Submission Guidelines

Turning Wheel Media is an interactive website engaged in the conversation between Buddhist teachings and issues of social justice and environmental awareness. We are particularly interested in stories and art that explore the ways that Buddhist practice informs compassionate action. We are also shifting toward prioritizing work with strong analysis of racism, gender and sexuality justice, ableism, capitalism / class war, and internationalism.

Our focus is on writing from a Buddhist perspective, but we have found Buddhist resonances in the core beliefs of all spiritual traditions. In other words, if your writing is grounded in the compassion that arises from an awareness of the interconnectedness of all life, you may be writing from a Buddhist perspective even though you don’t identify as Buddhist. We are particularly interested in articles that are either grounded in personal experience, or are helpful and encouraging to others, or inspire compassionate activism.

Obviously, the more your work reflects these three qualities, the better. Our editorial bias is toward the experiential, and toward stories that exemplify how the personal is political, and the political is spiritual. And again, since the personal and political are shaped by social systems and structures, not just isolated individual experiences, we will be giving priority to works that show strong analysis of racism, gender and sexuality justice, ableism, capitalism / class war, and internationalism.

Language: Should be clear and accessible. Avoid academic styles, jargon, and flowery lyricism. No footnotes. Refrain from the utilization of polysyllabic signifiers whenever the message permits being communicated by monosyllabic signifiers. That is to say: Don’t use long words when short words will do.

Genres We Accept:

 

Length: For articles: 500 to 1,500 words. We do occasionally publish longer pieces, but send us an excerpt and a query if your submission is longer than 1,500 words. Query before submitting a media review (book, movie, website reviews).

Formatting: All submissions should be double-spaced with 1-inch margins on all sides. The author’s name, mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address should be on the top right corner of each page. The title should be centered at the top of the submission. Supporting photos or art for the submission is helpful, but not required. If accepted the author will need to provide a short one-paragraph bio, written in the third person. We also ask for photos of our featured authors. We prefer head and shoulders shots with the subject looking directly into the camera.

Deadlines: We are open to receiving your submission throughout the year.

Submitting: Please send submissions by email to submissions@turningwheelmedia.org. Please send your submission as an attached Word document, if possible, or paste it into the body of your email. We can also accept paper submissions by regular mail:

Turning Wheel Media
c/o Buddhist Peace Fellowship
P.O. Box 3470
Berkeley, CA 94703

Do not submit by fax.

We only respond to submissions we are considering for publication. However, feel free to check back with us about your submission after three months.

Terms: Unfortunately, we cannot offer payment for any work we publish at this time. Contributors who appear in our print anthology will receive two copies. Turning Wheel Media has an international audience, so we are asking for more than North American rights. We also request the right to include any and all submissions in our downloadable print pdfs or subsequent anthologies after the initial appearance of your work on our website. After publication in Turning Wheel Media, copyright returns to the author.