Submissions & Future Issues

You are cordially invited to submit an article, photograph, poem, graphic artwork, etc. to our magazine. If you would like to contribute an article, please familiarize yourself with our Writers' Guidelines and then send us your article idea via our web form. You may also contact us or make submissions by calling 541-937-5221 or writing Communities Magazine, 81868 Lost Valley Lane, Dexter, OR 97431.

Below is our most recent Call for Articles, including upcoming issue themes and general information about submitting articles and photos.

Call for Articles

Please send your article idea by Friday, March 22, 2013.

Your final article must reach us by Friday, May 24, 2013.

1. Theme articles: Youth in Community

possible questions to address (feel free to pick and choose or innovate):

• What are your experiences raising (or helping raise) children in intentional community?
• What are the differences between childhoods spent in and out of intentional community?
• Can the positive aspects of a communal childhood be replicated outside of an intentional community setting? How?
• Whether within or outside of intentional community, can educational programs for children provide an experience of more authentic community?
• What are your experiences growing up in community (intentional or otherwise)? What did you learn?
• What roles do younger generations play in community?
• How are people in their teens and twenties helping shape the present and future of communities and the communities movement?
• What role does "youthfulness" play in community? Can community encourage youthfulness, regardless of chronological age?

Please remember that we are looking for stories, personal experiences, and concrete examples in your answers--these are what will make your ideas and observations most "real" and relevant to readers.

2. We are also seeking articles about:

• Creating community in your neighborhood;
• Starting a new community;
• Process and communication issues in community; and
• Seeking community to join.

Suggested submission length is from 300 to 2500 words. We invite submissions ranging from short vignettes to extensively-developed articles, and also invite suggestions of recommended resources and article leads. We’re seeking articles written in a reader-friendly, popular-magazine style, rather than in an academic style. We ask contributors to share stories and experiences, not just ideas; write about challenges, not just successes; and describe specific situations that will help your story come alive for the reader. Before you start writing, please familiarize yourself with our Writers' Guidelines--and let us know your article idea so that we can give feedback on how it may fit into Communities.

Contact Chris Roth, our editor, by email or call 541-937-5221.

If you don’t want to write an article but want to submit photos, please consult our Photo Guidelines.

Article and Photo Submissions

1. What "Submitting" an Article Means: We will promise to read your article, but we may respectfully decline it and not publish it, or save it and publish it in a future issue. We also reserve the right to edit, shorten, or revise your article. Most of the time we contact authors about this ahead of time and get their comments, corrections, etc.
2. Getting Permission Ahead of Time. Please send the article only when you have permission from anyone you need it from, such as fellow community members. We endeavor to present a diversity of views on community, including controversial or critical views, yet we hope to do so in a respectful and cooperative manner and prevent antagonistic back-and-forth dialog in our letters-to-the-editor section. If the article may provoke controversy or strong reactions, please share your draft with group members to get their input before sending it to us. (Please see our Writers' Guidelines for additional details.)
3. Publication Rights: Once your article appears in Communities, we own first North American Publishing Rights. This means your article appears in Communities the first time it appears in North America. In addition to appearing in Communities, your article may also appear on our website or in future compilations. You retain all other rights to it. If you’d like to use it elsewhere, you can, and we would appreciate your using an attribution line saying, “This article first appeared in Communities: Life in Cooperative Culture, (date); for further information on Communities: communities.ic.org.”

4. Photos: If we publish your article, we want to accompany it with compelling images that illustrate your subject. You know your subject best, so we are appealing to you for images. If others in your community like taking pictures, they might already have great images to go with your article. If you would like to submit an article but cannot supply photos, that’s fine; however, please give us plenty of advance notice so that if we use your article we can get an illustrator. We also appreciate an author photo to accompany your short (several-line) author bio.

   No matter how you send us your photos, please remember to include information for the caption of each photo, as well as the full name of whomever we should credit for the photo, including their community name. Also, if there are people in the photo, then get permission to use the photo in Communities magazine. A good caption includes the location, all the names of the people or group in the photo, and the date if that applies. Also, please prepare to send high resolution images; web photos rarely will be usable.

   Please consult our Photo Guidelines for full details about our photo needs. Thanks for your contributions, and have fun!

   Content of the submitted images: If the story is focused on a certain person or group, include a photograph of them. Always get as close to your subject as possible. Photographs of your subjects engaged in their work or in their environment make for interesting photos. We will assume that any people in your photos have already given you permission to appear in Communities magazine. If you think this will be a problem, please take care of it before sending us photos.

   You may also include additional, ambient photographs of a home, a table setting, food, art, or landscape, along with your people shots. We are a magazine about people and communities, but every picture does not need to have people in it. Maybe the image is a row of colorful shoes next to a playground that suggests children, for example.

   Modern digital cameras put the power of making beautiful images in all our hands. Use the power and have fun!

5. Cover photos:

   If you are interested in submitting images for the cover, please study the Call for Articles posted for that issue. The best way to achieve a winning cover is to study the magazine. Be aware that your image must work behind the masthead, cover titles, etc.—normally the top of the image should not be vital to the image meaning. We are seeking thought-provoking approaches to visually communicating community—images which speak in new and interesting ways. Surprise us. Think about what you would want to see/say on a newsstand. Feel free to contact the Art Director with images or suggestions. You will need at least a 6 MB camera at the highest resolution of capture for cover photos.

Chris Roth
Editor, Communities