Submissions

Thank you for your interest. Avidly is current accepting limited submissions for the following categories. Instructions and advice below: please read!

Vernon and Irene Castle
  • First Sentence Fridays: Reach out if you have a book coming out this fall! Send pub date and link to book. First Sentence Fridays gives authors a chance to talk about their prose and their experiences of writing. Spots limited to the number of Fridays; preference given to books that are: humanist, fun, small-press (or small circulation), nerdy, C19, feminist, gorgeous. Define those terms however you want!
  • Source Texts: A new Avidly category! The short essays (200-400 words) in Source Texts describe personal encounters with beloved works of criticism in any genre. 
  • #HairStudies: Essays about important hair events in our lives and the culture around us. We’d love to hear about your grandmother, your personal hair icon, your personal hair trauma, or an amazing hair moment in a show, movie, or video. 
  • Getting Us Through: Essays about a habit, practice, or aesthetic experience that helps you manage these hard times.
  • Teacher, Teacher: Specific, practical, and also possibly theoretical strategies for teaching. These can be step-by-step instructions! We all need help! Send us your tips!
  • Wide, Wide, World: Essays about understanding the world around us.

 

General Submission Guidelines:

  • Send to sarahmesle AT gmail.com with the subject line: “PITCH: Category, Title” 
  • All Avidly essays should be under 1000-1200 words except for emergencies
  • We can accept very limited pitches, especially for time sensitive criticism. 
  • If you don’t hear back in a week or so, feel free to nudge!

 

Raimonda Orselli Buitoni dancing with the Katherine Dunham troupe

Pitching Advice for New Writers:

  • Pitches should be short, “in voice,” (that is: in the style that the essay will use) and fun to read.
  • Avidly essays are short, so your topic should be focused. Draw on your expertise and do not feel you need to summarize your whole research project—that’s a recipe for stress! Keep it fun, and let yourself make clear, strong, specific claims. 
  • Here are some things to avoid: overly broad topics, overuse of “to be” verbs, over use of abstract nouns in the subject position, piled-on prepositional phrases, too many semi-colons or em-dashes (we are sorry).
  • Remember that your reader is likely to be: busy, tired, reading on her phone, avoiding work, distracted, generally seeking joy/pleasure/insight/fun!
  • If you are new to publishing or journalistic/non-specialist writing,  your best bet may be to submit a full or partial draft. This gives us the best chance to see your writing and you the best chance to figure out what you need to say.