Prapañca welcomes submissions for all departments. Each issue of Prapañca explores a specific topic or theme, so please review our upcoming plans at the bottom of this page and let us know in which issue your work best fits.

Please submit full articles, proposals or queries to playofwords@prapancajournal.com. Make sure to include the department (Features, Arts, or Reviews) in the subject line of your email for a faster response. All submissions should be sent as a Word document attachment and should include your full name and a short bio. Let us know who are you, where you’re from, what’s your practice (or no-practice), what you do, and why you do it.

We are especially interested in working with new and unpublished authors and artists. If you’ve had your work published elsewhere, please let us know.

While we won’t shy away from aggressive language or controversial subject matter, please keep the precept regarding right speech in mind and write, well, mindfully, and trust our judgement as to what our readers will consider false and malicious speech.

Copyright of all submitted work reverts to the author or creator upon publication.

We’re sorry to say that at this point in time, we cannot pay contributors. Maybe someday. But right now all we can offer is our love and gratitude and something to write home about.

What we’re looking for

Essays; feature length articles with original reporting; profiles or interviews of well-known and not-so-well-known Buddhists; op-ed or opinion pieces; regular feature columnists; book reviews; movie reviews; art reviews; reviews of Buddhist material culture more generally; fiction; short stories; poetry; artwork or photography; single cartoons or comic strips.

Here’s some rough guidelines to help contributors. Keep in mind that these are just that — rough guidelines. We’re more interested in seeing your work than we are in counting words. So send us what you’ve got, and we’ll see how it fits.

• Feature articles may be upwards of 2000 to 5000 words
• Feature columns, op-ed, opinion pieces and reviews are typically shorter and and more focused; aim for 500 to 1000 words
• We don’t believe in putting a word count on fiction and poetry. But we’re probably not going to publish a Buddhist version of War and Peace

What we’re not looking for

Self-help pieces or lists of tips for mindfulness in the workplace. It’s been done.

The bottom line

We want to hear from you. If you’ve got a good idea, we’re all ears. So please drop us a line and tell us what you’re working on. If it inspires us, we’ll find a place for it in Prapañca.

Upcoming Issues

• Winter December 2010: Anatta (our holiday issue)
• Please contact us for information on future issues