About Us: Submission Guidelines
What we are looking for:
It's not about the destination, it's about the experience.
artist-at-large.com is not about travel writing!
It's about writing with a focus on place.
artist-at-large.com is accepting literary and creative writing (non-fiction) and art project submissions that define the experience of travel, not the itinerary.
From kimba's blog:
Travel + Leisure has no place for the kind of writing on the site and much of what people submit is not the kind of work I publish. I'm not publishing work about the next big travel adventure. I'm publishing work that should take the reader on an inner journey, a thought provoking one. The only thing that is really hard to explain to potential writers is that I really want to write, and publish, moments. Zen moments. Colorful moments. 150 - 500 words on making eye contact with a stranger. Or how a place smells. Or a description of the color of a place. How you felt when you got ripped-off. How you felt when someone graced you with kindness. And only one sensory experience at a time, not all of them. Focus. I don't care about itineraries. I don't care about the plane ride (unless it's a story in and of itself). I don't care about what you did from sunup to sunset. I want to know what you did between 1:12 and 1:14pm. I care about the people my writers meet, the food they eat, and the color of the places they visit.
Samples of this might be the story on Time Travel in Avignon, Alone in Marseille, and most of the other pieces in the Provence section, or the Whatchou lookin'at, bitch? or the Ocean Beach pieces in San Francisco. And of course, the page on the site with the most daily hits, the one on Saint-Denis.
Writing should be honest, detailed and informative, whether that information is travel related, environmentally descriptive, emotionally revealing or relating to art or personalities met on the road.
artist-at-large.com is looking for:
- We are looking for literary/creative writing (non-fiction) feature submissions created specifically for artist-at-large.com.
- Focused travel, art and food writing and columnists for ongoing articles with a personal perspective.
- One-paragraph restaurant reviews for regions already listed on the site. (Read ones already on site to get an idea of what we're looking for). We use these to round out the regional sections, so that travelers can find a broad spectrum of information about a place.
- We will consider short art films or Flash projects relating to a specific place
- Interviews: artists interviewing artists
- MailArt and Postcards - with a story about an experience at the location.
- White Papers: features or shorts that go into more detail about any of the places visited or people of a region discussed on this site. Example: If you have done a well-written paper on the Bauhaus, German Expressionism, etc. it could be used in the Berlin section, Maybeck and/or Morgan in Berkeley, the Beats in San Francisco, any biographies of the artists and writers (locals or expats) living in Paris, etc., etc. ... (example: there is one on Saint-Denis in the Paris section)
- Food for Thought: social commentary, advice to younger artists, how do today's headlines affect you as an artist, etc.
- Pieces that use older paintings or works of art as the jumping off point for the story (example: the piece on Cafe de Van Gogh) or writings about the paintings themselves, or your experience in viewing the painting for the first time.
We would hope that artists and creative people from around the world would want to participate. We do not want to be US-centric.
We are 'WAY' open to interpretation.
We do accept multiple submissions on a place. Say you've written about your experience of going to Chartres Cathedral, we will consider it even though we've already got a piece. We want to show different perspectives, different experiences. Someone may love Prague, while others hate it. There must have been one experience that can explain why.
It is understood that written literary work may be edited in cooperation with the writer. Writers are expected to go through the editorial process (which includes possible rewrites to get rid of some of those I's).
Art work and word art will not be edited, but will be accepted on the basis of the quality of the piece.
Do we pay? (New policy as of December 16.2006)
Unfortunately, no. We cannot pay cash at this time for your submitted pieces.
BUT, for accepted feature writers or on-going contributors we can offer a free web-site either on the artist-at-large.com domain to market or feature your work either as a static site or as a WordPress blog. This is a $40 - $200 a year value. Check out the Artist Directory web-hosting features here for details (the features would be the same for site contributors). Sites would only be added to the Artist Directory if the work displayed on the site is up to the standards of the directory. All Blog sites will be added to the blogroll. In either case, acceptance of one feature piece per year is required for continued service.
