Submissions
Desire Lines Journal is committed to promoting new literary movements in the mountains. Thank you for your interest in writing for us — we're glad you're here.
Desire Lines Journal is a publication about vulnerability, resistance, wonder, humor, and radical reimagining of what it means to engage with wild places and the more-than-human world. While the stories of Desire Lines span a wide range from scientific expeditions to mountain art, adventures, and Indigenous traditions, every story centers mountain landscapes, communities, and ecosystems.
We publish submissions from women, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming writers. We especially encourage submissions from Black and Indigenous writers, writers of color, writers with disabilities, writers from LGBTQIA+ communities, and writers whose voices have been historically underrepresented in the publishing world.
Emerging writers and those new to publication are encouraged to submit.
As fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin declared in a 1986 Byrn Mawr commencement address:
"If you're underneath, if you’re kept down, you break out, you subvert. We are volcanoes…. All the maps change. There are new mountains."
What We Are Looking For
Short Stories & Creative Nonfiction (newsletter, print, and online): Micro-stories, flash fiction, dispatches, prose poems, and other creative approaches to short-form literary mountain writing. 100 – 3,000 words.
Op-Eds (newsletter, print, and online): Essays on pressing topics in mountain communities, from the impact of climate change to access issues and commentary on mountain/outdoor culture, and beyond. 750 – 1,500 words.
Poetry (newsletter, print, and online): Poetry of any form, style, lengths…. We take submissions up to 3 poems at a time.
Features/Longform (print and online): Reported deep dives, memoirs, personal essays, and profiles that showcase the complexity of being a human navigating the mountains and more. 2,000 – 7,500 words (longer pieces can be considered).
Book Reviews (newsletter, print, and online): Our book reviews are more than just “five stars, great read.” Newsletter and online book reviews will be 300 – 500 words and will focus on examining the merits of a single work of mountain literature. Print book reviews will be up to 1,500 words and will draw on several works to examine emerging trends and topics in the genre.
Luminaries (newsletter, print, and online): Short profiles about women, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people from ancient history to the modern day whose accomplishments, ideas, and contributions deserve to be better known. 550 – 500 words.
Art, Cartoons, and Photography (newsletter, print, and online): because some stories are not meant to be solely put in words.
Letters from Readers (newsletter, print, and online): The letters section will be a place for readers to respond to published stories, to suggest new topics and styles, to share their concerns for the future of mountain environments, and much more. 250 – 750 words.
Workshops, Events, and Panels (online): If you have an idea for a workshop, event, or panel that aligns with our mission, we'd love to hear from you.
What We Are Not Looking For
- AI-generated content.
- Traditional adventure hero narratives centered on conquest or overcoming nature.
- Writing that reinforces stereotypes, romanticizes hardship without nuance, or exoticizes communities or landscapes.
- Gear reviews or trip reports. We will consider how-to guides on a case-by-case basis.
How to Submit
We accept both drafts (complete works) and pitches (email us to ask if your idea might work for us before you commit to writing anything) for most departments and features. For poetry, micro-stories, and flash fiction, however, we prefer to see finished drafts. Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Please let us know if you are submitting your story to other outlets and notify us immediately if it is accepted elsewhere.
- Submit your writing preferably as a Word .doc or .docx or a Google Doc. (If you don’t have access to either Word or Google, let us know and we can discuss another compatible format.)
- Please include a short introduction to yourself (just a few sentences, including your own connections to the mountains or anything else you think we should know; no need for a formal bio unless you'd like to include one).
- Any relevant publishing history, if applicable (but emerging writers are very welcome, and publishing experience is not required).
Submit by emailing: editorial (at) desirelinescollective (dot) org
Our current response time is 3 – 4 weeks.
"I believe deeply that the opportunity to become a mountain writer should be available to people from groups who have been largely missing from the genre's dominant canon. I'm excited to continue the work I did at Alpinist to help break down barriers for emerging storytellers and to provide them with support and coaching as they seek to find their own voices and refine their personal literary visions and styles."
— Editorial Director, Katie Ives