Submissions

Write for Wort Journal

— Issue Five is now live for submissions! Deadline October 15th —

Read the call out intro text here

Dear fellow plant freaks,

We’re excited to let you know that there is a new issue of Wort Journal in the works!

We’ve been laying low for a while, regathering our energies and vision, expanding odd exploratory tendrils and strengthening our collective structures. As the late summer sun offers its presence, we are looking ahead for a new issue, to be shaped through the reflective nesting time of the winter and published spring 2027, when the frost begins to thaw.

Wort platforms the quiet undercurrents of grassroots plant practice that work to express and honour the vitality of the earth. As they always have done. This connection to the living world around us and to each other is our strongest medicine, whilst we do the magic of creating freer life amidst globalised exploitation and destruction.

In times where grief may feel like the most abundant water source around, plants embody resilience, connection and continuity through generations, calling us to presence, reminding us to celebrate life above all else.

We are seeking submissions that reflects an intimacy with and experiential knowledge of medicinal plants as multidimensional living beings. We want writing that understands and lives plantwork as resistance and resilience.

Your stories, reflections, histories, researches, poems and plant conversations are the vital force of Wort. We prepare the soil; you grow the seeds.

Wort platforms writing from within grassroots and folk herbalism and adjacent plant practices. We seek contributions from persons whose work is rooted in reverence for and service to the living earth, its plants and its people.

We’re looking for writing that reflects an intimacy with and experiential knowledge of medicinal plants as multidimensional living beings. We want writing that understands and lives plantwork as resistance and resilience.

We actively recognise the diversity of herbalism as ‘the people’s medicine’ and welcome submissions from both lay and professional practitioners of all lifeways, lineages and traditions.

Some examples of the types of writing/contribution that we're inviting

- - Articles that tell the social, political or cultural stories of a plant or plant practices
  - Critical reflections on the politics of herbal practice.
  - Articles that offer knowledge emerging from your own experiences of working with a herb or herbs in a particular way.
  - Poetry with herbal themes.
  - Original explorations of a particular type of herbal preparation.
  - Explorations of herbal practices within your own ancestral tradition.
  - A lyrical ode to your favourite plant.

Feel free too to include additional elements to complement your piece if you feel called to, such as recipes, growing tips, or a sensory description of or small reflection on a particular plant. There are so many possibilities.

Some possible themes for inspiration

- - Animism and vitalism
  - Collaborating with plants
  - Herbalism as resistance
  - Herbalism as reclamation
  - Cyclical relationsip to time and seasonality
  - Anti colonial herbal practices
  - Ancestral and folk traditions
  - Queer ecology and herbs
  - Reclaiming ritual
  - Working with the land
  - Practical reciprocity
  - Herbalism in the ‘Anthropocene’
  - Plant-led futures
  - The language of herbalism
  - Herbalism crossing diverse systems of knowledge
  - Plant languages
  - Blurring the boundaries of medicine

Some examples of what we don't want

- - Materia medica informational plant profiles.
  - Writing that offers therapeutic advice.
  - Writing that centres personal narrative without clear theme or purpose (some element of personal narrative is welcome: please see guidelines on this!).
  - Pieces that have been previously published elsewhere (we may occasionally make exceptions for this: feel free to ask us).
  - Event or book reviews: we invite these as submissions for the online blog!
  - Writing that perpetuates cultural appropriation or colonial relationships to land.
  - Writing that invokes depoliticised new age spiritual approaches to plantwork.
  - Blog post style writing (please submit that to the blog!).
    Anything written with AI

You are welcome to submit in any style that you think might suit Wort Journal well. We also have our own style, vision and integral principles and all pieces may be edited with you for alignment with these. The published article is essentially a collaboration (between you, in your individual creative expression, and the journal). It is helpful if possible to have had a look at previous issues (please ask if access is an issue) to get a feel for the kinds of pieces that Wort publishes, but we’re also open to new things. Every issue will be shaped by the contributions received! We also welcome co- or collectively written pieces and author-artist collaborations.

Submissions Guidelines

Submission Format

You are invited to submit either:

1) a proposal including:

- - a description of the subject/content of the piece (150-300 words)
  - a paragraph detailing its relevance to the themes of the journal
  - a draft intended structure (include subheadings with a brief description of section contents)
  - your working title (optional)

plus a sample of your previous writing.

2) a first draft of your piece.

We do not charge reading fees (there is no cost to submit!).
Please see ‘how to submit’ below for additional instructions.

Process

The submissions period will last for three months, during which time all incoming submissions will be reviewed as they are received by a small panel. This will happen on a rolling basis, subject to capacity, and we will let you know the outcome regardless of whether your submission is accepted or not.

It is also possible that submissions may be accepted subject to requested changes. If your submission is not accepted you are welcome to ask for feedback (but please remember that we are a small team working on a shoestring!) and also to submit another piece for future call outs if desired.

Following acceptance, there is typically a process of development and refinement of pieces in close collaboration with one or two editors.

Timeline

The deadline for submissions is October 15th.

The deadline for finalised, fully edited pieces will be December 15th.

The journal will be published Spring 2027.

