Submissions FAQ
AT THE MOMENT
We are accepting pitches for our Winter 2025 issue, entitled Prodigal Grace. Please read a description of the issue here. Essays that engage with the questions presented in the issue description will be accepted with a deadline of January 24, 2025. (We prefer pitches be sent prior to drafts, but will also read drafts.)
We are also accepting pitches for our weekly newsletter on a rolling basis. Poetry submissions are currently closed.
If you have any questions, please email us at fareforwardjournal (at)gmail.com with the email subject line Submission Question.
Do you accept unsolicited submissions?
Yes, we accept all submissions for consideration. But we prefer pitches, so we can work with you as you develop your piece.
We will let you know whether or not your submission or pitch is accepted in 2–3 weeks. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide feedback on unaccepted pitches and submissions.
We will consider work previously published elsewhere if 1) the audience of the previous place of publication was significantly different from ours, and 2) you can make a compelling case for why you want your piece published in Fare Forward. You will also need to receive written permission for republication from the original publication.
Who do you accept pitches from?
Everyone! We ask you to keep our editorial policy, as outlined below, in mind, but you do not have to be a professional writer or a particular kind of person to write for Fare Forward. We enjoy working with younger/less experienced writers and will be happy to give you the editorial support you need. We also enjoy working with professional writers, academics, and interesting people of all kinds.
How much do you pay? Fare Forward is a not-for-profit publication, so our fees are not competitive with big national publications. Our editors work for free, and sometimes some writers write for us for free. However, we have committed to paying all of our writers for our quarterly issues beginning in 2023, so please get in touch!
What can I pitch you on?
Currently, you can pitch us on reviews, essays, and poetry. Fare Forward reviews are published in our weekly newsletter, and should be around 800 to 1,200 words in length. If you want to review a work for us, be prepared to engage with the ideas the author or creator presents—we don’t need you to give it a thumbs up or down.
Essays are published in our quarterly issues, which in 2024 will be published online only. They can be anywhere from 1,500 to 5,000 words. Our issues are themed, so check back to this page to find out what our current theme is before sending us a pitch.
We publish poetry mostly in our issues but occasionally in our newsletter; our poetry editor will work with you to find the best fit for your work if it’s accepted for publication.
All pitches should be sent to fareforwardjournal (at) gmail.com.
And what is your editorial policy?
Fare Forward is a review of ideas—in whatever form those ideas are expressed, whether books, music, art, movies, or beyond. (Though in practice, we most often review books.) We welcome and encourage a broad range of Christian perspectives, asking only that, for publication in our journal, articles and reviews fall within the bounds of orthodoxy as expressed by the Nicene Creed.
The editors of Fare Forward believe that Christian faith can and should provide a lens for viewing all of life. Our editorial stance can perhaps best be summed up in the phrase “thick doctrine, deep practice.” By thick doctrine, we mean that we embrace an intellectually rigorous view of the Christian life of the mind informed by the rich tradition of Christian thought through the ages. Deep practice means that we believe Christian faith should deeply transform the way we live, leading us to intentionally cultivate community and service through liturgy and action, as well as thought.
What that means in practice is that, to borrow from T. S. Eliot, we publish thoughtful, carefully argued writing that appeals to “the interests of any intelligent person with literary taste.” We seek to engage not only with the current mainstream of thought and culture, but also with the works of the past that remain relevant and worthy of our attention.
What don’t you publish?
Good question. We do not publish:
• Pieces with excessive or unexplained Christian jargon
• Pieces concerned with intramural Christian debates
• Articles focused exclusively on current events or political debates
• Subject matter too rarefied to be of interest to a good portion of our readers, or writing that is too technical to be understood by non-experts
• Intentionally provocative or aggressive arguments
• Academic papers
• Fiction (currently)
