Submissions
We are always on the lookout for more contributors. In both written and visual submissions, we are looking for work that feels thoughtful, personal and unique. Essays that feel frank but funny, too. Artwork that makes people feel seen. We’re a big fan of the DIY aesthetic and we’d like to support you if you’re a budding collage artist or illustrator making stuff from home, even if you don’t have any professional experience yet.
At the moment, we are particularly interested in publishing content that relates to the coronavirus pandemic and its effects on our everyday lives. Our content varies week by week depending on the work that is submitted and pitched to us, but we aim to publish the following on our site at least a few times a month:
Personal Essays & Poems
We recommend 100-1500 words for personal essays, and a collection of 2-4 poems if you are submitting poetry. Feel free to include your own artwork to accompany your writing if you feel this will add to it. You are also welcome to pitch your essay ideas to us by email before getting started. Please attach your written work as a PDF.
Collage Kits
Ideally we would receive an 8.5x11” or A4-sized sheet of paper with a variety of collage elements on it, so readers can print this out and make their own art from home. We would also love it if you could include a second page with patterns or backgrounds on it so that these can be used as well. Please send the files as separate high res PDFs under 25MB so that we can make them downloadable and printable for readers.
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Playlists
If possible, we ask that you curate your playlist on Spotify and share the link with us by email. But don’t worry if you don’t have access to it; we can publish the playlist for you. We ask that contributors also provide us with a playlist title and an illustrated or even collaged list of the songs, in square format. Please send a brief intro about the playlist in your email, so that we can understand what inspired it. You can submit the artwork as a JPG, PNG or PDF but please make sure the file size is under 25MB.
Photography
We accept photographs that were taken before the pandemic as well as during it, as long as you're able to link them to this period in some way. We usually publish anywhere from 5 - 20 photos in a series. You can submit these as JPGs, TIFFs or PNGs as long as each photo is under 25MB.
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Comics
We can accommodate a variety of sizes for comic art. Please sends the individual pages to us as JPGs under 25MB.
Don't hesitate to get in touch if you are interested in creating artwork to go alongside the articles and essays we publish or if you'd like to become a regular contributor. We currently pay $15 for all original artwork and writing, and $5 to publish pre-existing work.
Please send all submissions to hello@nearnessproject.com with your name and project title in the subject heading and we'll get back to you within a week if we're interested in publishing your work. Thank you!
