Friends Journal

Upcoming General Submissions Deadlines:

• 2024: Nov. 18.
• 2025: Jan. 20, May 19, July 21.

Many issues of Friends Journal are set aside for specific themes. Every 18 months or so we poll readers and dream up ideas for future issues (you can see the current list on our submissions page).

We also keep four issues a year open: no theme and no expectations. Most of our unsolicited articles go into a “General Submissions” list that we hold for these issues. Sometimes a choice is easy: we’ll get a blockbuster article that we know we just have to print. But just as often we’ll run some quiet piece of Quaker life that is offered to us without regard to our schedules.

The first bit of advice is to give our editorial submission guidelines a good once-over. The introduction to what we’re looking for is instructive.

We prefer articles written in a fresh, non‐academic style. Friends value an experiential approach to life and religious thought. Our readers particularly value articles on: exploring Friends’ testimonies and beliefs; integrating faith, work, and home lives; historical and contemporary Friends; social concerns and actions; and the variety of beliefs across the branches of Friends.

You should also study our tips for writing for Friends Journal. This is our list of the most-common pitfalls for incoming submissions—problems like length, structure, and tone.

The next thing to ask when writing or pitching an article to us is “why Friends Journal?” There are very few places where someone can write on the Quaker experience and see their work published. This scarcity weighs on us as we select an open issue’s mix. Authors don’t need to be Quaker, but the piece should have a strong Quaker hook. We’re not above doing a control-F on a submission to see how many times “Quaker” or “Friends” is mentioned. If it’s just a tacked-on reference because you’re shopping a piece written for another publication, it probably won’t work for us.

When you’re ready to send us something, please use the Submittable service so that we will have all of your information on file. “General Submissions” is the category for material that we consider for non-themed issues.

Link to share: Writing for General Submissions

Please note: All poetry should be submitted separately here.

Fast Facts

• Features run 1200-2500 words
• Submissions close September 16, 2024
• Questions? Email editors@friendsjournal.org 

In the December issue we’re going to be exploring an issue that both informs yet transcends theology and politics. We’re calling it spiritual optimism vs. spiritual pessimism.

People can look at the same data and come to vastly different conclusions about its impact on us—and how able we are to respond to it.

Social groups often coalesce around shared responses. Is the world going to “hell in a handbasket,” as one of my neighbors used to say, or does the universe “bend toward justice” a phrase beloved by Martin Luther King Jr.? What’s fascinating is that you can find examples of both sentiments on opposite sides of the political spectrum. The MAGA-hat wearing doomsayer might point to threatening “tides” of “illegal” migrants, but I’ve heard people equally terrified by the existential threats of climate change.

There are many real and present dangers to keep us up at night: in addition to demographic changes and the climate crisis, we can point to rising authoritarianism, nuclear escalation, sexual and reproductive coercion, new forms of deceptive AI, ever-increasing wealth disparity, the erosion of privacy in our digital lives, the housing crisis. The list could go on and on. I don’t want to imply that these aren’t real policy concerns or that we shouldn’t get fired up about them. But how should we respond to them? What gives us hope? What keeps us in despair?

Optimists might point to promising new leadership in politics, proven efforts that have already reduced the effects of climate change, AI’s role in advancing healthcare research, new laws that combat racist policies, undeniably positive uses of social media, and inspiring revitalization work in our own faith communities.

Lastly, a note for those in the United States to point out that due to timing it will be tricky to incorporate any election-related content on this theme: while political campaigns often spin on dueling appeals to optimism and pessimism, the November U.S. presidential election will be taking place well after after this issue’s September 16 submission deadline, and it will have already taken place before it arrives online and in mailboxes in early December. (If you’d like a more time-sensitive piece about this year’s election cycle, you can send it as a General Submission for us to consider for online-first publication.

Learn more general information at Friendsjournal.org/submissions.

Fast Facts

• Features run 1200-2500 words
• Submissions close October 21, 2024
• Questions? Email editors@friendsjournal.org

If there’s one topic we can simultaneously talk about both too little and too much, it’s money. This is as true for Quaker meetings as it is for families. Our January 2025 issue opens the floor for discussion on “How Meetings Use Money.” (Friends Journal last considered this theme six years ago for our October 2018 issue, before the pandemic turned the economy on its head and forever changed the landscape of employment.) There are many angles that Friends could discuss. We’ve brainstormed some ideas—but feel free to surprise us with your own take on the topic!

Where does our money come from?

A lot of Quaker wealth is locked up in endowments started by “dead Quaker money”—wealth bequeathed by Quakers of centuries past. What responsibilities do we have to their original donors or the people they may have exploited? Friends benefited from Indigenous land displacement, a century of slavery, and the labor of workers in the industrial revolution. Later Quaker enterprises have been augmented by capital from these initial wealth sources.

How are we researching, honoring, and acknowledging these debts? What kind of forensic accounting can we do to understand the myriad sources of our inherited wealth?

How do we support our meeting?

Quaker wealth continues to change in the twenty-first century. Most of the well-known historic Quaker businesses have been bought and sold over, and there are fewer truly wealthy Quaker families. Many Friends today work in service or knowledge fields. How have these changes affected the finances of our denomination and the ability to live out our values in the workplace? As individuals and families, how do we decide how much to donate to to our Friends meeting or church and how do we balance that out with other donations?

How do we support our members?

