For Plough’s website and print magazine, we accept submissions of nonfiction articles, reviews, art, and letters to the editor. Before sending your pitch, we ask that you read Plough to get a sense of our focus and style.

Unless you tell us otherwise, we assume that all submissions are being offered to us exclusively and that no piece accepted for publication will be published simultaneously in any form without our knowledge. Work previously published in English cannot be considered.

Please send us a detailed pitch or manuscript to submissions@plough.com, accompanied by a CV or one-paragraph biography, including your contact information. Please include links to your previously published work, if applicable.

For book manuscript submissions, see our book submission guidelines.

Frequent Topics

Topics we cover regularly include:

• Religion: how faith shapes everyday living in surprising and radical ways (while we primarily publish from a Christian perspective, we’re glad to include writers from Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or other faith traditions as well);
• Culture: reviews and essays on books, music, art, and popular culture;
• Society: the relationship of faith and politics; nonviolence, peacemaking, and a consistent life ethic; equality, justice, and solidarity with the oppressed; building a society beyond capitalism;
• Education and vocation: raising children; work and the trades; the university and higher education; religious and other fully committed callings;
• Nature and technology: sustainability and food; humans before machines; creation care; nature and the outdoors
• International: faith, culture, creativity, daily life, and profiles from people building community around the world.

Essays

The essays we accept are generally narrative-driven, built around a real-life story rather than around an argued thesis; all the same, we may take an idea-driven piece if the subject is urgent and compelling. We publish both short articles (1000–2000 words) and longer features (2000–5000+ words).

Reviews

Reviews should be 1000 to 2000 words. Review essays exploring a topic in depth may run up to 3000 words.

Letters to the Editor

We welcome letters to the editor, which should be no longer than 500 words and may be edited for clarity, length, and style.

Art and Photography

Please send us a pitch with links and your CV or bio.

Poetry

We do not currently accept unsolicited submissions of poetry. Instead, interested poets are encouraged to submit their original, previously unpublished poems for consideration in Plough’s annual Rhina Espaillat Poetry Award. The winning poet will receive a two thousand dollar award and the winning poem will be published in Plough Quarterly. Only poems submitted via the award page will be considered; other poetry submissions cannot be accepted or processed.

Response Time

We’ll generally get back to you within six weeks. Feel free to contact us by email if you haven’t heard from us by then.

Payment and Publication

We are able to pay for articles upon publication. If we’re interested in your pitch or manuscript, an editor will contact you with our offered terms.

Our editorial team will then work with you, usually through several revisions, until the text is ready to be accepted for publication. This may be either as a web exclusive or in the print magazine. Most of our content (and our readers) are online; unless otherwise specified, please assume this is where your story will appear.