Paid Personal Essay Call for Submissions on Black Reproductive Health and ICE Violence
Open Secrets is paying $200 for published essays by Black U.S. writers who’ve experienced reproductive health mistreatment, and by writers who’ve been subjected to violence or intimidation by ICE
As always, read our writing guidelines in full before submitting to increase your chances of acceptance. Guidelines are subject to change at any time; all updates will be made to this post.
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, or articles. We are looking for personal essays 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.