Submissions

Who We Publish:

CWS intends to create an entangled experience for its public audience by pairing water-related creative writings and artworks alongside academic scholarship and scientific research. In order to create this space, our submission guidelines are boundless. We offer a list of disciplines (see here) that can guide those who wish to publish their work here, but note that this list is non-restrictive meaning that if you have a compelling story about water, we want to hear from you. At this time, we are accepting and publishing works in English.

One imagined publishing process might be: You write a paper or work on a project in school at an undergraduate or graduate level. You’re not ready to submit for a conference or academic journal yet but want to work on it more and get feedback from the water community. We see ourselves as an in-between to help you develop the idea and continue on with it. 

We are especially thrilled to publish young scholars and activists, whether they are in formal educational settings or not, but publish work from folks at all stages of their career.

What We Publish:

We publish visual work, creative writing, and research & scholarship. To find the right submission for you, see below!

  • Visual work
    • In your submission, please send…
      • A maximum of five works, including the title, size, and medium of each work. Please send the highest resolution files you can.
      • A brief artist statement (300 words maximum)
  • Creative Writing
    • For Poetry, please send…
      • A selection of five works maximum
    • For Creative Writing, such as a short story, please send…
      • A sample of writing no longer than 2,500 words
  • Research & Scholarship
    • For Fieldwork, please send…
      • A less than 250-word pitch about your work, including an explanation of how you will make your work accessible to non-expert audiences
    • For a Project or Activist Event Description, please send…
      • A less than 250-word description of your project or event, explaining its significance and what others might take from it
    • For a Research Paper, please send…
      • A less than 250-word abstract of your work, including an explanation of how you will make your work accessible to non-expert audiences
  • What is eventually published on our blog could be as short as 500 words to longer than 2,500, if appropriate. We will work with you to determine the right length!

Submission Guidelines:

Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis.

Our review process is in two stages. First, we will evaluate whether or not your work is a good fit for the blog. Once we’ve determined that, we will work with you on an editorial process that will work for both us and you, including a timeline, and length of your work.

The timeline for the reviewing process is currently on a rolling basis and we anticipate that after submission, you will hear from us within two weeks.

To submit your work, please email culturalwaterstudies@gmail.com with the subject line “Submission,” including in the body of the email a PDF of your pitch or writing. Works of visual art should be attached in an appropriate file format (.jpg usually works well).

If you have any questions, you can email us. We are truly thrilled that you are considering submitting and we want to work with you.

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