- Cuisine
- Giving
- Green Utah
- History
- In the Elements
- Moveable Type
- Out of Bounds
- Speed
- Style and Structure
- Sublime
- Wasatch Journal Index
- Well-Being
Welcome to the Wasatch Journal. We are a new quarterly magazine; we published our inaugural issue in July 2007. We’re part of a family of high-quality literary, art, and lifestyle magazines in the West, including the
Big Sky Journal in Montana and Tahoe Quarterly.
The Wasatch Journal seeks passionate stories about Utah’s arts, culture, and outdoors. We select articles based on the quality of the idea and on the quality of the writing. With that in mind, be prepared to pitch not only your story or essay idea but why you should write it. All stories must have the possibility of stunning visual imagery.
Every pitch should have a clear, distinct, discriminating angle—an event, a person, or a specific conceit. All queries must have a working headline, a suggested lead or opening section idea, and a two-to-three-paragraph synopsis that establishes the storyline. Show us the transcendent element people will remember when they put the magazine down. We want strong opening hooks and dramatic storytelling throughout.
We accept email queries only. We pay 35 cents per word based on final word count. See below for specific guidelines for features and for each department within the Wasatch Journal. All stories must have a list of sources, including phone numbers, email addresses, and Websites. If we’re interested in your story idea, we will contact you for further information. We accept queries on an ongoing basis and plan up to a year in advance.
The Wasatch Journal is about creating a sense of place for Utah. We are especially interested in stories based in the mountain country, including Park City. We are also looking for stories from the redrock regions. However, good writing will seduce us to other locations of interest to Utah residents and visitors.
The features should evoke our sense of place in unexpected, fresh ways. Be creative with your topics. For example, we don’t want round-ups (except on our Website, as sidebars). But we would love a story that gets underneath the experience and allows us to feel why someone would go to, say, all the music festivals in the state. Also keep in mind that we are not a news magazine. We approach issues through the people who experience them.
Voice is as important as topic: excellent, distinctive reporting, nature writing, creative nonfiction, profiles, and first-person essays may all find their way into the features section. And again, all stories must have the possibility of stunning visual imagery. Features will tend to be 2,000 to 2,500 words in length.
Send feature queries to managing editor Dorothee Kocks, dorotheekocks@thewasatchjournal.com.
The Wasatch Journal invites published authors and winners of any writing contest to submit fiction for its quarterly magazine. Stories must either be written by a Utah author; be set at least in part in a Utah location; or touch on a subject of vital interest to Wasatch Journal readers, such as skiing or any other of Utah's many outdoor pursuits. Within these categories, we confess to a preference for stories with a Utah setting.
All fiction submissions should be sent via email to fiction@thewasatchjournal.com.
Most issues also include one or two poems that touch on an announced theme. For Summer 2008, we have already accepted a poem. For Early Winter 2008, we invite poems on the theme of falling. We accept up to five submissions from each writer per issue. We pay $75 per poem.
All poetry submissions should be sent via email to poetry@thewasatchjournal.com.
Do not send any poems or short stories by regular mail. We use email only. Please provide biographical information in the body of the email and send the story or poem in an attachment with no identifying information. We judge the selections anonymously.
For the short-story submissions, the body of the email should include full reference information for at least one prior publication or for the writing contest that you won. You may submit fiction even if you won a contest or published previously only in creative nonfiction.
Tom Groneberg’s story “Small World” won the Quick-Draw short-short story contest for a new Western. Groneberg won a $1,000 prize and publication in the Winter 2008 of the Wasatch Journal. We did not select any runners-up. Thanks to all the writers from around the country who submitted entries. Check back soon for a new fiction contest in the Wasatch Journal.
The Wasatch Journal runs several but not all of these departments in each issue, including the special issue of GIVING. Department stories should be about 1,000 to 1,500 words. Please send department story ideas to query@thewasatchjournal.com.
The Arts (visual and performance arts)
Write something that gets us into the art scene. Let us live and breathe it. Show us the stakes involved for visual and performance artists; bring us into the experience of creativity. Make us perspire at the private moment of discovery or at the public moment of opening night. Profiles are good; profiles that make our hearts race are better. Round-ups and reviews may be considered for our Website. For the magazine, we want to be there—through your words.
