Write for The Parallaxer

What we are looking for

One argument, made properly. A Parallaxer piece takes a subject that is usually handled by a single discipline and shows what the other lenses reveal about it. The best submissions have a claim you could disagree with and they defend it.

• Between 900 and 2,000 words for most pieces.
• A clear claim in the first two paragraphs, not the last.
• Sources linked inline wherever a factual claim carries weight.
• Written for an intelligent reader who is not a specialist in your field.
• Original and unpublished, including on personal blogs and newsletters.

What we tend to decline

• Summaries of an existing debate with no position of your own.
• Pieces that use one lens and mention the other two in passing.
• Anything written primarily to promote a product, service or campaign.

How it works

Submissions go through the form below. An editor reads every submission. If we want to run your piece we will come back with edits and nothing is published without your agreement on the final text. You keep copyright in your work and may republish it elsewhere after two weeks with an acknowledgement of first publication here.

We are a new publication and we do not pay for contributions yet. We are explicit about that rather than quiet about it. Contributors get a full profile page with links to their own work.

What the odds are

We accept roughly one submission in ten. We would rather tell you that plainly than imply an open door. The pieces that get through are almost never the ones with the most impressive subject; they are the ones with the clearest argument.

Every accepted contributor receives a signed certificate recording their publication with The Parallaxer, issued by the editor who ran the piece. There is a certificate at each level: guest contributor, junior editor and senior editor.

How to join the masthead

There is a route from one submission to a title and it is the same for everyone.

1. Your first and second accepted pieces run as guest articles. You get a byline and a profile and you keep copyright.
2. Once 2 pieces have been published you may apply for a junior editorship on one of the seven beats. Junior editors write and publish on the site directly rather than submitting through this form.
3. Senior editorships are not applied for. Each of the seven beats has one and the publication appoints it.

Each step comes with its own certificate, so a contributor has something concrete to show for the work at every level rather than only at the end.

The seven beats match the seven regions of the map: philosophy, politics and economics on their own, the three pairs between them and the centre where all three meet.