guest post submission faqs

What kind of writing are you looking for?

Our focus has always been on strong literary writing about grief, baby-death, loss, and the issues around being a babylost parent.  We don't just want to hear about death -- although death is a big part of all our stories. We want to hear about life. Your womanhood, your manhood, your stance. Identity and work and hopes and rebuilding and medical hoops and love and luck and how your world view has changed and keeps changing. We are always looking for strong writing that prompt others to consider universal themes about personal issues. We don't generally go for the political, nor do we do angel-talk. We were founded as a place that hosts other conversations about baby-death. We do not publish birth stories, obituaries, or eulogies, nor do we publish self-help, advice, or educational material.

We do our best to provide a diverse selection of writing by both mothers and fathers across the spectrum of loss -- including stillbirth, premature birth, the NICU, and neonatal loss after birth among others. This goal of balance factors into the voices we choose to for guest posts. Our selections are based on both strong writing as well as representing the full spectrum of experiences.

At this time, we are not able to accept essays written by those who have not experienced the loss of a baby firsthand.

What are your submission guidelines?

We ask each submission to be a finished, edited, fully-written post for Glow in the Woods. The best-received essays tend to run anywhere from 400 to 1200 words on average. But we judge on the strength and merit of each piece rather than length. We ask you not to exceed 1800 words.  

Glow in the Woods only accepts work contributed by the writer. Glow in the Woods expects work submitted to be wholly your own. We will not tolerate plagiarism. Any piece published that is found to contain lines or excerpts not attributed will be immediately removed from Glow in the Woods without exception.  

We do, however, accept joint submissions that fall into our vision and philosophy. We try to spread themes and similar posts out over time, but we encourage our writers to respond to other posts on Glow in the Woods. If you are choosing to respond to a piece already published on Glow in the Woods, please link to that piece in your submission. Place the link in parentheses, and the editor will hyperlink it if your essay is chosen.

By submitting to Glow in the Woods, you are confirming that you have the rights to the works and that you grant Glow in the Woods one-time and archival publication rights to the work you send. If your work is not accepted, it will not be used in any other capacity by Glow in the Woods or its reviewers.

You can submit your piece for consideration to Glow in the Woods on the page "Submit a Guest Post." 

Do you edit work?

We do not "change" or advise on work submitted; however, we will spell check and edit for major grammatical errors that do not affect the whole of the piece. All major changes will be sent back to the writer before publication. Occasionally, the editor may suggest publishing an excerpt of what has been submitted. This would only be done in consultation with you.

If you are unsure about the questions we include at the end of each post, the editor and other writers can pull out those questions from the universal theme in your piece.

Do you accept previously published pieces?

We accept pieces that have been published on a personal blog, but we will not accept pieces previously published by literary magazines, on-line or in print, or published works. We expect all rights and permissions to be granted before submitting to Glow in the Woods. If rights and permissions are not needed, please give us the link to where it was originally published. If you reworked or rewrote from a piece or pieces that appeared on your personal blog, you do not need to send us links to all the pieces you may have used.

Besides my piece, what other information do you need?

When submitting a piece, please include a brief biography (two to three lines), include a link to your personal blog if you want to be linked there, and any other information you feel would be important so the Glow community can get to know you better. Please let us know how you would like to be identified on Glow—first names, nicknames, and pseudonyms are all acceptable.

When will I be notified if I am selected?

We will notify writers anywhere from two weeks to one month from submission, though it may be longer depending on the volume of submissions at any given time. When you are notified if your post was selected, we will let you know what month your essay will be published.

Due to the volume of submissions we receive, we will only contact you if your post has been selected. If you do not hear from Glow in the Woods, please know that we appreciate you submitting your piece, but it was not selected in this round. If your work is not accepted, please do not be dissuaded from submitting another piece in the future.

If you have any other questions, please comment on this post, or contact us. We'd love to hear from you.