Submission Guidelines
The Hawaii Women's Journal is a quarterly online news and literary magazine. We are a project of the Safe Zone Foundation (501c3), and currently no staff or contributors are compensated for their work. All efforts are voluntary labors of love, although we hope to change this in the future. Submitting excellent writing will help us in this endeavor, as will doing so with a positive, professional attitude. We are a new publication and are deeply appreciative of the enthusiasm from all our volunteers—editors and contributors alike.
Acceptances are rolling; however, here are the deadlines for consideration in upcoming issues:
November 2010-January 2011: Issue 4
deadline: Wednesday, 9/1/2010
February-April 2011: Issue 5
deadline: Wednesday, 12/1/2010
May-July 2011: Issue 6
deadline: Tuesday, 3/1/2011
Submissions are accepted for unspecified issues to give contributors time for necessary revision and to develop a cohesive aesthetic to each issue.
We are seeking submissions in the following categories: Features, Columns, Reviews, and Literary Magazine (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction). In general, we are looking for pieces that look out onto the world, rather than strictly within the self.
Please query Features, Columns, and Reviews with idea(s), clips and/or writing samples, and—if pertinent to your submission—professional qualifications and experience. Word counts are firm, unless editors have approved a specified extension on length. Any piece submitted “as is” is not accepted by the Hawaii Women’s Journal. All pieces are
subject to editorial review.
Features are 1600 words maximum (exceptions may be made upon approval). Topics: Global, National, and Local News, Reporting, Interview/Profile, and Commentary.
Columns are 700 words maximum (exceptions may be made upon approval). We love columns! Some columns have recurring monthly contributors, but we are open to considering any and all of your ideas. Some reoccurring columns we would like to develop that are open to all writers include:
• Going Places (Travel)
• First Writes (previously unpublished writers)
• Beauty/Fashion Lifestyle
• Green/Everything Eco
• Humor
• Nonprofit Corner
• Parenting/Mother and Fatherhood
• Pets
• Politics
• Relationships
• Technology
• Business/Finance
Reviews are 650 words maximum (exceptions may be made upon approval). Topics: Entertainment/Events, Film, Performance/Music, Books, and Art/Culture.
We also would like to have a section focusing on Youth. We want each issue to feature an open column of 600 words by one youth under the age of 18. For youth submissions, please submit entire column when querying.
We are also interested in features pertaining to current youth issues. Please query with ideas and writing samples.
For the Literary Magazine, please query with your completed poem, short fiction, personal essay, or other creative nonfiction piece (immersion, memoir, meditative, lyric, etc.). The maximum word count for short fiction and creative nonfiction is 3500 words (exceptions may be made upon approval). There is no word limit for poetry, but please don’t send us your 100-page manifesto: that is not a poem, that is a novel … in poems.
For Artists, Photographers, and Graphic Designers: Please submit work as high-resolution GIFs, JPEGs, or TIFs scanned at 300 ppi/dpi or higher. Submitted work does not need to accompany a written article; with your approval, we may choose to publish your submission with an accepted article or regular column that thematically fits your work. Accepted work must be solely owned by the Artist/Photographer/Graphic Artist and may not be licensed to any other publication or corporate entity prior to acceptance.
Send all queries, art, photography, love letters, hate mail, and solicited and unsolicited materials to: submissions@hawaiiwomensjournal.com. We publish Letters to the Editor.
We also will be doing a quarterly Web Exclusive: The Backstory. We encourage accepted authors to propose the stories behind their poems, stories, essays, features, columns, etc. to us at the copy editing stage.
(*Please note that submissions are NOT automatically accepted for publication and must go through a review process).