Areo publishes essays on politics, culture, science and art, from a variety of perspectives compatible with broadly liberal and humanist values. We try to avoid inflammatory, hyperbolic or wantonly polarising stances, within reason, and prioritize intellectual balance, charity, honesty and rigour.
About 75% of Areo writers are academics or graduate students, who want to write lively, engaging pieces that are not dumbed down but are free from baffling jargon, obscurantism or periphrastic academese. The other 25% of our writers encompasses artists, activists, journalists and anyone with an original idea for which they argue well. We feature both first time writers and veterans of cultural commentary. If you write eloquently and thoughtfully and you have an idea that you wish to explore, submit your piece to Areo, where you will be read by a wide audience of thoughtful and ideologically diverse people.
We do not have a formal maximum or minimum word count, but we generally encourage submissions of between 1,500 and 3,000 words. We rarely publish very brief remarks or notes.
As we receive a large number of submissions, a desk rejection should not be taken to imply that your work is of poor quality. It may simply mean that your piece does not fit our remit, or is too similar to other pieces on file or in our pages. I answer all emails, but due to the high volume of emails, I cannot provide detailed feedback on rejected submissions.
Areo wants:
Thoughtful, well-argued pieces, ideally between 1,500 and 3,000 words. Write as though you were addressing a class of especially bright and engaged undergraduates with no prior knowledge of your subject.
Be clear
Be reasoned
Be evidenced
Be balanced
Be charitable
Be engaging
Be relevant to an international readership
Areo does not want:
Sensationalist, hyperbolic or partisan speaking points
Obscure theoretical, theological or metaphysical musings
Hit pieces on individuals: address ideas rather than people
If you have something to say that is engaging, original and thoughtful, describe the thesis of your piece in a few sentences and then send the completed work to submissions@areomagazine.com as a Word document or in the body of your email. We generally do not accept pieces that have previously appeared elsewhere, nor can we look at submissions that are under current consideration at other publications.
Please note that your piece will be copyedited for readability, concision and to conform to house style. I attempt to retain as much of the writer’s voice as possible and allow all writers to sign off on changes, but I ask for your cooperation as I perform a little topiary on your essay, to get it into its best possible form.
Areo
Style Guide
Spelling
Submissions may be in British or American English, though published pieces will be in UK English.
Punctuation
Use the following appropriately:
Em dash: — used when separating sentence segments. To create an em dash on Macintosh, use “shift” + “alt/option” + “-” together. On a Windows machine, use “ctrl” + “option” + “-”.
En dash: – used between sequences and numbers e.g. 1979–2010. To create an en dash on Macintosh use “alt/option” + “-” together. For a Windows machine an en dash is a little more difficult. You can find the instructions here.
Dash: – used for hyphenation e.g. “slow-witted.”
Spacing
Please don’t use double spacing after periods and full stops.
Quotations
We use double quotation marks for citations. If possible, avoid scare quotes and be sparing with the use of italics for emphasis.
Quotations that are more than three lines long should be set off from the body of the text and placed in italics.
Make sure your commas, full stops and question marks go inside the quotation marks.
Links
Please ensure that the draft you send us has text which is already hyperlinked.
For example don’t send us this:
Areo has a style guide on their website for submissions (www.areomagazine.com/submissions).
Instead:
Areo has a style guide on their website for submissions.
References
Please do not use footnotes, endnotes or a bibliography but incorporate all references into the body of the work. For example,
In The Better Angels of Our Nature, Steven Pinker writes, “For most of the history of civilisation, the practice of slavery was the rule rather than the exception.”
Page numbers are unnecessary.
Peculiars
The names of publications should be italicized. But we omit the “The” in front of publication names. For example, The New Yorker, will be the New Yorker, The New York Times will be the New York Times.
The names of essays and articles are in quotation marks, not italicized. Book, TV, and movie titles are italicized, not in quotation marks.
Editing
I reserve the right to make minor changes to conform to house style. I may, in addition, make somewhat more major changes to improve readability. I value concision highly and may well trim your piece accordingly. Every effort will be made to preserve your meaning. Writers will be able to review and approve all changes before publication.
I aim to get back to you within a week, but it can take longer. If the submission is urgent or timely, specify that in the subject line of your email.
For all further questions: submissions@areomagazine.com