Principles

Wort Journal is unequivocally anti-racist, decolonial and anti-colonial, anti-ableist, trans positive, anti-heteronormative, anti-classist, sex and sex worker positive, asexuality positive, body positive, feminist and anti-patriarchal. We are ideologically anti-capitalist, whilst recognising the ways that, within Western European society, most of us must participate in its mechanisms to some extent to survive or thrive. All contributions must be in accordance with these fundamental principles.

Remuneration

We will pay all contributors an honorarium for their work.

Current rates of remuneration are as follows:

Poetry: £15-£35, depending on length/number.

Prose articles: £40-80, depending on length.

Contributors within the ‘UK’ will receive two copies of the printed journal and international contributors one copy (postage paid) and there will be opportunity to buy extra copies at a discounted rate if desired.

Illustrations/Artwork

Illustration is generally done in-house. If you have ideas or desires for illustration to accompany your piece you’re welcome to let us know and we’ll try and work with your visions. If you’d like to collaborate with a particular artist or illustrator that you know, or to produce your own accompanying artwork, please let us know at the point of submission.

Referencing

Wort Journal encourages a culture of ‘deep referencing’ as an ethical practice of recognising and upholding lineages of thought and knowledge that may be devalued or obscured by standard referencing practices. Please read the note on ethical referencing from Issue One for our thoughts on this. In some cases, consent from the person being referenced may be needed.

Contributors are encouraged to be self-reflective in their referencing to consider whose voices are being privileged and which narratives upheld and thought/information repeated.

The journal (loosely) uses ‘MHRA’ style referencing. The editors can help with formatting references if needed – but you are requested to keep track of where the information that you are referencing comes from (including page numbers if applicable).

Word Count

Submissions should not exceed 4500 words, including references.

Language Guidelines

The journal strives to be a representative and inclusive platform and to uphold a radical thought/and practice that challenges harmful existent paradigms and power structures. The language used within it is a big part of that. The language guidelines offers a few general principles of good practice that may be helpful in guiding your writing to avoid language that maintains and reinforces power structures. Please don’t be intimidated by this! There will be editorial support for reviewing language to this end within the process of refining pieces before publication.

Read our language guidelines here.

AI Policy

This journal values human knowledge, creativity, imperfection and growth, the infinite ecological interrelationship of life in all its vitality, and caring participatory relationship with the living earth.

As such we do not accept AI generated pieces.

Whilst we recognise that AI has many helpful uses and as a technology is in itself amoral, we also acknowldge it as currently inseparable from harmful earth-extractive practices and globalised capitalism. As such we cannot support its usage amidst accelarating ecological breakdown, state fascism, and corporate profiteering at all costs, and it is our preference that contributors refrain from using it within the writing process. There will be editorial support for the polishing and development of pieces.

Simultaneous Submissions/Publishing Elsewhere Policy

We do not generally accept pieces that have already been published elsewhere – but you are welcome to ask if you like.

You are welcome to submit pieces or proposals to us simultaneously to other publishers. Please let us know if they are accepted and you wish to withdraw your submission!

As the process of developing and refining pieces for publication is typically a collaborative endeavour involving significant effort on the part of the editors, and as we are a small project reliant on adequate sales income for our continued existence, we request publishing rights for any pieces accepted. However if you would like to publish your piece elsewhere after a reasonable elapse of time, please do get in touch to ask. We will not publish your piece anywhere other than Wort Journal.

How to Submit

To submit, please send the following to wortsandwords@gmail.com by 15th October 2026.

- - Your proposal (see submission format) or first-draft submission as an attachment (.pdf, .odt, .doc, googledocs link all fine).
  - Your name.
  - A short paragraph telling us about your work or primary forms of practice/relationshp with plants.
  - Please copy this statement into your correspondence: “I confirm that all writing submitted is my own original work, does not contain AI generated material, and is previously unpublished”.
  - Any relevant links (websites, public profiles, previous work etc.).
  - Any potential accompanying artwork (or proposal) or photographs. Note that we have limited color printing space.
  - Anything else you’d like us to know!

Write for the Wort blog

Wort aims to support dialogue around the place of herbalism and other plantwork practices in ecologically rooted social change, and to support and strengthen a community of herbalists and plant people working in this way. The online blog complements the print journal, offering a digital space for ongoing conversation.

We are accepting submissions for the blog on a rolling basis.

Submission instructions

To submit, please email wortsandwords[at]gmail.com with either:

- - - a first draft of your piece, with a provisional title and short bio.
    - a pitch, including a provisional title, an overview of the piece (2-4 sentences), a preliminary structure with bullet-point key ideas, and short bio.

Minimum word length for prose articles is 500. All pieces accepted for publication not previously published elsewhere will be paid at a rate of £40.

Some ideas for the kinds of pieces we would like to publish

- - Thought pieces that reflect or build on articles from the print journal.
  - Articles drawing attention to relevant projects or campaigns.
  - Relevant event reviews.
  - Book reviews.
  - Anything resonant with the themes of Wort Journal that suits the faster pace of digital media.

Contribute to the Reading List

Help us build the collective extended reading list as a community resource and inform others by contributing a reading/listening/watching recommendation here.

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