We’re currently reading for our inaugural issue (Winter 2026) through October 31, and we welcome submissions in two forms:
Field Notes (300–1,000 words)
Short, lyrical pieces reflecting everyday experience. This is the place for:
Brief essays or vignettes rooted in a specific place, encounter, or practice
Field notes from land, water, or animal relationships
Short rituals, seasonal observations, or embodied practices
Small guides tied to regeneration of land or care for animals and people
Micro-memoir, poems, or prose fragments that feel like a pretty rock you have to pick up and put in your pocket
Essays (1,500–5,000 words)
Longer nonfiction that has room to develop: narrative essay, memoir, reported pieces, place-based writing, or reflective nonfiction that explores our relationship to nature, community, embodiment, or regenerative ways of living. We’re especially drawn to work that:
Moves between the personal and the larger ecological or cultural question
Takes its time without meandering
Trusts the reader to stay with it (restoring our attention spans through long-form reading and writing is one of our main goals!)
What we’re looking for across both forms:
Work that regenerates rather than depletes. We love to read writing that slows the reader down instead of racing them back to the scroll. We’re interested in stories that tell about interactions with the more-than-human world, embodied and somatic ways of knowing, land and animal relationships, community and belonging, radical approaches to restoring dignity and humanity to work, ways of mindfully disconnecting from technology, and the work of repairing all that has been lost through distraction from what truly nourishes.
AI policy
We do not accept any material that was written by AI.
We will absolutely NOT put your work into AI for any reason.
On editing
Accepted pieces go through a light editorial pass—copyediting, a factual review, and a final proofread—with any substantive suggestions made collaboratively and always with your approval before publication. We ask that submissions arrive close to final; Embers is not a developmental editing service, though if you're looking for that kind of deeper structural support, Beacon Editing offers it separately.
On compensation
Embers Journal is a new publication, and at this stage we’re not yet able to offer payment for accepted pieces. We’re upfront about this because we respect your time and your work, and we want writers to submit with full information. As Embers grows, paid contribution is something we hope to work toward, and we’ll update this page when that changes. In the meantime, contributors retain all rights beyond first publication and are welcome to include Embers as a publication credit, and we’ll actively help promote your piece and your other work through the journal’s channels.
Submission guidelines:
Previously unpublished work only
Simultaneous submissions welcome, with notice if accepted elsewhere
Please include a word count and a brief bio (2–3 sentences) with your submission
Response time: Expect a response for pieces we’ve accepted within 4 weeks of submission.
We read blind, and welcome writers at every stage—widely published or submitting for the first time. We especially welcome submissions from those who don’t necessarily consider themselves writers but who nevertheless have a story to tell.
Send submissions to embers.submissions@gmail.com.