If you’re at AWP in Baltimore, come say hello at Booth 305 starting today around 1 p.m. Our editor-in-chief Rachel Kramer Bussel will be there with free giveaways and zines, tote bags, t-shirts, and bookmarks for sale, and is happy to answer all your essay writing questions.

First, thank you to everyone who’s ever submitted your work to us. Your amazing essays have enabled us to expand from publishing once a week when we started in April 2023 to publishing 3-5 times a week, and sometimes more often. We’re proud to have published almost 200 writers in our first three years, and look forward to publishing hundreds more as we continue to grow and expand.

We are a lean time of one person, our editor-in-chief , editing the content of the site, so we appreciate your patience. Scroll down for exactly how to submit, but please make sure you’ve read this entire post before contacting us with questions that may be answered below.

We accept submissions for our categories listed below ONLY FROM OPEN SECRETS MAGAZINE SUBCRIBERS. We’re bolding and putting that in caps to make sure it’s clear. The only exceptions to that rule are for special categories, such as our call for Black maternal health and ICE violence essays, where that will be stated upfront.

Despite our lengthy admonitions against them, we continue to get AI slop submissions that are the exact opposite of what we want to publish (yes, it’s always obvious), which drastically slow down our ability to read and edit writing by actual humans. Please don’t do this.

Due to that constraint, we’re changing our timeline from two months to three months for acceptances. This means if you haven’t heard back within three months, we weren’t able to publish your essay. We often get follow-up emails and want to remind you that we don’t send rejections; if we’re interested in publishing your essay, you will hear from us within three months of submission, so if you submit to us on April 1, 2026, you’ll either hear back by June 30, 2026, or we weren’t interested.

Our writing guidelines for our weekly Hobbies and Object-ives remain the same and will stay open until all our 2026 slots are full. Here are those guidelines.

Below are our guidelines for our full-length sections. Any updates to these guidelines will be made to this post, so please bookmark it. If you’re reading our guidelines on another site, please know they may not be up-to-date. We’ve endeavored to answer all potential questions here, but if you have a question that isn’t answered in these guidelines, leave a comment or email opensecretsmag at gmail dot com with “Guidelines question” and we’ll do our best to respond.

We’re also seeing numerous submissions that don’t follow our guidelines in at least one way, such as pitches instead of essay drafts (we don’t respond to pitches), Hobbies and Object-ives submissions sent without a photo, or essays submitted with only a headline and not a subhed. While we will still accept submissions with omissions if they’re a perfect fit, due to limited time, we will prioritize submissions that most closely adhere to our guidelines.

Please note that while we welcome paid subscribers and donations, those have no impact on the status of your submission.

2026 FULL-LENGTH ESSAY WRITING GUIDELINES FOR OPEN SECRETS MAGAZINE

You’re free to reprint these writing guidelines as long as you provide a link to this post; any updates to this round of guidelines will be made in this post, so please check it before submitting.

Why We Don’t Accept Writing Created with Generative AI

BE HONEST. BE UNIQUE. BE YOURSELF. GO DEEP. We are very open to working with new and emerging writers from around the world.

There are 5 important notes we’re including at the top before diving into the specifics of what we’re looking for.

1. We only accept submissions directly from Open Secrets subscribers for the categories below (free or paid). Your submission must be made from the email address you use to subscribe. Authors previously published at Open Secrets are welcome to submit, but we prioritize publishing writers we haven’t worked with before.

2. The submissions deadline is July 31, 2026, although we reserve the right to close this earlier if all editorial slots are full. Check this post before submitting. If the guidelines are still posted, the call is open. If we update the call, we will note that in this post. Please don’t email asking if we are still accepting submissions.

3. We don’t confirm receipt of submissions and will only respond to submissions we are interested in publishing. If we are interested in your essay, you’ll hear from us within three months of submission. If you don’t hear back within three months, we weren’t able to publish your essay.

