Article Submissions
After reviewing our guidelines below, please email submissions to submissions@inthesetimes.com.
An editor will review all submissions and contact authors directly if interested in working with you. Please note that due to the large amount of submissions we receive, we cannot respond personally to all queries. We no longer accept mailed submissions.
With very few exceptions, we do not publish material that has already been published in print or online. If your submission has been published already, please detail exactly where and when. If this is a simultaneous submission, please note. Once your submission is approved for publication by an In These Times editor, exclusivity going forward is assumed. Exceptions are occasionally approved by the editor.
Some submissions may be rejected for publication in the magazine, but ideal for publication on InTheseTimes.com. We have a limited budget for web-only stories, and are particularly interested in those that will fit on our workers' rights blog, Working In These Times.
Please include a phone number where you can be reached with your submission. Thanks in advance for submitting your work to In These Times.
GUIDELINES
In These Times is a space for stories that expose the influence of corporations over our government and our lives, and that inform and advance movements for social, environmental, gender, economic and racial justice. All pitches will be reviewed through this lens.
FEATURES
In These Times’ feature well is an eclectic space for investigations, reported stories and thinkpieces between 1,200 to 4,000 words. In addition to traditional features, we’re looking for stories that lend themselves to nontraditional formatting: Q&As, photo essays, infographics, comics journalism, etc.
DISPATCHES
Think of this section as an inversion of New Yorker’s “Talk of the Town.” Instead of write-ups of NYC happenings, we provide dispatches from around the country on events outside the media spotlight. This is where we showcase the many Americas that don't get featured in the coastal media. Each story leads with a short vignette, scene or conversation, and then expands out into reporting or commentary. While the topic will often be local organizing, activism or politics, there’s room for eclecticism. You might lead with telling conversation you had with someone in your life, a stockholders’ meeting, an exchange between two anchors on the local news.
How to pitch: Pitch a scene that has political resonance (whether overt or subtle) and explain how you would build a story around it. The event can be upcoming or recent, but should not be widely reported. You must be able to directly observe it, whether in person or by video/audio (no secondhand reporting). These are 600-800 word essays, first or third person. Please note if you require travel funding.
UP FOR DEBATE
In These Times prides itself on providing a space for conversation and debate on the left. In our “Up for Debate” section, we host three distinct takes on a question of pressing strategic interest to progressives. Past topics have included, for example, whether to deny fascists a platform and the costs and benefits of wind energy.
How to pitch: Pitch your distinct take on a topic on which there are multiple, valid but conflicting points of view within the Left. A timely hook is helpful but not required. What we don’t want are flash-in-the-pan kerfuffles—the question must have lasting relevance. In These Times will evaluate the pitch in part based on whether we can assemble a dialogue around it. Suggestions for people you’d like to debate are welcome but not required. Lengths are typically 600-750 words.
CULTURE
Our culture section offers a space for idea-driven writing with a distinct authorial voice. That may take the form of a personal essay, historical piece, thinkpiece on a cultural or political trend, or a review that uses one or several books, movies, or TV shows as a jumping-off point for your own argument. We believe that big ideas can be expressed in ways that are not lofty or ultra-academic, and that progressive cultural writing, at its best, relates politics to people’s lives and interests. Think Studs Terkel, Kurt Vonnegut or Alice Walker (all former In These Times contributors.)
How to pitch: Pieces range from 700-word reviews to 1,500-word essays, but most are in the 1,000-1,200-word range. Pitch 1-3 months in advance of any time-specific hook—an anniversary, movie release, book publication, etc. We are unlikely to accept reviews of already published books.
WORKING ITT
Our workers' rights blog, Working In These Times, covers workers' struggles in America and beyond. We're looking for reporting on and analysis of under-reported workplace struggles, whether workers are unionized, unionizing, or fighting wage theft, occupational hazards and other exploitative treatment. Pieces for Working In These Times are between 700 and 1,000 words (longer pieces are occasionally published), and pitches should be emailed directly to our Web Editor Sarah Lazare at sarah at inthesetimes dot com, with a subject line beginning "Working ITT pitch."
INTHESETIMES.COM
In These Times runs a range of reporting and commentary on our website. For stories reacting to breaking news, be prepared to file within a few hours of receiving the assignment and to provide same-day revisions. Time-sensitive web pitches should be emailed directly to our Web Editor Sarah Lazare at sarah at inthesetimes dot com, with a subject line beginning "Time-sensitive web pitch."