CONTRIBUTING ART & WRITING

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We’re looking for great stories and art.

OUR PHILOSOPHY
RQ is a quarterly print-only journal of art and ideas from Philadelphia, but more than anything it’s a network of people, and you’re welcome to join that intentional community. Please familiarize yourself with our philosophy by taking the time, ideally, to read the magazine.* You can also read excerpts of all articles online.

We are publishing RQ in part because we’d like to promote regional arts and culture, makers, and entrepreneurs, be part of the national discourse on important issues, build a community of thoughtful people, and reclaim discourse from the highly-politicized, rage-stoking space of social media.

We currently have more subscribers outside of Pennsylvania than in it, so please know you’re writing for a national audience.

We are not afraid of heterodox thinkers, long pieces, or essays and articles about complicated or nuanced issues that need more research and good faith discussion. It’s okay not to know the answer, but please have a good question!

We are not interested in pieces that shame, blame, or grandstand. We’d like to see pieces that open up conversations rather than shutting them down, and if you need touchstones, try reading “The Smug Style of American Politics” and this New York Times opinion piece from a social justice activist on outrage and cancel culture.

If you’re a conservative, get in touch. There are fellow libertarians here. Some of us are pretty progressive. None of that preclude us from wanting to hear what you have to say.

We’re a liberal magazine, in that we believe in the liberal values of free speech and open inquiry.


WHO WE PUBLISH
While we’re giving preference to regional writers, we’re open in particular when it comes to cultural criticism and ideas to a wide array of people. You don’t have to be a professional writer. But you do have to have something to say.

THEMES & TIMING FOR VOLUME VI

SUMMER 2024 // Waves // SUBMISSION DEADLINE: June 10

Oceanic changes undulate around us. Brain waves, waves of culture, political waves, waves of salty water toss us to and fro. Summer is for swimming and making sure those waves of radiation warm and inform but don’t burn. What wave are you trying to catch?

FALL 2025 // Conservation // SUBMISSION DEADLINE: July 15

As the world order and our culture shift daily under our feet, what are the values or ideas that are worth holding on to? What do we jettison? How do we biologically and psychologically handle our hyper-novel modern environment? How will we conserve our global home for future generations while we simultaneously raise living standards for more people? How does conservative thinking both hold us back, and also hold us together?

WINTER 2025 // Denial // SUBMISSION DEADLINE: OCTOBER 1

We tell ourselves stories all the time to make sense of our world. Is that in and of itself a form of denial, a form of survival, or truth telling, or all three? What most needs to be declared “untrue” at the moment? What should we be denying ourselves, and what should be we indulging in? Can we deny the truths of other people? What is truth anyway? When we exist in a bubble of any kind, are we denying the rest of reality in a way that makes us complicit in the current culture of polarization? What about persuasion?

SPRING 2025 // Saturation // SUBMISSION DEADLINE: JANUARY 15

Drenched in color. Drenched in sweat. High-resolution and dripping with detail. When something is completely saturated, it can’t absorb anymore. What is the current firehose of information and media and maelstrom doing to our brains? When is it possible to take in new information? To what extent is the ease of making much art—the much lower bars to record, to publish—a good or bad thing?

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR:

  • Artwork and photography from regional artists to accompany articles and essays. Send 3 - 5 images for consideration and keep the themes in mind. We may do an artist spotlight, we may pair artists with writers to come up with joint projects, and you can approach us as a team if you’d like; send a three-paragraph pitch. Please know that your work may be paired with typography, we may use details or full pieces and will coordinate with you on how to incorporate the work.

  • Photography that captures the spirit of the region.

  • Fiction, including experimental fiction and erotica, is welcome. Please send pieces of 500 to 2,000 words.

  • Personal essays or articles for our “Switchbacks” section that relate points of inflection in a person’s life that have taken them to an unexpected and new place. Please send full pieces for consideration.

  • Essays, book reviews, provocations, cultural criticism and think pieces of 500 to 3,500 words (We’re themed, so make sure you tell us when you submit why it fits the theme). You can write about big issues, movies, TV, books, art exhibitions or anything else that has sparked a good idea. We’re particularly interested here in exploring the media and meaning crises, and nuanced ways to understand the current culture war. Please send full pieces for consideration.

  • Long-form profiles of regional artists, particularly those who are mid-to-late career. They can work in any discipline. Please send a two-paragraph pitch about your credentials and your proposed artist.

  • Recommendations on what we might cover in our “RECOMMENDATION” section, which features regional makers and experiences. We won’t accept copy from PR firms.

  • Recommendations on what we might cover in our “DESTINATION” section, which features hidden treasures in the region, especially those that have been around for a long time. We won’t accept copy from PR firms.

  • We are not accepting unsolicited poetry at this time, though we do have an ongoing poetry series in the magazine.

TONE & STYLE

It’s okay to have a distinctive voice! But we’re also looking for writers who will largely forgo snark, condescension, bullying, point-scoring, self-serving virtue signaling, etc., and will instead try on for size some finesse, awe, grace, wit, and humility. It’s okay to have questions and not answers. Ideas and issues are complicated, and they take time to unwind.

We’re also looking for people who aren’t afraid to write a piece even if people within their bubble might disagree with it. Two great examples are here in The Atlantic and here in Seattle’s Weekly, The Stranger. Both are written by hardcore liberals who are willing to call on other liberals to be more rigorous with their arguments.

Be wild, be funny, be weird, be contrarian. The worst we can say is ‘no.’

COMPENSATION

This is a volunteer-run project, and it’s a barn-raising in every way. Printing bills are expensive. But we know your time is valuable and that art isn’t free. That’s why we’ve got a subscription-based model and we don’t give our content away online.

We typically give honorariums of $50 to $150 depending on the piece and its length, as well as for artwork contributions that illustrate articles. Longer, solicited profiles or articles will be compensated at 10 cents per word, to be determined at the time we agree on a proposal and consult our current funds. If there’s a piece that absolutely needs to be written but would require more time and research, we’re willing to look into grants that may fund the work; we are a fiscally-sponsored project of Cultureworks in Philadelphia, and can accept tax-deductible contributions.

*If you are suffering from financial hardship and can’t afford a single issue at $15, you may send an email to editor@rootquarterly.com and we’ll work something out.

HOW TO SUBMIT

Take in all of the above, do a little reading, cozy up with an issue.

Then you can send us an email keeping all those guidelines and principles in mind. If you’re sending a personal essay or cultural criticism and we haven’t worked with you before, please send your full piece as a submission and a 75- to 100-word contributor bio.

We thank you in advance for considering joining our community.

RQ operates with a volunteer editorial staff, but we have direct production and business expenses, including paying contributors. If you’d like to help us fund the next print run, pay writers, or otherwise invest in our operations, please see options for supporting us here.