4. We don’t accept essays that have been published, in whole or in part, online or in print. This includes Substacks, blogs, newsletters, newspapers, magazines, or anywhere else. The entirety of the essay must remain exclusive to Open Secrets prior to publication. Authors retain all rights and you’re welcome to cross-post or repinrt your essay. As a courtesy, we ask for Open Secrets to be listed as the originating publication for reprints.

5. We do not accept submissions in which generative AI (artificial intelligence) has been used to write any part of the essay. We publish personal essays by humans about the intricacies of human lives. During past open submission periods, we’ve received numerous clearly AI-written essays, which are notable for their lack of originality, awkward verbiage, and banal ideas and conclusions.

What they lack is exactly what we look for from personal essays: insights into what the author thought, felt, and experienced. We don’t want a perfectly polished, glossy magazine version of a human or an algorithm’s regurgitated take on the highs and lows of life; we want the raw, real, and gritty, the kind of essay that makes readers feel seen and understood, or opens their eyes to an aspect of humanity they’d never considered before.

In short, uOpen Secrets se your human brain and creativity to write your essay.

Writing Guidelines for Open Secrets Personal Essays (All Categories)

We are looking for original, unpublished 1,000-2,500-word personal essays that explore transformative, powerful human experiences, especially those that are often kept secret or hidden. We are open to the tales of daily life as well as the extraordinary, as long as we feel we’ve gotten to know you as a person. We love humor when it’s wielded well. Essays should show how the author has changed, grown, and/or learned something new about themselves over the course of the essay.

We want to know about the funny, the horrible, the complex, and the curious actions you’ve taken, the surprising plot twists of your life, and what you’ve learned from them. We don’t just want to know that you did something, but why you did it and how it fundamentally altered how you think of yourself. We want readers to feel like they’ve peered into your soul and come away understanding who you are and, in the process, been made to think about their own humanity.

We want to know about the actions and behaviors you’ve taken that you’re ashamed of, confused by, and troubled with, and how you’ve reckoned with them.

There must be dramatic tension in your essay; we aren’t interested in essays along the lines of “I love being a grandmother” but we would be interested in a topic such as “Why I hated being a mother but I love being a grandmother.” We want to know the hard truths, the ones you whisper about to a best friend, a therapist, a deity, or to yourself, the ones that feel risky and unnerving to share, but that you’re compelled to write about anyway. What are the emotional stakes involved in your story? Show us!

We want the complicated realities of your heart, the messy, murky, the offbeat. We want to know the story behind the family photo, the headshot, the Instagram reel, the real story of who you are that’s different from how you present yourself. How do you challenge societal norms, and how do you feel about challenging those norms? What roles do you play because others expect you to, and what would you do if you weren’t saddled with those expectations?

We aren’t interested in essays about another person’s experience (such as “My sister has ____” or “My father is a ____”) unless the essay centers your personal experience, such as being a full-time caregiver to another person, or uprooting your life for another person. The author’s life should always be at the center of Open Secrets essays.

We receive many submissions that are mainly advice-based articles instead of essays, or close with an all-knowing tone or bullet points about what the authors learned. Instead of those, Open Secrets publishes essays that remain personal throughout, and any news sources or statistics are made a seamless part of the author’s slice of life story.

We welcome submissions that are humorous, joyful, triumphant, and/or celebratory along with more serious approaches. Feel free to experiment with the personal essay via open letters, listicles, diary-style entries, or any other format.

We want your full-length (1,000-2,500 word) essays about the aspects of your life you can’t stop thinking about. The below descriptions are suggestions of what we’d like to see essays explore, but we are very open to essays about other topics within these categories as well. We don’t want essays that simply answer the questions below like a homework assignment, but that tell a fully fleshed-out personal story with a beginning, middle, and end. Surprise us!

Climate – What’s it like to live through a wildfire, flash flood, or other extreme weather event, or the threat of one? Have you taken dramatic actions in your life based on climate realities or climate change? We aren’t looking for articles, opinion pieces, diatribes, or arguments about the climate, but instead personal stories related to our climate.