If your writing/work is accepted to the site, you may reference it for your resume and use artist-at-large.com as a reference for future work. We hope to be archiving the pages so the URLs will be available for the life of the site.
Artists and writers retain all copyrights to their work. But work accepted to artist-at-large.com will not be available for publishing in its original form on other web sites or in printed publications - except for the artist's own portfolio/site - unless there is a notation of 'previously published of artist-at-large.com' with a link back to the site. Links, of course, are encouraged and may be pointed to any work on artist-at-large.com.
Detailed Guidelines:
First and Foremost: Do NOT, I repeat Do NOT, send attachments of mpegs, jpegs, whatevers when first contacting us. All text should be in the body of the email.
Attachments will not be opened and will be deleted upon arrival if a submission note is not present in the body of the email! (This is a small form of virus control).
PLEASE: Do Not send URLs of previous published works as submissions! We are looking for original material that takes to heart the mission of artist-at-large.com.
When making a submission, please tell us a little about yourself, and what makes you an artist-at-large.
Real-Time/Written After the Fact Travelogues:
If you are taking a laptop and/or digital camera on your next trip, or if you plan on making fairly regular stops at internet cafes along the way, and would like to make entries from the road to artist-at-large.com, please start your own Blog in the World Cafe /OR/ sign up for artist-at-large.com web-hosting and blog your journey!
Note: If you would like to be considered for an artist-at-large.com web-site check out the submission guidelines here.
MailArt/Postcard Submissions:
You would really love to write for artist-at-large.com but would rather just send a postcard instead? Go for it! Postcards will be scanned both front and back and posted in the 'Postcards from the Road' section. Write your story on the card and then send it to the address at the bottom of this page. (Creativity and MailArt highly recommended!) Multi-lingual encouraged!
Postcards without stories or generic MailArt will not be published. Sorry.
Digital MailArt/Postcards may be sent via email.
Not going on holiday? Send us a postcard from where you live! Tell us why we should visit your region of the world!
Interviews
Artists interviewing other artists, musicians interviewing painters, sculptors interviewing scientists, whatever the whim or chance encounter provides! Interviews can be a few sentences or in-depth. An interview should have a photo or two to accompany it. Does not need to be submitted as a proposal first, but understand that it may or may not be accepted onto the site. Please follow the 'Written Submission' guidelines below.
If you or your project would like to be interviewed by kimba, please send review materials (CDs, books, previous magazine articles, publicity materials, etc.) to the snailmail address at the bottom of this page.
Written Exhibition or Club Reviews and Time Sensitive Material:
All reviews and material that would be considered to be time sensitive should be posted in the World Cafe Forums or in a blog at the WorldCafe.
Written Submissions:
All written proposals and submissions should be made via email, if possible.
Written submissions should be written and unformatted in a text editor, such as Notepad.
Writers making submissions MUST be willing to go through the editorial process from beginning to end.
Photojournal Submissions:
Photojournal submissions will only be considered if they are focused on one topic (Paris is not a topic, Pere Lachaise is a topic. Notre Dame is a topic. Graffiti is a topic. Florence is not a topic, Piazza della Signorina is a topic.) AND there has to be a well written story or some kind of word piece to accompany the submission.
Story/words may be written by a second person.
Submit a proposal for a photojournal piece by sending a written proposal and your best photo indicative of the series via email. Photojournal pieces can be a single photo by itself, or a number of photographs.
You may also submit photojournal pieces via snailmail, see address below.
Generic photojournal submissions might want to consider submitting for artist-at-large.com web-hosting.
Submit questions and submissions to:
'submit at artist-at-large.com'
To send postcards or submissions via snailmail, send it to:
artist-at-large.com / kimba
P.O. Box 191473
San Francisco, CA 94119
Work arriving by snailmail will NOT be returned without an enclosed SASE (self-addresses-stamped-envelope).
Submit a comment, information, or a story.
See our Submission Guidelines for details.
Make a comment, request or offer more information on the site at the WorldCafe!
Keep up to date with what's new on the site by checking in with kimba's frequently updated blog - On the Road.