We’re looking for stories that explore the threads connecting ecology, culture, and spirituality. We’re interested in both local and global stories that are in-depth and narrative-focused. We consider long-form content as well as shorter, time-sensitive pieces that offer a more immediate response to current events. This includes: essays, op-eds, poetry, films, photography, multimedia, and audio stories. We only consider unpublished works or online premieres for film, photography, and multimedia. Being familiar with the work we publish can help you see if your story will align with our editorial impulse. In addition to general pitches and submissions, we are interested in new work that explores the following themes: 

Seeds & Structures. Ancient symbols of renewal, seeds have carried the promise of life, while structures, both physical and metaphysical, have provided containers and pathways through which this promise emerges, grows, and transforms. Present in our agriculture, architecture, cosmologies, and cultural traditions, these foundational forms helped us embody a relationship to the living Earth, now lost amid our human-centric paradigm. As the illusions of progress, endless growth, and control disintegrate, a return to this way of living is possible, but remains nascent. In this liminal space, we must find the kinds of seeds and structures needed to remember the Earth as animate, alive, and sacred. 

For the theme of Seeds & Structures, we invite contributions that align with the following:   

• Existing ways humans work with seeds and structures that embody an ontology of spiritual ecology, including stories on perennial agriculture; natural farming philosophies; radical approaches to architecture and design; and stories of resilience embedded in our relationship with seeds. 
• Explorations of how seeds and more-than-human structures offer models rooted in reciprocity, mutuality, and exchange that we can emulate. 
• Emerging structures and ways of "seeding" consciousness and "change" based on more-than-human intelligence and traditional ecological knowledge systems.
• Existing cosmological, spiritual, and mystical systems that offer frameworks to orient and guide us as we seek to seed an ontology and practice of spiritual ecology in the world. 

Refuge

Humans and more-than-humans alike have always sought refuge during times of great upheaval and change, creating spaces of safety and renewal through which life regenerates. These outer and inner spaces have become threatened by the ecological catastrophes of climate change, greed for resources, unsustainable practices in agriculture, and urban development; and by the toxic ideologies and technologies that invade every aspect of our lives. In the midst of this, how can we protect existing refuges and create new ones? What are the stories that can sustain the often unseen currents of an emerging consciousness that supports the flourishing of life—stories that aren’t just about refuge but are themselves alchemical spaces of refuge?

For this theme, we invite contributions that explore the following:

• Places, physical and metaphysical, that serve as a refuge in times of collapse: communities that preserve traditions, wisdom, and practices; hidden places that protect ancient ways of being under threat, such as ceremonial sites, shrines, or hermitages; landscapes, human spaces, or structures that help us through moments of transition and buffer us from toxicity.
• Practices and knowledge within spiritual and wisdom traditions that offer sanctuary, nourishing our inner landscapes: for example, the Three Jewels of Buddhism; the Christian and Judaic notion of God’s shelter; the inner attitude of surrendering to reliance on God in Sufism. How these ways of knowing could be adapted to respond to the needs of the current crisis.
• Forms and cyclical patterns of survival found among more-than-humans: for example, seasonal migrations and hibernations; mangroves, seagrass beds, and coral reefs that protect nursery grounds for all manner of sea creatures; how soil is a sanctuary for insects, such as cicadas, who spend thirteen or seventeen years underground before emerging in a cacophony of sound. The ways species adapt and learn to thrive when the havens that have supported them for millennia are altered. How the more-than-human create spaces of refuge we can learn from as we adapt to living within the polycrisis.
• Concepts and practices of transformation that embody a spiritual ecology and reawaken awe, wonder, and a love for the living world, whereby a protected woodland can become a new sacred grove; a rewilded garden a refuge for insects, birds, and wildflowers. 

Below is a list of our pitch and submission requirements.   

Pitches:

• Pitches must be 500 words or less.
• Clearly outline the story you want to tell, explain what makes it interesting, why it matters now, and what perspective or reporting you will bring to it.
• In 200 words or less, include why you think this story is a fit for Emergence.
• Include your bio and links to previously published work or portfolios if you have them.

Submissions: 

• In no more than 500 words, include a description of the work.
• In 200 words or less, include why you think this story is a fit for Emergence.
• Please include essays, op-eds, and poetry as an unpublished online link (Google Docs or similar).
• For films, provide a password-protected Vimeo link.
• For photography, multimedia, and audio stories, provide a link to view work on Dropbox or Google Drive.
• Include your bio and links to previously published work or portfolios if you have them.

 Please note that we receive a high volume of submissions and cannot respond to every inquiry. We’ll be in touch if we’d like to pursue your story.