Examples: “I’m a Tesla-Driving Liberal” by Sammi LaBue

What It Feels Like to Live in “Satan’s Ashtray” During Smoke Season by Aaron M Brown

Finances – What’s the most desperate thing you’ve done for money? What’s the most dramatic or most responsible thing you’ve done with your finances? What role has money played in a key moment of your life? How does earning or possessing money (or the converse) impact your sense of self and how you make decisions? Have you ever been conned or swindled (or done the conning or swindling)? How has your behavior or identity changed when you’ve had the most or least money of your life? How has what you learned or didn’t learn about finances growing up impacted how you live as an adult?

Examples: “The High Cost of Being Poor” by Tajah McQueen

“I Make Too Much for Government Assistance, So Community Feeds My Family” by Moriah Richard

“I’m a Senior Who Was Evicted from My Hamptons Home After 35 Years and Have Nowhere to Go” by Dianne Moritz

Grief –What has the grieving process been like for you? How is it similar to or different from what you expected? What shocked you or angered you about your grief journey? Were there humorous moments in your grief journey? How has anticipatory grief impacted you? Did the person you’ve grieved for help prepare you for their death? How has handling grief for another person affected your plans for your own death?

Examples: “Ashes to Ashes, Trust to Trust” by Kelli Dunham

“The Last Time I Had a Best Friend I Was 11” by Diann Leo-Omine

Identity – These essays explore a specific aspect of your identity, whether that’s around race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, appearance, location, a hobby, sports, pop culture fandom, or anything else. What aspect of your identity do you lead with in conversations? Why is that part of your identity so important to you? Has it always been central to your sense of self or did it appear at a specific time? Has pop culture influenced your identity? Do you act differently around different groups of people, online and/or offline, and if so, is one of them the “real” you (or neither, or both)?

We don’t want you to attempt to speak for an entire group; through anecdotes, share what being you in all your specificity is like, and how you do or don’t fit into a given group or label you’ve chosen or that others have placed upon you. Do you face pressure to look/act/live a certain way based on this identity (or perceived identity), and if so, how do you deal with those pressures?

Examples: “Some of Us Just Got Here Sooner” by Teresa Douglas

“My Baby Reindeer Days” by Andy Horwitz

LGBTQIA+ – We are interested in all aspects of your life as a LGBTQIA+ person, or by writers wondering if they belong within that umbrella. We are less interested in coming out essays or overly broad explorations, but specific slices of life that honor your LGBTQIA+ path and identity or identities.

Examples: “Out and About in Zambia” by Katherine King

“How I Realized I’m Asexual” by Mar

Mental Health – What’s it like to have depression or anxiety or PTSD or bipolar disorder or body dysmorphia or panic attacks or an eating disorder or a specific phobia or any other mental health issue? What’s it like to not be sure of what kind of mental health condition you might have but to sense that something isn’t right? How do you or have you handled this? Have professionals and/or friends/family helped or hindered you? Have you joined a support group or connected with others in person or online, or do you deal with the issue on your own? We aren’t looking for you to weigh in on anyone else’s experience except your own. We want essays that don’t sugarcoat the reality.

Examples: “What If I Let My Intrusive Thoughts Win?” by Anastasia Jill

“For 42 Years I’ve Lived With Chronic Suicidal Ideation” by Caren Gussoff Sumption

Milestones - Essays exploring major life milestones (but NOT birthdays). Did you achieve a personal goal? Why did you have that goal in mind? What were the obstacles to achieving it? How did it feel to finally achieve it? How much effort was involved in reaching this milestone, and was it worth it? Do you plan to do it again? Is there a milestone you feel like your life will be complete when you reach it? These milestones could be anything from landing in the Guinness Book of World Records to traveling to a specific set of locations to living off the grid/giving up your cell phone or other electronics to going a year without biting your nails or anything else you consider a milestone. We welcome unusual, quirky, and unexpected milestones as well as more traditional ones.

