The deadline for text and visual submissions has been extended to Friday, May 8th. In addition, we’ve added additional categories to the Georgia Hesse prize, giving honorable mention to two stories as well as the first-place award. Note: The preferred length is 1,600 words and under, BUT we’re open to pieces longer than our preferred length, as long as those pieces justify their extra length. Members can submit two pieces for consideration, but only a maximum of one will be published.
Project Overview: The book will focus on pieces and photos that speak of travels that have hit us hard, that have shifted how we think and feel about the world around us. So, get thinking about those exceptional trips that opened you up, turned you around, disappointed you, educated or elated you. These could focus on a trip that took you to faraway places, or somewhere just around the corner. Entries will be judged blind by independent judges.
These guidelines have been sent out before. Just so you have them to hand, these are the rules for submitting your images and pieces:
TEXT SUBMISSIONS
Submissions should, ideally, be less than 1,600 words in length, but we will consider pieces that are longer, if their quality justifies departing from the word limit. A maximum of two text submissions per member.
Previously published articles are eligible if the writer retains the rights to further publication. Pieces that have not been published are especially welcome, but, please, if you’re submitting an unpublished piece, have a writer-editor friend review before submission to make sure it’s publication-ready. Writers submitting a piece for publication may also submit a single photo they propose to accompany the piece – but they’re not required to do so. All submitted photos must meet the technical specifications set out below.
The Georgia Hesse Prize: Georgia Hesse, the founding editor of the San Francisco Examiner’s travel section and longtime travel editor of the Chronicle, has kindly offered to help us choose a story to honor with a prize bearing her name. Two further stories will be singled out for honorable mention.
Please email in your articles to Jim Gebbie on jimgebbie@aol.com, by May 1st.
PHOTOS: We are seeking strong images to illustrate the book, including a cover photo. Please submit as many as three images that will come across well in black-and-white. Writer-photographers are welcome to submit an image entry as well as a text entry.
Please email your image submissions to Jim Shubin, jim@shubindesign.com again, by May 8th.
HOW TO PREPARE YOUR WORK:
Text Submissions
- The cover email should include your name, contact details, including an email address and a telephone number, the title of your piece and a pseudonym (for the blind judging), which you will also put on the attachment.
- Please indicate if the piece has previously been published or not.
- The attachment should be a Word document, with the proposed title of the piece, this pseudonym, and the number of words up top. Please double-space the attached document for ease of review.
- If you wish for an image to accompany the piece, please submit a single photograph in a separate email (to Jim Shubin) with the same subject heading – i.e. your name & the piece’s name. The photo submitted must meet the technical criteria set out below.
Image Submissions
- The cover email should include your name, contact details, including an email address and a telephone number, with your three images attached.
- Captions should include the date and place the photos were taken and draft captions for the photos – guideline, up to 100 words per. Captions should give the file name of the image they’re for, so we can ensure, in the published version, there aren’t any captions attached to the wrong image.
- Vertical-format images are preferred, but any images that are a maximum of 5-1/2 inches wide will be considered.
- For cost reasons, we will be printing in black-and-white, so please submit images (either color or black-and-white) that work well in this format.
- Technical specifications: 300 dpi, cmyk, .jpg, 10 MB max, 1,800 pixels for each photo.