Reminder that we’re open to personal essay submissions from Open Secrets subscribers through July 31! Below are our full-length guidelines (1,000-2,500 words) with a link to our flash (500-999 words) Hobbies and Object-ives (on personal possessions we can’t stop thinking about) submission guidelines. Thanks to everyone who’s submitted, except those using AI, which we very, very, very clearly state we don’t want and won’t consider, and the use of which diminishes our available time to edit, publish, and share real work by real humans.

Also, we pay as much as we currently can ($50 for full-length essays and $25 for flash), but is it really worth the trouble to fabricate an essay when truth is so much stranger than fiction?

Give us your truths, your deep, hidden ones that make you nervous, your slice-of-life stories that you’ve never told anyone, or only whisper about, or that you feel bursting out of you. Read our comments sections and see which essays are resonating deeply with readers, and think about why that’s the case, then write your unique, subjective version of one.

This isn’t math. There’s no single right answer or approach or hot topic we’re looking for. We love to be surprised! We love essays that are about something we’d never considered, or that offer a new take on something we’ve covered before, like family estrangement. No area of human life is off limits for us, if it’s written in an engaging, honest, real, and personal essay.

We’re coming up on our third anniversary (woo-hoo!) on Friday, and have over 200 original personal essays in our archives for you to get a sense of what we publish. We suggest first reading Open Secrets essays in the category you’re submitting to in order to get a sense of what we publish. We require an original photo for Hobbies and Object-ives to accompany your submission, and prefer original photos for full-length essays but are open to free Unsplash stock images. Everything you need to know is in the writing guidelines, and we welcome you sharing them far and wide!