Examples: “The Hips I Hated, Then Lost, Then Missed” by Brittany Miles

“My Surprise Encounter with President Trump Near Mar-a-Lago” by Ann Mallen

Parenting and Family – We’re open to stories about all types of familial relationships, from those with your parents, grandparents, or great grandparents to your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, cousins, aunts, uncles, stepfamilies, etc., the more unique, the better. How has your relationship with a relative or relatives evolved? How has this family relationship affected your life inside and outside of your family? Are you at odds with one family member but especially close to another? Do you feel like you fit into your family, or more like an outlier?

Examples: “My Father Was Never a Dad” by Salma Ahmed

“How an Adoption-Focused Instagram Account Helped Me Feel Seen” by L.A. Montana

Physical Health – How has your physical health affected your life? Are there aspects of your physical health you once took for granted that you no longer do? Have you had to make adjustments to your lifestyle, work, relationships, housing, or anything else in order to accommodate your physical health? If you’ve had life-changing positive or negative interactions with healthcare providers, what happened?

Examples: “How I Keep My Love of Music Alive as a Deaf Person” by Dawn Colclasure

“The Lasting Legacy of Medical Trauma” by Gretchen Lida

Relationships – Tell us about a pivotal personal relationship you have or have had, whether a romantic relationship, a hookup, a flirtation, or relationships with friends, neighbors, fellow fans or club or group members, a stranger, an enemy, a barista, bartender, teacher, clergy member, or anyone else. How did you meet? Did you immediately get along—why or why not? Do you and this person have a lot in common? What drew you to them? How has your relationship grown and changed? What do you share with this person that you don’t with anyone else? How do the circumstances of how/where/when you meet affect your relationship? Is this relationship one you keep secret or one many others in your life know about?

Examples: “I’m a Single Black American Woman Dating in Europe” by Twanna A. Hines

“Drama-Free: My Facebook Group about Dating App Dudes That Caused Some Drama” by Lara Starr

Stuff-ed (about our relationship with our belongings) – What’s it like to move into a tiny home, or go from living in a studio to a mansion or a houseboat? What possessions have you brought with you everywhere you go? What’s the first personal item you would grab in case of an emergency, and why? Do you feel tied to your possessions (whether in a positive or negative way)? Is there a possession or group of possessions you’ve wanted to get rid of but haven’t yet? Is there a possession you’d be heartbroken to lose? Our belongings say so much about us. This section shares those stories. Stuff-ed essays can also be about virtual belongings. Our new Object-ives subsection focuses on a single object and features 500-999-word essays on that object’s role in your life; see guidelines below.

Examples: “Collecting the Dead: My Closet Is a Pet Cemetery” by Kristina Wright

“Shedding Our Stuff While Living as Nomads Was Easier Said Than Done” by Mary Corbin

Work –Do you live to work, or work to live? Is the job you’re doing now your life passion or one that simply pays the bills? Did you break away from an unfulfilling career to pursue your dream? How has your work life impacted your personal life, and vice versa? What have you given up for your work, and what was the emotional cost of that? Would you have gone into your line of work if you’d known what it was really like? Do you have an unusual job, or one that others always tell you sounds amazing (but perhaps you think otherwise)? What’s the biggest misconception people have about your job? What’s it like to be fired or laid off, or have to fire or lay someone off?

Example: “This Job Will Kill Me If I Let It” by Katrina Jackson

“After a Splashy Book Deal, I Got Dropped By My Publisher, But I Kept On Writing” by Rob Hart

The best way to get a sense of what we’re looking for is to read our published essays. You’re welcome to include quotes if they’re directly related to your personal experience, but sources must always be cited, and links embedded within the text for all facts or for information from online sources. Here’s an example.

Submissions must include all 3 required elements to be considered: Essay, bio, and photo. Submit your personal essay as a Word document attachment OR in the body of an email to opensecretsmag@gmail.com with the intended category and “Submission” in the subject line, such as “Mental Health Submission,” “Finances Submission,” “Identity Submission,” etc. Don’t submit a Google doc; they will not be considered. Many of our essays could live in multiple categories; when selecting a category, choose the one you think best exemplifies your essay.

