Submission

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Submission Guide

Submission →

The Democracy Seminar seeks contributions from political actors, observers, artists, and thinkers who support democracy against the looming threats of authoritarianism and autocracy around the world, from the democratic left, right and center. Our contributors have included correspondence from the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa, and we seek to broaden and deepen our circle of democratic exchange. All work published is edited and is subject to fact checking.

While we do review full submissions, if you are writing specifically for us, we recommend that you first send us a pitch by filling out this google form. Once your pitch has been reviewed you will receive a link to submit the full piece, if accepted for publication.

The following conditions apply to both solicited and unsolicited submissions:

  • At this time we only accept submissions in English (or English translation of articles published in another language- with permission from the original publisher).
  • Most essays should be 800-2000 words and written for a general audience, though we do occasionally consider longer pieces. You should specify in your pitch submission if your piece will go over 2000 words.
  • We accept creative nonfiction pieces (please indicate this in your pitch and full submission)
  • We accept visual essays (Please only send visuals to which you have the legal rights to, specifying the source and copyright).
  • The Democracy Seminar does reprint essays, or translations into English of essays, published elsewhere, as well as selections from books. But publication is contingent on authors demonstrating that they can assign rights, or The Democracy Seminar obtaining those rights independently.
  • The Democracy Seminar publishes images and videos as long as we have the legal rights to them. Please only send visuals to which you have the legal rights to, specifying the source and copyright. 
  • A member of the editorial team will review all pitches and full submissions and contact an author within a week.
  • The publication of submissions is contingent on the timely completion of revisions by the author.
  • Your editor will work with you on setting deadlines.
  • Authors may suggest a title or subtitle, but The Democracy Seminar reserves the right to choose any titles and images.
  • All essays published in The Democracy Seminar become the property of The Democracy Seminar. We only remove essays for cause, such as the discovery that an essay is unfactual, plagiarized, or defamatory. We do not remove essays because the author no longer supports the views they have published on our platform.
  • The Democracy Seminar regrets that it cannot pay its authors at this time.
  • Pitches and full-article submissions should be submitted via the appropriate google form or by emailing democracyseminar@newschool.edu.