Upcoming General Submissions Deadlines:

• 2025: June 16, 2025; November 15, 2025; January 15, 2026.

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.

Our October 2025 issue will look at what we’re calling Affinity Groups and Worship: self-segregated Quaker spaces based on identity. Depending on how broadly you define this, there are lots of examples within the RSOF today. 

• Ujima Friends Meeting describes itself as an online Quaker community of people of African descent.
• Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns has roots going back to the 1970s.
• Young adult Quaker communities of 20- and 30-something Friends have been organized by yearly meetings and national groups for many decades.
• Just this year, neurodivergent Friends in the United States started their own monthly virtual discussion group to explore their needs together and offer support.

There are other, perhaps more subtle self-selecting going on as well, for example:

• Meetings that operate in languages other than the dominant one of their country, often catering to certain populations.
• Meetings that divide by worship-style preferences. For example, a meeting near me has two Sunday worships, one technology-free and one with Zoom participants.
• Especially now with online worship, people are sometimes finding worship opportunities more in line with their theology because distance isn’t necessarily a limitation.

Organizing by identity has some obvious benefits. Being a minority in a group can create a range of problems, from tokenism to invisibility to inaccessibility—or even racism or other kinds of discrimination. There are sometimes more mentorship and leadership opportunities in a more-closed community. Are there times when being separated causes its own problems or creates us/them divisions?

What are the hard and soft boundaries of a group? How does it maintain boundaries when challenged? How do affinity-based groups conflict with goals of inclusiveness? What does visibility and welcome look like? How do we balance being public with being a separated group? 

Obviously, some of these questions reflect some of the most debated issues of recent culture wars. How do different Quaker groups respond to these challenges? 

Also, are there ways that allies of these separated spaces can better acknowledge and support their legitimacy and continued existence?

Fast Facts

• Features run 1200-2500 words.
• Submissions close July 21, 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, second, third, and fourth 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 churches' 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 we 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.