Include an original, unpublished 1,000-2,500 word essay with a proposed headline and subhed (1-line tagline) with a third-person, 100-word maximum bio at the end. If you’re using a pseudonym, let us know in your submission and provide a bio for the pseudonym. Use Times New Roman 12 point font, single spacing with one line between paragraphs. You MUST ALSO include either an original horizontal photo related to your essay topic (with photo credit if you weren’t the photographer) or a URL linking to an Unsplash.com horizontal stock photo related to the essay topic. Do not include photos in your Word document.

Open Secrets may, with the author’s approval, suggest edits to your headline, subhed, essay, subject category, and photo, all of which will be approved by the author before publication.

We pay $50 for general essays upon finalization of the text via Venmo, Zelle, or PayPal. Authors retain all rights. We don’t issue contracts.

Deadline: July 31, 2026, 11:59 pm ET; earlier submissions have the best chance of acceptance.

Additional Details and Contact Information

We welcome essay submissions from all Open Secrets subscribers, and are especially interested in hearing from the following: Substack authors whose newsletters align with their essay topic, BIPOC writers, disabled writers, LGBTQIA+ writers, writers based outside the United States. We aren’t currently accepting unsolicited book excerpts.

For questions not answered in these guidelines, leave them in a comment or email opensecretsmag@gmail.com with “Guidelines question” in the subject line and we will do our best to respond. We will update these guidelines as needed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you accept simultaneous submissions?

Yes, as long as the fact that it’s a simultaneous submission is stated in your email, and that you contact us immediately if your submission is accepted elsewhere.

Is there wiggle room on the word count?

No. Full-length submissions under 1,000 words or over 2,500 words won’t be considered.

When will I hear back from Open Secrets?

If we are interested in publishing your essay, you’ll hear back within three months of submission. We only respond if we want to publish your essay. We don’t have the capacity to respond to follow-ups or pitches.

This is a special call for submissions aimed at specific populations. If you don’t fall into those populations, don’t submit to this call. We also have our current call for submissions for flash personal essays for our Hobbies and Object-ives (personal possessions) sections, open to all Open Secrets subscribers, and will issue a call for submissions for our full-length essay categories in early March 2026.

We never consider pitches, only full essay submissions according to our guidelines. Pitches will not receive responses.

We greatly appreciate you sharing this call for submissions either by reprinting the full text (including the paragraphs above) or linking to this call and stating “Open Secrets Magazine is seeking personal essays by Black U.S.-based writers who’ve experienced reproductive health mistreatment, and anyone who’s been subjected to violence or intimidation by ICE. Any changes to the call for submissions will be made in the original post found at opensecretsmagazine.com.”

Due to time constraints, we will only respond to essays we intend to publish. If you haven’t heard back within 2 weeks of submission, we will not be publishing your essay.

Writers submitting to these 2 categories don’t have to be Open Secrets subscribers, but your submission has a much higher chance of acceptance if you’re familiar with the kinds of essays we publish. See our archive here.

In 2025, Open Secrets Magazine responded to current events and launched our Climate section in the wake of the Palisades fires, and our food insecurity essay series following the cuts to SNAP benefits.

In 2026, we are accepting submissions in response to the tragic death of midwife and Black maternal health expert Dr. Jenell Green Smith and the ICE killing of poet and mother Renee Nicole Good.

As with all our work, we are NOT looking for op-eds, opinion pieces, explainers, rants, as told to pieces, interviews, or articles. We are looking for personal essays submitted by the author centered around the author’s lived experience. We are open to including some relevant links and data to situate the author’s lived experience in a broader context, but we don’t want polemics or any writing that detracts from the personal aspects of your personal essay.

For these 2 topics, we will publish up to 5 essays on each subject between January and March 2026. Payment will be $200/essay. These 2 calls for submissions will each close once all 5 essay slots in each category are full or at our discretion.

