Submission Guidelines

The Appendix seeks compelling writing and art about neglected histories. We publish essays and articles based on archival research; reported non-fiction about memory and the past; book reviews; historical fiction, poetry and comics; image portfolios; and interviews with practitioners or subjects of history. The Appendix is particularly fascinated by sources – a forgotten photo, a dead-end manifesto, an unread letter – that shed light on forgotten worlds. We like to publish these sources whole.

We want contributors who share this empathetic and exploring sensibility. Although The Appendix’s editors are trained as academic historians, a training that some of its contributors share, we seek collaborators with backgrounds in local history, genealogy, graphic arts, narrative history and creative non-fiction – people who believe that a story doesn’t need to be divorced from history to be compelling and that history doesn’t need to be dry.

There are limits to what The Appendix will publish, but they might not be what you think: for example, it would have to be a very unusual take on George Washington or Robert E. Lee to fit within our pages. We’re far more inclined to run stories about cross-dressers in 19th century New York, Chinese inventors and spies, or the ancestral mummies that indigenous Andeans called ‘the beautiful grandparents.’ We also think that pets, plants, junkyards, and old toys have interesting histories.

The Appendix is published four times a year. Submission reviews are ongoing, but our editorial process resembles that of a magazine more than it does a traditional academic journal. We want to discuss your idea with you before you submit your first draft.

Our next issue is ‘Illusions,’ which will be published April 1. To discuss your idea, contact us before Feb. 1. The issue following will be ‘Out Loud,’ which will be published July 1. For 'Out Loud,' contact us before April 15. Issues tend to fill up quickly, however, so it's better to pitch to us sooner rather than later.

For the blog, write to us when you have the idea. We’re always looking for new material—and responses to existing posts.

Drop us a line at editors@theappendix.net. We can't wait to hear from you.