How Do I Make Successful Submissions to The AutoEthnographer?

What Is The AutoEthnographer?
The Autoethnographer is an award-winning, non-profit, open-access, peer-reviewed, digital literary and arts magazine open for submissions. Our independent editorial team of international artists, performers, writers, and scholars invites unpublished, unsolicited, evocative stories – sometimes textual, audio, visual, or multimodal – crafted in conjunction with autoethnography that celebrate the intersection of personal expression and cultural inquiry. Simultaneous submissions to other outlets are permissible so long as you notify us immediately should you decide to publish elsewhere.
New to autoethnography? Visit What Is Autoethnography? How Can I Learn More? Interested in contributing? View our editorial board’s What Do Editors Look for When Reviewing Evocative Autoethnography? And check out our Submissions page. View Our Team to learn about our editorial board. Please see our Work with Us page to learn about volunteering at The AutoEthnographer. Visit Scholarships to learn about our annual student scholarship competition.
Please review the definitions, advice, examples, and submission instructions below carefully to improve your chances of acceptance. As of 2023, our acceptance rate is ~30%. We strongly encourage all contributors to review current articles at our magazine before submitting their work to us. Likewise, the editor invites proposals and inquiries at [editor at theautoethnographer dot com].
WHAT IS AUTOETHNOGRAPHY?
Autoethnography is a qualitative research method that utilizes lived experience as evidence with which to explore cultural phenomena. It is often described as a hybrid form of ethnography & autobiography in that autoethnographers use lived experience to explore cultural issues. Autoethnography then can be a purposeful short story, a video monologue, a gallery of images, a quilt, a song, a poem, a dinner menu, artwork, and even a live performance when such expressions also celebrate or investigate cultural experiences. We recommend the following article as a user-friendly primer on the basics of autoethnography:
- Autoethnography: An Overview (Adams, Ellis, & Bochner, 2011)
Consider the following discussions of autoethnography from the article above:
Autoethnographers recognize the innumerable ways personal experience influences the research process… Consequently, autoethnography is one of the approaches that acknowledges and accommodates subjectivity, emotionality, and the researcher’s influence on research, rather than hiding from these matters or assuming they don’t exist. [3] When researchers write autoethnographies, they seek to produce aesthetic and evocative thick descriptions of personal and interpersonal experience. They accomplish this by first discerning patterns of cultural experience evidenced by field notes, interviews, and/or artifacts, and then describing these patterns using facets of storytelling (e.g., character and plot development), showing and telling, and alterations of authorial voice. Thus, the autoethnographer not only tries to make personal experience meaningful and cultural experience engaging, but also, by producing accessible texts, she or he may be able to reach wider and more diverse mass audiences that traditional research usually disregards, a move that can make personal and social change possible for more people (BOCHNER, 1997; ELLIS, 1995; GOODALL, 2006; HOOKS, 1994). [14]
Adams, T., Ellis, C., & Bochner, A. (2011). Autoethnography: An overview. FQS, 12(1).
ADVICE FROM THE EDITORS
- Video: What Do Editors Look for When Reviewing Evocative Autoethnography & How Have They Evolved Their Vetting Approach?
- Video: Technicolor Third Space: Why I Developed The AutoEthnographer Magazine
- Article: What Do Editors Look for When Reviewing Evocative Autoethnography?
- Article: How to Embrace Creative Nonfiction
EXAMPLES
- Essay Example: Stray Words, Turbulent Art: Translation, or How to Love English
- Video Example: The Pandemic Nature Project, Filmed Vignettes of Life During COVID
- Duoethnography Example: When Your Student Goes to War
- Fiction Example: Three Bangladeshi Women
- Flash Example: “The Things They Carried,” A Glimpse Into the Funeral Industry
- Poetry Example: “Tired”
- Art Example: Ode to Bygone Birds of Childhood, Part 1 – Drawings
- Multimedia Example: “Drifting,” an Exploration of Sibling Loss
- Dance Example: The Twerking Academic
FAQ’s ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION
- The Autoethnographer is primarily an English language publication. However, we do welcome trans-languaging, multilingualism, and code-switching. If multilingual, the artist’s memo should provide useful context and translations that can help the reader embrace the work. If translated, we encourage submission of both the original language work and the English translation to highlight and celebrate the author’s linguistic choices.
- Each year we also invite thematic submissions in addition to our general submissions; see our SUBMIT page for more info.
- We hold a regular Student Scholarship competition; see our EDUCATION category in the main menu on our website or in our Submittable listings for more info.
- Contributors may be at any stage of their creative journeys and need not have previously published work.
- Submissions are accepted 365 days of the year.
- Because our focus is literary and expressive, works that are theoretical, academic, and/or philosophical are recommended for submission to The Journal of Autoethnography (unaffiliated).
- If accepted, contributors may also be invited to participate in the magazine podcast and biennial print edition.
- We strongly encourage all contributors to review current articles at our magazine before submitting their work to us.
- Please review the Contract and Publication Rights at our website prior to submission; publication implies consent with this policy.
- View our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) HERE.
CATEGORY 1: EVOCATIVE EXPRESSIONS ($25 USD/article)
Expressive works of any medium that have been created as, or in conjunction with, autoethnography. Author’s/Artist’s memos are required for submissions in this category; see below.
Contact the [editor at theautoethnographer dot com] to explore alternatives. For longer works, we welcome pitches for columns and ongoing features. Likewise, we may request to post your work over a number of articles over time in order to create a more suitable audience experience.
If accepted, contributors may also be invited to participate in the magazine podcast and biennial print edition.
We pay $25 USD per article and request a $5 donation submission fee. Your tax deductible donation helps sustain the future of our non-profit magazine; thank you!! Response time is generally within 14 days or sooner.
