ESSAY PITCH GUIDE
What is Wayfare?
Wayfare is a publication from Faith Matters that seeks to be a companion and guide on the journey of faith. We publish weekly through our newsletter as well as in semiannual print issues.
What Wayfare is looking for
We publish a range of original writing and artwork: essays and poetry; short fiction, book, film, and art criticism; interviews, dispatches, and profiles; illustrations, paintings, and visual expression; miracles, sermons, and more.
We are looking for pieces that are rooted in faith and spirit, but don’t have to be explicitly religious. They are rather the flower and fruit of spiritual roots.
Wayfare writing is ideally characterized by curiosity, expansiveness, thoughtfulness, playfulness, humility, and a commitment to faith, hope, and charity through beautiful language.
We accept contributions from all faith traditions.
Word length will depend on the genre, but for essays and reviews, 800-2000 is a good target.
What Wayfare is not
Apologetics, culture warfare, clickbait, open letters, academese.
What are you waiting for?
We look forward to talking with you about your pitch to see if we can work together on a draft that could grow into a great essay.
Essays
Poetry
Fiction
Wayfare magazine publishes new, original fiction that speaks to faith and spirituality.
What we want to see:
Short: Although we have no cap on word count, we prefer to see pieces less than 3,500 words. Flash fiction is always welcome.
Original: Your voice and your story are important to our community! We welcome fiction of any genre, and we love seeing new and diverse voices from a variety of cultures and faith traditions.
Spiritual: Wayfare was founded by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we welcome stories rooted in that tradition. We also aim to address spirituality in a way that can also be appreciated across broad religious traditions. As our thirteenth Article of Faith says, “If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.”
Note: “Spiritual” does not necessarily mean “devotional.” We want fiction that engages with spirituality in new and interesting ways, and that works to inspire by some subtle or unexpected means.
Submit your fiction with a short cover letter to wayfarefiction@gmail.com.
Visual Art
Artists, we’d love to feature your work in both our print and digital publications.
Please write to wayfareeditor@gmail.com with a link to your portfolio.
TOPICS OF INTEREST
(non-exclusive, inexhaustive, ever-expanding)
The experience of religious life
Embodiment and anti-human technology
Life, mortality, and natality
Sacramental ways of being
Race and identity
Relationship of religion and science
Dating, marriage, and parenthood
Sexuality and sensuality
Secularism and modernity
Notions of progress
Contemplative practices
Material inequality
The long arc of life (post-children)
Work and labor
Pop culture
Rites of passage and rituals
Leisure in modern life
Art production and consumption
Relationship of the religious life to politics
Food production, preparation, consumption
Community formation
Transformation (personal, relational, communal, global)
Relationship to nature
Climate change and environmental stewardship
Identity and agency
Aesthetics and beauty
The virtuous life
Chaos, order, and growth
Language
Our experience of time (past, present, future)
History of ideas
Mental health, therapy, and psychedelics
Travel and pilgrimage
Transhumanism
Scriptural interpretation