Call for Personal Essays on Black Maternal Health and Black Reproductive Health

Open Secrets Magazine is seeking original, unpublished personal essays of 1,000-2,500 words by Black United States-based writers who’ve experienced issues around mistreatment and inequity in healthcare related to reproduction, pregnancy, birthing, and maternal and reproductive health. We are open to essays by Black writers of any gender who’ve sought maternal or reproductive healthcare in the United States.

Write the story only you can write. We don’t want essays that end on impersonal notes or switch into rants. We want to highlight personal experiences that take readers beyond the headlines and statistics.

Essay submissions must be written without any use of generative AI (artificial intelligence) or LLM (large language models). In short, if you’ve written your essay entirely using your own human brain, it will be considered.

Due to the widespread use of AI and LLMs clogging our inbox, we will be prioritizing essay submissions by established writers with at least one published writing clip and/or an online presence on Substack, LinkedIn, or social media platforms, or who have an author website, to verify identity. Please include any clips or URLs in your cover letter. We also welcome any relevant photos or documentation related to your essay to confirm its veracity; please specify if these can be published with your essay.

How to submit your personal essay:

Send all 3 of the following items in 1 email to opensecretsmag@gmail.com with “Black reproductive health submission” in the subject line. Include your last name (or your pseudonym’s last name if using a pseudonym) in your file name.

1,000-2,500 word essay in a Word doc or RTF with a suggested headline and subhed (1-line tagline)

100-word-or-under third-person author bio with any links embedded

Horizontal photo you own the rights to of yourself or that’s related to your essay topic OR a URL for a free Unsplash horizontal stock photo related to your essay topic. DON’T send Unsplash photos as attachments, just the URL for the photo

Deadline: Rolling (submissions will close and this call for submissions will be deleted once all slots are full or at our discretion)

Payment: $200/essay, paid via Venmo, Zelle, or PayPal upon finalization of the essay text between author and editor

Rights: Authors retain all rights

Call for Personal Essays on Violence and Intimidation by ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

Open Secrets Magazine is seeking original, unpublished personal essays of 1,000-2,500 words by writers who’ve been subjected to violence or intimidation by ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Essays should have a clear beginning, middle, and end, and shouldn’t simply recount the violence or intimidation, but, as with all our personal essays, include reflections on how the experience changed the author.

Write the story only you can write. We don’t want essays that end on impersonal notes or switch into rants. We want to highlight personal experience that take readers beyond the headlines and statistics.

Essay submissions must be written without any use of generative AI (artificial intelligence) or LLM (large language models). In short, if you’ve written your essay entirely using your own human brain, it will be considered.

Due to the widespread use of AI and LLMs clogging our inbox, we will be prioritizing essay submissions by established writers with at least one published writing clip and/or online presence on Substack, LinkedIn, social media platforms, or an author website to verify identity. Please include any clips or URLs in your cover letter. We also welcome any relevant photos or documentation related to your essay to confirm its veracity; please specify on submission if these can be included with the published essay.

How to submit your personal essay:

Send all 3 of the following items in 1 email to opensecretsmag@gmail.com with “ICE essay submission” in the subject line. Include your last name (or your pseudonym’s last name if using a pseudonym) in your file name.

1,000-2,500 word essay in a Word doc or RTF with a suggested headline and subhed (1-line tagline)

100-word-or-under third person author bio with any links embedded

Horizontal photo you own the rights to of yourself or that’s related to your essay topic OR a URL for a free Unsplash stock photo related to your essay topic. DON’T send Unsplash photos as attachments, just the URL for the photo

Deadline: Rolling (submissions will close and this call for submissions will be deleted once all slots are full)

Payment: $200/essay, paid via Venmo, Zelle, or PayPal upon finalization of the essay text between author and editor

Rights: Authors retain all rights

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use a pseudonym?

Yes, we accept submissions using pseudonyms. Please include the pseudonym below your headline in your Word doc or RTF file, include a bio for the pseudonym, and state in your cover letter that you’re using a pseudonym.

When will I hear back about my submission?

For this special call for submissions, we will respond ONLY to writers whose essays we can publish within 2 weeks of their submission. If you haven’t heard back after 2 weeks, your submission has been rejected.

