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Submission Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in submitting to CubaCounterpoints! Cuba Counterpoints welcomes collaborations, particularly from academics, art curators and critics, and journalists.  We gladly consider unsolicited submissions. We are most interested in essays that balance the scholarly analysis of current events with a lively and compelling, jargon-free style, for a general audience. We also accept creative writing, as well as short and specialized pieces for the various webzine sections.Academics with no prior experience on writing for the general public might be interested in reading : “The Personal Touch” (a Chronicle of Higher Education advice piece to academics on how to wrote op-eds) and/or “How to Write a Blog Post From Your Journal Article.” Please also check our archives for samples of what we consider to be CubaCounterpoints material.

Please, send your submissions to [email protected] or to the appropriate sections, as per their description below. Although you may submit to more than one section at once, we will only publish one piece at a time. The following sections have specific requirements. For all others or  for submissions that might not seem to fit any of the current sections, or for ideas for new sections, contact the general editor.

FEATURES. Features’ editors ask for articles with a current news orientation but that have a scholarly foundation and therefore offer informed analyses written from a position of knowledge and/or experience. We are most interested in texts that point at unusual associations, offer innovative perspectives on issues of contemporary concern, or link concrete events to broader processes and concerns. Texts must be around 1,000-1,500 words in length, and be written in a compelling style. If interested, please contact [email protected].

OFF THE PRESS has very detailed requirements for book review submissions. Please click HERE to read them.

STORIES‘ editors will consider unsolicited submissions of original fiction and creative nonfiction by Cuban and Cuban American authors OR submissions that engage the general themes and concerns of Cuba Counterpoints, regardless of the author’s country of origin or cultural identification. (We occasionally publish poetry but by invitation only). While we appreciate experimental writing, we require the piece to have a wide appeal. Submissions need to be unpublished in English anywhere. If forthcoming as part of a book, we will decide on a case-by-case basis. Novel excerpts need to stand alone as independent pieces. Maximum length: 3,500 words. Please contact this section through the general email, [email protected], writing “for stories” in the subject line.

SOUVENIRS welcomes short essays that discuss objects significant to Cuba and its diaspora. Submissions should include an essay (between 800 and 1,000 words) as well as one or more images in jpeg, gif or png format. Please contact Kristine Juncker at [email protected] with “souvenirs” on the subject line.

Before submitting, please read the following information:

FORMAT: Your document needs to be formatted in the following manner:

  • MS-word (clean copy, not showing revision markings)
  • 1 inch-margins
  • Pages unnumbered
  • Single-space
  • 12 pt. font
  • 1 space after colon or semicolon
  • Do NOT indent paragraphs
  • Hyperlinks embedded in the text
  • Use spell-check and make sure you are using U.S. standard English spelling
  • Eliminate footnotes and endnotes. Integrate the information within the text or use hyperlinks instead if the reference is online. If unavoidable, do not format them: add them as regular text at the very end of your article.
  • Foreign language words or phrases need to be appropriately translated into English (you might include the original in a footnote or a link or in parenthesis if short)
  • All references should be made in-text, rather than as footnotes or endnotes. Use the anthropological convention of putting author’s last name and publication year in parenthesis (e.g.  (Pérez 2003)). Then list full citation separately at the end.

IMAGES: Images need to be submitted on their own, and never embedded in the text. Images included with your submission need to have a high resolution (about 300k minimum if a .JPG file, to be on the safe side). However, we prefer TIFF, and PNG formats (1,500 x 2,100 pixels, or 300 dpi). Images should be horizontal. Vertically oriented images will be cropped to fit the layout format of the site.

LANGUAGE: We only publish work in English. However, we will be happy to accept your piece in Spanish. If accepted for publication, your Spanish piece will be translated into English.

AUTHOR’S BIO: Please include a short biography (1-2 sentences) with your piece. We will need it, if we decide to publish your work.

RESPONSE TIME: Please expect to hear back from us within 1-3 weeks. We appreciate your patience, as we move toward your piece.

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED WORK: CubaCounterpoints only considers unpublished work, and that includes Facebook (if posted for public viewing) and blogs. Original translations of an original already-published work will be considered on case-by-case basis.

COMPENSATION:  Compensation is contingent on funding and on the requirements of specific donations.  As of now, our funds are uncertain and fluctuate. Authors will be informed of whether we can compensate and how much. We hope to one day enjoy a stable income and therefore compensate authors, translators and illustrators adequately.

COPYRIGHT: Cuba Counterpoints supports the Creative Commons principle of free dissemination, which we understand as the free link and referencing of our material on the web, or photocopying for educational uses. Copyright, however, is reserved in all languages (unless agreed on a case-by-case basis). This means that material may not be reproduced. References to our material need to identify both the author and Cuba Counterpoints prominently. Authors are only free to  republish/reprint their work elsewhere after but no sooner than 6 months following publication in CubaCounterpoints.  Should the work be republished elsewhere at some later date, we require a courtesy acknowledgment.

ARTICLE TITLE: The editors reserve the right to change the submitted article’s title as well as to carry out minor textual changes that do not affect meaning, such as copy editing and spell check.

AUTHORS’ RELEASE: By submitting your work, you are acknowledging that you agree to all of these Terms and Conditions should we select to use your work for our publication.

INQUIRIES? Email [email protected]

IF YOU ARE READY TO SUBMIT, PLEASE DO SO BY SENDING YOUR ARTICLE AS AN ATTACHMENT TO THE APPROPRIATE SECTION EDITOR OR TO [email protected]

OPPORTUNITIES

VOLUNTEER! At present, CubaCounterpoints is a volunteer organization with extremely limited funding for authors and visual media providers in Cuba. In some instances, we appoint donated funds to accomplish technical matters. We depend on the hard work of our editors and contributors. If you are looking for more experience in the world of editing, from image editing and web-design, we’re eager to hear from you. Please send a short letter and a copy of your curriculum vitae to [email protected].