There’s sometimes an assumption that Quakers are all financially secure and well-off, but that’s often not the case and it can shift throughout a lifetime. Rising inflation rates in many countries are squeezing bank accounts and the high costs of childcare in the United States are forcing families to change how they work. Many long-term trends were accelerated by COVID and lockdown. Manufacturing has continued to move overseas. Many once-stable jobs have been replaced by part-time, subcontracted employment with little security, even in academia. The rise of the so-called gig economy (typified by uber and doordash) and the proliferation of warehouse jobs (such as Amazon) employ millions at low salaries, often seasonally. Many Friends have been affected by these changes.

How do we look out for and support people in our community who are struggling financially? Do we even notice their distress in our assumptions? Do we help with food, clothing, or money to help bridge over rent or mortgage payments? How can we ensure that financially strapped Friends are invited to Quaker events with costs?

Where does the money go?

An activist Friend of mine used to point to the nice furnishings in our meetinghouse and chuckle about how many good things we could fund in the community if we sold some of it off. Has your meeting liquidated any of its property or longstanding endowments for community service or for reparations of historic injustices?

It’s sometimes said budgets reflect an organization’s deepest values. Do meeting budgets reflect that? When we do find ourselves with extra funds from a bequest or windfall, where do we spend it? How do we balance needs for our meeting community (building upkeep and repair, scholarships for Friends), and when and how do we give it to others in our community? Where do we invest our corporate savings? Who decides how we spend money in our meetings? What kind of ministries are we supporting? What can we let go of?

There are a lot of meetinghouses mostly empty these days, perhaps even more so after the pandemic pushed many to move to virtual or hybrid worship. Could we ever decide we don’t need all of these spaces? Or could we go further and sell our properties and start meeting at a rented space like a firehall or library once a week? How do we decide on the best use of our financial resources?

Learn more general information at Friendsjournal.org/submissions.

How can we make our meetings more inclusive for neurodiverse Friends and seekers? Are there expectations or models we should explore? We'd like to hear what meetings are doing and also what neurodiverse Friends think we should be doing?

Fast Facts

• Features run 1200-2500 words.
• Submissions close December 16, 2024
• Questions? Email editors@friendsjournal.org

Learn more general information at Friendsjournal.org/submissions.
 

There is an acute house shortage throughout much of the U.S. and wider world, creating ever-rising living costs. It is affecting us in myriad ways. One, many Friends have less time or resources to devote to their Quaker life because they work extra jobs to make the rent or mortgage every month. The rising prices are also increasing the number of unhoused neighbors, a tragedy for them and a strain on our wider community.

How is the housing crisis impacting our meeting community, our families, and our neighbors?

Fast Facts

• Features run 1200-2500 words.
• Submissions close February 17, 2025.
• Questions? Email editors@friendsjournal.org

Learn more general information at Friendsjournal.org/submissions.
 

Revival is a funny concept if you think about it too hard. It can mean many things: a quickening of spiritual fervor, an increase in numbers, a return to some earlier golden age. Quakerism began as a revival of sorts—a brash new religious outlook that didn't have much regard for other denominations—and we have had many revivals in the 350 years since. The nineteenth-century Midwest was awash in revivals whose effects reshaped Quaker worship through much of the world. The new consensus of early twentieth century Friends created modern Liberal Quakerism that drew many people, as did the political activism of the 1960s and 1970s. 

What's the state of Quaker revivals today? Are there places where we're in danger of catching fire? 

Fast Facts

• Features run 1200-2500 words.
• Submissions close March 17, 2025.
• Questions? Email editors@friendsjournal.org

Learn more general information at Friendsjournal.org/submissions.

How are Friends organizing today? We've noticed that many people get a sense of belonging from affinity groups they belong to, whether based on identity (race, gender, or sexual orientation) or politics or spirituality. Our biannual Quaker Works section is full of Quaker groups outside of the traditional monthly/quarterly/yearly meeting structures that bring people together for a single purpose. How do these groups speak to us as individuals? Do they strengthen our participating in our local Friends meetings or compete with it? Does it even matter if they fit with traditional structures?

Fast Facts

• Features run 1200-2500 words.
• Submissions close June 16, 2025.
• Questions? Email editors@friendsjournal.org

Learn more general information at Friendsjournal.org/submissions.

In November 2025 we will publish our fifth annual issue of Quaker Fiction (you can read through our first and second issues here). It’s open to all genres—crime, fantasy, romance, science fiction and horror, young adult, and more. Surprise us with your work! For this special issue, we’re seeking short stories from 500-2000 words, and flash fiction of less than 500 words. We’re seeking stories of Quakers and their experiences outside of what is true of the world we inhabit today. We welcome submissions from Friends and non-Friends alike. While we’re casting a wide net, we’re not the right market for erotica or extreme horror. We are also not a market for fan fiction or other works that use other folks’ intellectual property. We are a queer-affirming publication and will not be accepting any work based in homophobia, transphobia, or general racism, sexism, bigotry, or fascism. Fast Facts 

• Submission length: 500-2000 words
• Submissions close August 18, 2025.
• For our fiction issues we use a slightly modified version of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) Model Magazine Contract, Version 3.1.
• Pay: $0.12/word
• Questions? Email editors@friendsjournal.org

Learn more general information at Friendsjournal.org/submissions.

Quakers began with a critique of creeds—succinct, easily memorizable statements of faith that make most church's doctrine clear and tidy. What we believe has always been a slippery question, made more so by divisions and conflict within our religious society. Are there things that unite us in belief? Or is a search for this kind of unity impossible or even ill-advised in the twenty-first century? How do articulate and advance our beliefs even when they conflict with the beliefs of fellow Friends? How do we understand Friends whose beliefs differ?

Fast Facts

• Features run 1200-2500 words.
• Submissions close September 22, 2025.
• Questions? Email editors@friendsjournal.org

Learn more general information at Friendsjournal.org/submissions.