What we’re looking for:

• Personal essays
• Poetry
• Pieces on political or current events – ideally from a personal angle
• Campus issues
• Discussions on mental health
• Socio-economic, gender and cultural issues
• Movie/TV show/ music reviews
• Art, music and visual work

Writing guide:

• THERE IS NO DEADLINE – you can send pitches/articles/poems throughout the year
• Include a 2-3 sentence description of your piece in the email – what you want to write about, why it’s interesting and why you are the right person to write it.
• Share a one-line bio of yourself (can see the end of every article on the website for reference) and your Instagram/Twitter handles
• Articles should ideally be between 600-800 words, the hard upper limit is 1,000 words
• Keep your sentences and paragraphs short
• Use the active voice as much as possible to make your writing more concise
• Avoid redundancies and jargon
• We’re not an academic journal. Do not send us academic pieces
• Do not submit pieces you’ve submitted elsewhere
• Please do not send in more than one piece at a time – there should be no multiple entries
• Do not submit more than three pieces a month for consideration
• Paste your submission into the email itself and also attach Word files/Google Drive files. Please do not submit PDFs
• Cite all sources and add hyperlinks as much as possible – there should be no use of footnotes
• Break up long stretches of narrative passages with subtitles if possible
• For photo stories, please send the photos attached to the email separately as well

Important note:

• We publish an article anywhere between one day to two months after receipt
• After you have submitted your article, please give the editor time to respond
• We are not a large team, so if you have received an email informing you that we will not be taking the piece, there is a reason for it
• Because of the scale of emails we receive on a daily basis, it is not possible to give individual feedback each time
• Inform us immediately if your piece gets published elsewhere
• If you want to submit a piece which needs to be published on a particular day – for example, Independence Day or an anniversary or International Days, please send it in at least two days in advance
• If your submission is found to be plagiarised, you will be warned the first time and banned the second

The editor’s word is final.

Send your ideas, pitches and submission to: livewire@thewire.in