When will accepted essays be published?

We intend to publish these essays between January and March 2026.

Do you accept simultaneous submissions?

We accept simultaneous submissions provided that’s stated in your cover letter and you notify us immediately if your submissions is sold elsewhere.

How many essays can I submit for these 2 special calls for submissions?

We will accept 1 essay per writer for each category, meaning each writer can submit 1 Black maternal/reproductive health essay and 1 ICE violence essay.

Can I submit to these special calls and to other Open Secrets calls?

Yes. You can submit up to 1 essay for each of these special categories and to any other open calls according to the stated guidelines.

What rights does Open Secrets Magazine purchase?

Authors retain all rights to their essays published in Open Secrets Magazine. We request that Open Secrets Magazine be credited as the original publication with a link or URL listed for any reprints.

For questions not answered by the above guidelines, email opensecretsmag@gmail.com with “Submission question” in the subject line. We will do our best to respond or update these guidelines, but may not be able to respond to all questions due to time constraints.

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Updated January 1, 2026: This food insecurity call for submissions is now closed. See our August 2025-issued writing guidelines for details on how to Open Secrets subscribers can submit to our Hobbies and Object-ives section, or to our general writing guidelines section for updates.

For the latest happenings at Open Secrets Magazine, visit our About page. Subscribers will be notified when we issue a new call for personal essays.

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Important Essay Submission Information and Why We Don’t Accept Writing Created with Generative AI

We know our guidelines are long; they are detailed in order to save time for everyone. The short version is: BE HONEST. BE UNIQUE. BE YOURSELF. GO DEEP. We are very open to working with new and emerging writers from around the world.

With every submission call we’ve posted, we’ve received numerous submissions that don’t meet our guidelines in one or more ways. Submissions that don’t meet our guidelines will not be considered.

There are 5 important notes we’re including at the top before diving into the specifics of what we’re looking for.

1. We only accept submissions directly from Open Secrets subscribers (free or paid), except for the food insecurity call for submissions above. Your submission must be made from the email address you use to subscribe. Authors previously published at Open Secrets are welcome to submit but we prioritize publishing writers we haven’t worked with before.

2. Sheck this post before submitting as this call may close early if all our available slots become full or if we receive an influx of AI submissions (see note 5).

3. Due to time constraints, we don’t confirm receipt of submission and will only respond to submissions we are interested in publishing. If we are interested in your essay, you’ll hear from us within three months of submission. A writer may submit a maximum of 1 Hobbies essay and 1 Object-ives essay in 2026.

4. We don’t accept essays that have been published, in whole or in part, online or in print. This includes blogs, Substack posts, newsletters, newspapers, magazines, or anywhere else. If your essay has appeared elsewhere, we will not consider it. The essay must remain exclusive to Open Secrets prior to publication.

5. We do not accept submissions in which generative AI (artificial intelligence) has been used to write the essay. We publish personal essays by humans about the intricacies of human lives. During past open submission periods, we’ve received numerous clearly AI-written essays, which are notable for their lack of originality, awkward verbiage, and banal ideas and conclusions.

What they lack is exactly what we look for from personal essays: insights into what the author thought, felt, and experienced. We don’t want a perfectly polished, glossy magazine version of a human or an algorithm’s regurgitated take on the highs and lows of life; we want the raw, real, and gritty, the kind of essay that makes readers feel seen and understood, or opens their eyes to an aspect of humanity they’d never considered before.

This call for submissions will close early if we receive a large influx of generative AI-written submissions.

(Human Rachel Kramer Bussel, editor of Open Secrets, here to interject with my very subjective experience with these AI submissions: Every time I’ve received an AI-written submission, I’ve felt sick to my stomach and wondered whether I should shut down Open Secrets, especially when they’ve been submitted for our Climate section. I run this project as a labor of love in which I’ve invested my time, money, and energy. I’m also a full-time mom, so time I spend on Open Secrets is time I could be spending with my child. I love editing and reading submissions where the author has clearly put thought into their work, but when I have to repeatedly consider whether a submission was generated by a soulless machine attempting to approximate what someone with a beating heart and churning mind and depth of character might have written, I start to lose hope for this project. I’m issuing this call to rekindle that hope.)

