SUBMISSIONS GUIDELINES

 

The broad topic of the journal is plant medicine and adjacent practices, with a core emphasis on healing in a social justice context. Within this remit, you are welcome to write about whatever you are passionate or knowledgeable about, or motivated for, that relates to plants and herbal medicine, magic, culture, growing, etc. You are welcome to submit in any style that you think might suit Wort Journal well.

We 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 Wort 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 should not exceed 5000 words including references.

Some examples of types of pieces that you might submit are: explorations of a particular type of herbal preparation; researched articles on an element of herbalism’s history; poetry of any style; interrogative pieces exploring the intersection between herbalism and an area of social justice struggle; explorations of herbal practices within your own ancestral tradition; a lyrical ode to your favourite plant; or practical wisdom from your experience in working with herbs. Just a few ideas! Feel free too to include additional information 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.

 

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 may be that your piece can be published in a future issue if there are many submissions.

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 and also to submit another piece for future call outs if desired.

If accepted, your submission will be edited for content, language and style (either together or in separate edits) and returned to you with thoughts/comments or suggested amendments, to be reviewed and returned to us within a time frame of 2-4 weeks. This process of collaborative refinement is a dialogue between you and the editor(s) and can take as long as it needs to within the time available. A final stylistic/linguistic edit will be made before the piece is proofread for spelling and grammar.

 

Timeline

The deadline for submissions is Dec 5th 2024.

The deadline for finalised, fully edited pieces will be in January 2024.

The journal will be published at the beginning of March 2024.

 

Remuneration

Current rates of remuneration are as follows:

      £70 for longer written articles

      £40 for illustrations/artwork or shorter pieces/poetry

All contributors will receive two copies of the printed journal (postage paid) and the opportunity to buy extra copies at a discounted rate if desired.

 

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 should be in accordance with these fundamental principles.

 

Illustration/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, please let us know at the point of submission.

 

Referencing

Referencing enables readers to follow information to its source for interest, more context, or fact checking. It gives credit and acknowledgement to those from whom we draw our own knowledge or ideas and gives a little protection against the circulation of misinformation.

Wort Journal encourages a culture of ‘deep referencing’, where information has been taken, 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 referencing from Issue One explaining 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 thought/information repeated.

The journal (loosely) uses ‘MHRA’ style referencing. However you don’t need to worry about getting your head around this if it is unfamiliar to you – you are just requested to keep track of where the information that you are referencing comes from (including page numbers if applicable) and the editor will deal with formatting it all at a later stage in the process.

 

Language


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.

 

Personal Narrative

Personal experience can be a key starting point for knowledge in relationship with plants and may be the root of expertise in many areas. It is also valuable to reflect upon and acknowledge one’s own positionality in writing. However the inclusion of personal narrative in pieces should be approached judiciously. For those writing from positions of privilege in particular, it is always worthwhile to ask what function passages of personal narrative serve within the piece and who may connect with/who might feel alienated or erased by them.

 

Content Warnings

If it is appropriate for the piece to have content warnings these may be included in the tagline/introductory sentences for the piece, below the title.

 

Submission Process

To submit, please send the following to wortsandwords@gmail.com by 5th December 2024:

• • Your first-draft submission as an attachment (.pdf, .odt, .doc, googledocs link all fine).
  • Your name and a little about yourself if you want to (though this is not required).
  • Any relevant links you’d like to share (websites, public profiles, previous work etc.). 
  • Any potential accompanying artwork (or proposal) or photographs.
  • Anything else you’d like us to know!