Rhythm (music)
Musicians are unusual. The engineer-looking person with pens in a plastic pocket-protector might rock out at night. And the cheerleader might be a concert cellist. We want to know what makes the person into a musician; we want to know what makes a venue become a living, breathing stage for transcendent experiences on this earth. Go for it: Make your writing sing.
Film
Utah’s got it: the cachet, the brand, the history of good filmmaking. Let us know what’s coming and going; what's in the works and what has been—but do it with an eye toward history. What will be memorable 20 years from now about film and digital entertainment arts?Giving
Beginning in 2009, we will add a regular department that highlights philanthropic or non-profit organizations, or spectacular volunteers.
Moveable Type (books)
We want stories that give readers an experience of the book and book-lovers' world of Utah. Get inside the head (and hands) of an established writer, or tell tales of a book group; provide an angle into the intermountain West’s publishing world, or write an ode to a bookstore or to the heroism of a persistent “emerging writer” on a recon trip to NYC. Make the world of reading sexy.
Style and Structure
This department covers architecture, interior design, and the people who focus their passion on creating special spaces. We’re interested in showcase homes, green homes, extraordinary commercial spaces, and designs of any kind that bring the world to Utah, and Utah to the world. We’re also interested in how cultural currents at large affect Utah’s styles and structures. The piece should be extremely photo friendly.Sublime
This department briefly showcases the highest quality goods for the mountain and desert lifestyle. Send ideas to editor William Kerig at williamkerig@thewasatchjournal.com.
In the Elements (outdoors)
Utah is the place. You’ve heard it before. You’ve heard it in lots of contexts. Here, we brag: No one else has got what we’ve got. The greatest snow on earth. Wilderness trailheads located 20 minutes from downtown. Kite-skiing in Park City. A wicked lake. And then there's the redrock country.
We’re not about how-to; we’re about why. No lists, no instructionals. This is your opportunity to go in depth. Be fresh. Give us stories that make us feel the spirit of adventure, or define the Zen of a sport. Tell us what makes people passionate about the Utah outdoors.
Our magazine will be in airports. Let travelers know why Utah is becoming a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts and outdoor companies. Let our readers know why so many of us come here for a time—and end up staying. Be sure to let us know about ways to illustrate the story.
Well-being (health and wellness)
Give us bodies: beautiful bodies, ordinary bodies, every body, and stories of how people maintain their health and vitality in this state. We are particularly interested in stories about the outdoors as elixir. We also want to know about exceptional alternative or mainstream health practitioners with a passion for enhancing the enthusiasm for life. Explain why health and wellness have put Utah on the world map.
Green Utah
Like the rest of the world, Utah is looking into ways to go green. We want to discover how people are going about it, from sustainable architecture to organic farmers. We’ll be thrilled if you can portray the challenges and enthusiasm of those exploring green territory.
History
Utah has a diverse past: Tell us about it in a way that deepens our common sense of humanity. The past is full of thrills, exotic personalities, and adventure, but it is also a place of conflict. Don’t shy away from the conflict. When you write about it, focus on the human element. Deepen our sense of what it has meant to live in this particular place. We will consider everything from archeology and paleontology to oral-history interviews—as well as creative explorations into little-known aspects of pioneer, Native American, mining, or skiing history.
Illustrations for history articles can be challenging. For this reason, submit queries early. Provide specific information to the art director about resources, such as photographs (of course) but also historical objects, maps, portraits, or other visual elements related to your topic.
Out of Bounds
Sometimes creative geniuses wear three-piece suits. Punk snowboarders can invent sophisticated computer games. In this section, we define culture more broadly to include anyone and anything that breaks boundaries: between science and art; business and culture; West and East. Pitch us something unusual.
Speed
For decades, car enthusiasts have skimmed across Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats looking to break land-speed records. But that's just one way people look for adrenaline rushes in Utah. Why do we seek the rush, and what does it give us? We're looking for stories taking us into the minds of those who come to Utah seeking adventure or behind the scenes in the places they find it. Take this topic into some area we don't expect.
Wasatch Journal Index
For ideas for the Wasatch Journal Index, a one-page rundown of statistics on a theme, please email query@thewasatchjournal.com.
