We Want Young Writers!

To date, our editorial policy has been pretty straightforward. The bulk of our writing has been kept in house, so to speak. Senior contributors write the majority of what we publish. We’ve granted status as full contributors only to writers with experience who also have some other visibility in the community, either because of other writing they have done, or because of their professional positions. We have given access to guest contributors, but not so easily. We have generally limited such contributions to special issues and to figures who are recognized in the community.

This is about to change. Cross-Currents wants to make a contribution to the future of good Orthodox writing. We want to encourage young people (setting high school as a lower limit and age 30 as the upper one) to try their hand at creatively speaking their minds, and sharing their ideas, insights and frustrations with others. From our own experience, we understand the let-down in working on a piece of writing and then finding no way to get it out. We are therefore going to make Cross-Currents a potential outlet for good writing, and will take it from young people with no prior publication credits to their names.

Submissions have to fit the CC focus: ideas on timely topics, as seen through the eyes of young men and women whose thinking has been shaped by their Torah living and learning. The ideas need to be sharp and crisp, rather than boilerplate; the writing needs to show attention to both grammar and style. All the rules that are stated in our policy on comments will apply to submissions. We will not publish every piece submitted, and regrettably cannot provide explanations of why we are turning down a given piece, just as we regrettably are not able to provide that courtesy to the many readers whose comments are left unpublished. We expect every submission to have already edited by someone other than the writer.

Schools and their English teachers might want to make note of this offer.

Please send submissions to the email address “youngwriters” at our domain. (We don’t spell it out in order to prevent spamming.)

Write “Young Writer Submission” in the subject line.