spiral, a loop, or something else entirely?

We are accepting submissions from July 1 – August 1, 2023. Please read our complete guidelines below before submitting your work. Honoraria are given for work published by Humans and Nature Press Digital.

We are accepting submissions for the following categories:

●  Essays: We welcome submissions of original essays, narrative journalism, experimental nonfiction, lyric essays, and personal essays that have not been published elsewhere (including personal blogs, websites, and social media). Essays should be 1,000–2,000 words.

●  Poetry:  Please submit up to 4 poems that have not been published elsewhere (including personal blogs, websites, and social media).

●  Artwork: We consider any form of visual or auditory art which can be captured and shared on our digital platform. Formats include photography, sculpture, paintings, collage, sketches, film, music, cartoon, etc. Please include an artist’s statement of 750–1,500 words describing the work.

We accept only one submission per person within a submission period. We do welcome multimedia artwork, but please select one category for your submission: essay, poetry, or artwork.

Submission and Editing Process:

Please submit documents in a .doc format or as a JPG file via our Submittable account. When you submit, include a bio, photo, and cover letter. We will edit your work in either Microsoft Word or Google Docs. We only publish accepted pieces that have also completed all steps in the Humans and Nature Press Digital publication process, which will be detailed in your publication contract.

Simultaneous submissions are welcome. If you have simultaneously submitted elsewhere, let us know in your cover letter that you have done so and please withdraw it from the Center’s Submittable as soon as you have agreed to its publication elsewhere.

Returning contributors are welcome to submit.

Contributors receive an honorarium of $500 upon publication. 

Submissions are open from July 1 through August 1, 11:59PM CDT.