WRITING
(Fiction or Nonfiction; Flash; Essay; Poetry; Lyrics) – No length requirement but we encourage you to consider the attention span of your non-academic audience and suggest 1000-2000 words max for readability, no minimum; for longer works, we may request serialization. You may also suggest columns and ongoing features. Please submit .doc/.docx files. Please follow APA 7 for general formatting of citations and references when applicable. Click me for more info. While single poems or song lyrics are appreciated and welcomed, we will give preference to a collection of poems or lyrics (3-10 works) due to their breadth and depth. You may also suggest columns and ongoing features. Please submit .doc/.docx files. For longer collections, we may request serialization.
AUDIO, VISUAL, PERFORMANCE
Creative, performing, and fine arts such as singing, spoken word, photography, assemblage, quilting, weaving, sculpting, dancing, potting, painting, drawing, cooking, metalwork, landscaping, make-up, tattooing, jewelry-making, fashion or home decor design, stand-up comedy, performative rituals, etc. should be represented visually or multimodally. No length requirement but please be sensitive to your viewer; for longer works or groups of images/videos/recordings we may request serialization. You may also suggest columns and ongoing features. Work should be presented in .wav/.mp4/.mp3/.mov or .jpeg/.png and may be externally hosted at the time of submission (send the link). HD images and video should be readily available if work is accepted. Contact the [editor at theautoethnographer dot com] if using another file format.
SUBMISSION PROCEDURES
- REVIEW EXAMPLES: We strongly encourage all contributors to review current articles and memos at our magazine before submitting their work to us.
- REMOVE IDENTIFYING INFO: In order to preserve a fair and impartial vetting process, submissions are refereed anonymously; please ensure that where possible, no identifying information accompanies your submission. You are encouraged to use an alias if necessary for submission purposes; this can later be changed for publication.
- INCLUDE DETAILED AUTHOR’S/ARTIST’S MEMO (300-500 words): An artist’s memo is your opportunity to contextualize or explain your submission in relation to autoethnography; it answers the questions “How is this work autoethnographic, and what cultural issue(s) is/are being addressed?” Evocative expressions submissions that do not include a clear, detailed memo will not be considered for publication.
PREPARATION
Note that as we are a digital magazine, our main goal is to see your article rank highly in searches. To do this, we may edit titles as well as your actual text; we will always do our best to preserve the integrity of your work. Here are some strategies for your submissions:
- Avoid passive tense in your writing.
- Keep sentences short rather than complex.
- Avoid starting 3 or more consecutive sentences with the same first word.
- Use headings as often as possible.
- Use transition words as often as possible.
- Paragraph lengths should be less than 300 words.
- Use a title checker or headline analyzer: https://www.monsterinsights.com/headline-analyzer/
- Identify your keyword or phrase for the article and use it in the title, headers, and 1st paragraph 1st sentence.
CATEGORY 2: TEACHING/LEARNING/PERFORMING AUTOETHNOGRAPHY ($25 USD/article)
This category is ONLY for submissions that reflectively explore the teaching, learning, or performing of autoethnography with the intent to educate others or to produce content that can be utilized in educational settings. For example:
- Emotional Research: Performing Autoethnography at My Late Father’s Village
- Autoethnography and Culture: Exploring Embodied Inquiry with Celeste Snowber
- Storytelling as Academic Writing: How to Embrace Creative Nonfiction
Essays, stories, lesson plans, workshops, strategies, interviews, reflections on teaching, learning, or performing autoethnography at any level. For book reviews, we’ll send you the book instead of payment and waive the submission fee. Text, audio, video, visual, multimodal submissions accepted. We pay $25 USD per article and request a $5 donation submission fee.
If accepted, the contributor may also be invited to participate in the magazine podcast and biennial print edition.
Your tax deductible donation helps sustain the future of our non-profit magazine; thank you!! Response time is generally within 14 days or sooner.
TEACHING AUTOETHNOGRAPHY
(Essays, stories, lesson plans, workshops, strategies, reflections) – No length requirement but we suggest 1000-2000 words max for readability or 30 mins max for audio or video, no minimum; for longer works, we may request serialization. You may also suggest columns and ongoing features. Please submit .doc/.docx files. Please follow APA 7 for general formatting of citations and references when applicable. Click me for more info.
Note that creative work (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, flash, essays, and lyrics) should be submitted to the category “14-Day Response: Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction, Flash, Essays, Lyrics”. This category is ONLY for submissions that reflectively explore the teaching, learning, or performing of autoethnography with the intent to educate others or to produce content that can be utilized in educational settings.
SUBMISSION PROCEDURES
- REVIEW EXAMPLES: We strongly encourage all contributors to review current articles at our magazine before submitting their work to us.
- REMOVE IDENTIFYING INFO: In order to preserve a fair and impartial vetting process, submissions are refereed anonymously; please ensure that where possible, no identifying information accompanies your submission. You are encouraged to use an alias if necessary for submission purposes; this can later be changed for publication.
PREPARATION
Note that as we are a digital magazine, our main goal is to see your article rank highly in searches. To do this, we may edit titles as well as your actual text; we will always do our best to preserve the integrity of your work. Here are some strategies for your submissions:
- Avoid passive tense in your writing.
- Keep sentences short rather than complex.
- Avoid starting 3 or more consecutive sentences with the same first word.
- Use headings as often as possible.
- Use transition words as often as possible.
- Paragraph lengths should be less than 300 words.
- Use a title checker or headline analyzer: https://www.monsterinsights.com/headline-analyzer/
- Identify your keyword or phrase for the article and use it in the title, headers, and 1st paragraph 1st sentence.
PAYMENT
We pay $25 USD per article and request a $5 donation submission fee. Your tax deductible donation helps sustain the future of our magazine; thank you!