Writing for Weavings

• General Guidelines
• Readership
• Format and Length
• Style
• Payment
• Sending Manuscripts

General Guidelines

Weavings seeks to promote informed, committed spiritual growth with attention to the corporate dimension of the spiritual life. Such growth, to which laity and clergy alike are called, embraces all those expressions of discipline and discipleship that mark the Christian's response to God's work of weaving together the torn fabric of life.

Weavings invites participation in the spiritual life, seeking to provide a forum in which our life in the world and the spiritual resources of the Christian heritage can encounter and illuminate one another. The journal strives to create a space in which contributors and readers can converse on important matters of common concern. Published bi-monthly and organized by themes, each issue presents a broad range of materials dealing with:

• significant topics in Christian spirituality visible in personal, congregational, and public life;
• practicing spiritual disciplines;
• the role of non-discursive communication in spiritual formation (e.g. art, music, architecture, dance);
• linking individual and corporate renewal in the church;
• relating personal and social transformation;
• integrating contemporary experience and classical wisdom.

These and similar themes may be explored through articles, stories (fiction and non-fiction), meditations on scripture, sermons, or poetry.

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Readership

The journal is for clergy, lay leaders, and all thoughtful seekers who want to deepen their understanding of, and response to, how God's life and human lives are being woven together in the world. The journal seeks to move beyond the dichotomy between pulpit and pew by probing the depths of the spiritual life in ordinary language common to both clergy and laity.

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Format and Length

Articles should be 1250 to 2500 words in length. Our main interest is in writing that perceptively examines the spiritual issues that arise when Christian faith and present-day cultures meet. Articles should help readers see that the spiritual life leads to the very heart of the world, and that there is no issue in the personal, congregational, or political sphere that is without spiritual significance.

Sermons and meditations on scripture may vary in length from 500 to 2500 words. At the center of the Christian spiritual life is the practice of listening attentively to God's word in scripture. Contributions should exemplify the rich variety of insights and incentives to action that flourish when we begin to see the connections between the biblical story of God's redemptive love and our own life story. These guidelines also apply to spiritual autobiographies and biographies.

Stories (fiction or non-fiction) in the form of short vignettes or longer narratives (up to 2500 words) should strive to depict the movements of God's Spirit in the very midst of ordinary human life. Humor is welcome, as are poems and profiles of "ordinary saints."

Book reviews should be approximately 750 words.

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Style

Contributions may take several forms. Hard copy should be typed, double-spaced, on 8.5" x 11" paper and should be accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE). Electronic files should be compatible with Microsoft Word 6.0 or higher or Word for Mac 6.1.0. Please include proper documentation for all direct quotations or other references to published works. Copyright law allows for quoting up to two lines of poetry. If more than two lines are quoted, we ask that an author secure permission to do so. When citing passages from the Bible, kindly indicate which translation is being used.

Weavings is neither a popular devotional guide nor a technical scholarly journal. We are looking for material that has spiritual depth expressed in simple, even poetic, prose. We hope authors will show our readers the subject rather than simply describe or explain it. That is to say, we encourage authors to offer readers an experience of the subject itself. For example, we would hope that an article on prayer would be prayerful in style, and that readers would be likely to experience reading this article as a prayerful event. Reading the article might even lead a reader into a time of prayer. We seek material for Weavings that is meditative in tone, drawing on the rich metaphors of scripture and everyday life to help readers see and respond to God at work in their lives and in the world.

Weavings readers may be assumed to share a real interest in the spiritual life, while differing significantly in their knowledge and experience of Christian tradition. Therefore, writing should be simple, authentic, and inclusive.

Simplicity in the structure and language of contributions places the spiritual life where it belongs -- at the center of life as such. Simplicity shows that spirituality is not only for the select few.

Authenticity accents the integrity of the spiritual life. Authentic writing expresses what the writers themselves have sought, experienced, and struggled with in their own lives. The best guidance for authentic spiritual writing is still to be found in the First Letter of John: "It was there from the beginning; we have heard it; we have seen it with our own eyes; we looked upon it, and felt it with our own hands; and it is of this we tell. Our theme is the word of life" (1:1, NEB).

Inclusiveness means, among other things, sensitivity to gender-specific language, openness to the many traditions of historic Christianity, and attention to the manifold wisdom of various cultures and ethnic groups. Such inclusiveness affirms that the spiritual life is not merely a special province of life, but the whole of life lived under the authority of the One whose claim upon humanity is universal in scope.

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Payment

We buy first periodical rights for a variety of media, including print, electronic, software-driven, and other media formats. We accept previously published material.

Payment is made when the final content of an issue is determined.

Articles, stories, sermons, book reviews, and reports: 11 cents a word and up.

Poetry: $75 and up.

We will notify contributors of manuscript status within three months of receipt. Unusable material will be returned if an SASE was sent with the manuscript.

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Sending Manuscripts

Mail manuscripts to:

Weavings Editor
1908 Grand Avenue, P. O. Box 340004
Nashville, TN 37203-0004

Or send via e-mail to:
weavings@upperroom.org

Additional copies of our writer's guidelines and a list of themes for future issues will be sent free upon receipt of SASE. If you would like a sample copy of Weavings, please send SASE of at least 7.5" x 10.5" with postage (approximate weight is 5 oz.).

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