Abolitionist Futures Blog - Guidance for contributors
This guidance is intended for people interested in contributing to the Abolitionist Futures blog and aims to offer clarity to people unsure about how to go about writing for us. The prompts here are for guidance only — feel free to get in touch if you’re still uncertain whether your idea fits with our site. The full editorial handbook is accessible here.
Who?
The blog welcomes a broad range of original contributions from everyone
We are keen to host work regardless of your level or experience with political writing, abolitionist organising, or the criminal justice system.
Let us know how you would like to be acknowledged (i.e. name, a short bio, any political or professional affiliations you want to include, links to social media accounts or your website).
Length?
A typical contribution ranges from 600 - 3,000 words
We are flexible on word count, but when thinking about your contribution’s length, consider the review process and your piece’s readability. A short blog post (3 - 4 minutes read) will typically be 600 - 800 words. A full article might be 1,500 - 3,000 words. We're open to publishing material of any length, but we encourage contributors to aim for concision.
This website can help you visualise different word lengths.
Form?
We welcome a range of different types of contribution
This might include opinion pieces, personal stories, updates on campaigns, news reports, responses to other pieces, reviews of books or events, or pop culture commentary, or creative writing.
Content?
Writing that engages with abolitionist politics
The blog provides a platform for dialogue, discussion and critique from abolitionist perspectives. In this sense, contributions may address an incredibly (infinitely!?) broad range of issues, and take a range of critical positions.
When reviewing submissions, we will consider whether the piece is:
Credible: Based in reliable knowledge
Accessible: Readable by a broad audience (in other words please avoid unnecessary jargon). Try to use stories and examples
Additional: Adds depth, new insights or reflections on relevant issues
Radical: Tackles the structural roots of critical issues
Creative: Helps to envision abolitionist futures
Style?
Share your own voice, aiming for clarity & accessibility
Whilst a group of people volunteer to review proposed contributions and to offer light editing, the Blog’s aim is to feature contributions that are faithful to the voices of the people submitting them.
Anything else?
Consider permissions when borrowing content
Please ensure that you have the right permission to reproduce any images, graphs, or any form of borrowed content in your contribution. Where possible, link to the sources you have used to write your piece.
The process?
The editorial team will work with you to get your piece published
You can submit an article to us directly or get in touch to discuss an idea before you start writing it. Editors will have a look over a draft of your piece and will probably offer feedback and suggestions, giving you an opportunity to rework it.
In addition to this standard editorial process, Abolitionist Futures also runs a writing group program in which anyone contributing to the website can circulate a draft for group discussion and feedback.