Summer Essay Series

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Until June 30, The Good Trade will be accepting original reader essays for a summer series! We’re looking for personal essays that explore themes of growth, aging, transformation, and renewal.

We’re also eager to be surprised, so please don’t let these themes limit you! Please just re-familiarize yourself with our personal essays to ensure your subject is a good fit. (Note: We are not reviewing reported or how-to pieces for this series.)

Update: Thank you to everyone who submitted poetry for our summer series! We received an overwhelming response and will be closing submissions for poems at this time. Submissions will remain open for personal essays. Thank you! x

Submit your essay via our Typeform link. Please do not email us. We will not open or read essays sent via email.

Please only send us one essay. If you are submitting poetry, you may send up to three poems in a single document.

Selected essays will go through one round of revisions with our editors and the final piece will run at 800-1000 words. Feel free to be verbose in your first submission, but please do not send us more than 1300 words.

No requirements, but please make it easy on our editors! Serif typefaces and 12 pt font is preferred. We also encourage reviewing our editorial guidelines.

While we’re most excited to hear your original ideas, writing can feel intimidating (we get it!), and sometimes prompts can be useful. Here are a few questions our team has been mulling over. Feel free to use them as launching points for inspiration:

  • What does it mean to return to oneself or to feel safe and at home within one’s body?

  • How do we push back against fears of transition as we grow older? What must we lose along the journey to find our way?

  • What can summer and seasons teach us about living?

Writers will receive $100 for poetry and $200 for original essays.

We are a small editorial team, so please be patient with us as we read your work! We aim to read and respond to everyone by mid-July. Please note: we will not be able to offer specific feedback for essays that are not selected.

Yes! We’re writers too, and so we encourage simultaneous submissions. Please just send a quick note to [email protected] if your piece is accepted elsewhere.

We can’t wait to hear from you and read your work! Happy writing! xx

**All submitted work must be original and unpublished, including on personal websites or blogs. The Good Trade will hold exclusive digital rights to published pieces for 6 months from the publication date, after which the author will retain all rights and the piece will remain archived on The Good Trade’s website.