Flash Nonfiction Writing Guidelines for Open Secrets Flash Personal Essays About Your Hobbies or Possessions

We don’t consider pitches, only full essay drafts submitted according to our guidelines.

Hobbies is a new section running on Saturdays for flash nonfiction essays of 500-999 words about a hobby of yours, past or present. As with all our essays, it should have tell a full story with a dramatic arc and a clear beginning, middle, and end. We don’t just want to know that you took up woodworking or scrapbooking or any other hobby, but why. What did you learn about yourself? What has been the most challenging and easy parts? Has this hobby brought you closer with people in your life or introduced you to new people? How has it changed you?

Object-ives is a new section running on Fridays for flash nonfiction essays of 500-999 words about an object you own or have owned in the past that you can’t stop thinking about.

Suggestions for what we’d like to see: What personal possession would you save first in case of emergency? (After urgent items like paperwork or ID.) Why is this possession so special? How has it changed your life? Is this object something you share with others in your life or for your private use? Is there a possession you once owned and no longer do that you actively miss? What’s the most surprising item you own, and what does it mean to you? What possession do you proudly display in your home (or what possession do you keep hidden away)?

We’re only looking for essays about your own possessions, not anyone else’s (unless they were given to you by another person). Everything we’re looking for from our regular essays is also what we want from these shorter essays but these MUST include a photo of your possession.

For Hobbies and Object-ives:

You’re welcome to include quotes if they’re directly related to your personal experience, but sources must be cited, and links embedded within the text for all facts or for information from online sources. Here’s an example.

How to submit your flash personal essay:

Submissions must include all 3 required elements to be considered: Essay, bio, and original horizontal photo. Submit your Hobbies or Object-ives personal essay as a Word document attachment OR in the body of an email to opensecretsmag@gmail.com with “Hobbies Submission” or “Object-ives Submission” in the subject line. Include an original, unpublished 500-999-word essay with a proposed headline and subhed (1-line tagline) with a third-person, 100-word maximum bio at the end, and original, horizontal photo. Google Docs will not be considered.

If you’re using a pseudonym, let us know in your submission and provide a bio for the pseudonym. Use Times New Roman 12 point font, single spacing with one line between paragraphs. AND attach a horizontal photo you own the rights to of you doing your hobby or of your completed or in-progress hobby (for Hobbies) or of the object you’re writing about that you own the rights to (for Object-ives). For Object-ives, if you no longer have the item, you can include an old photo of it that you own the rights to. Stock photos will not be considered for the Hobbies or Object-ives sections. Don’t include photos in your Word document. If this is a simultaneous submission, state that in your cover letter.

Embed links to sources for all facts cited within your essay.

Open Secrets may, with the author’s approval, suggest edits to your headline, subhed, and essay, all of which will be approved by the author before publication.

We pay $25 for Hobbies and Object-ives essays upon approval of the Substack draft via Venmo, Zelle, or PayPal.

Deadline: Rolling

Additional Details and Contact Information

Authors retain all rights to essays published at Open Secrets. We accept simultaneous submissions as long as you let us know in a cover letter and if your essay is accepted for publication, that it’s withdrawn from consideration elsewhere.

We welcome essay submissions from all Open Secrets subscribers, and are especially interested in hearing from the following: Substack authors whose newsletters align with their essay topic, BIPOC writers, disabled writers, LGBTQIA+ writers, writers based outside the United States. We aren’t currently accepting unsolicited book excerpts.

For questions not answered in these guidelines, leave them in a comment or email opensecretsmag@gmail.com with “Guidelines question” in the subject line and we will do our best to respond. We will update these guidelines as needed.

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Thank you to everyone who submitted essays to this call, which is now closed. Subscribers will be notified when we reopen to submissions.

Have questions about Open Secrets Magazine? Email opensecretsmag at gmail.com