24 Publications that Pay for Writing About Philosophy and Culture

Today, for our latest roundup of publishers, we have a list of 24 publications that pay for writing about philosophy and culture.

We’ve researched payment rates, pitch guidelines, and more, to help you connect with the right editor.

If you want to browse even more opportunities, be sure to check out our database of over 1,500 publishers that pay writers. It’s easily searchable, and includes thousands of listings just like the ones below.

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1. The American Scholar covers public affairs, literature, history, and culture. They have been around since 1932. They are published quarterly by the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Non-fiction submissions are expected to be no longer than 6,000 words. According to their submissions guidelines, they pay up to $500 for print articles, and up to $250 for articles only published on their website. To learn more, refer to this page.

2. Westerly Magazine publishes creative writing and scholarship from throughout the world, but maintains a special emphasis on Australia, particularly Western Australia, and the Asian region. They publish short stories, poetry, memoir and creative nonfiction, essays and literary criticism. Word count for fiction and creative non-fiction is 3500 words maximum, 5000 words for scholarly articles, and for reviews, it’s 800 words. According to their submissions guidelines, they pay AU$ 250 for one poem or AU$ 300 for a poetic sequence, AU$ 300 for prose (including scholarly work) and visual art/photo essays/comics, and AU$ 180 for online publication (including reviews).

3. The Objective Standard (TOS) is the “preeminent source for commentary from an Objectivist perspective, Objectivism being Ayn Rand’s philosophy of reason, egoism, and capitalism.” Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist and philosopher. They publish articles on a wide range of subjects including politics, law, foreign policy, economics, environmentalism, history, education, parenting, productivity tools and techniques, good living, and travel. According to their pitch guide, they pay 15 cents per word for articles and reviews, and 10 cents per word for interviews. To learn more, refer to this page.

4. The New Inquiry is an online magazine and website of cultural and literary criticism. They are especially interested in reviews of academic works and works in translation. According to their pitch guide, they pay $400 for reviews and essays. For features and interviews they pay $200, and for blog posts $100. To learn more, refer to this page.

5. Long Now is a non-profit organization that fosters long-term thinking. Their pitch guide says, “Our work encourages imagination at the timescale of civilization — the next and last 10,000 years — a timespan we call the long now.” They want stories that explore the ‘long now’ of climate change, the rise and fall of civilizations, biotechnology and artificial intelligence, economics, architecture, and more. They accept pitches for essays (1,200 – 3,000 words), reported features (1,200 to 3,000 words), interviews (2,000 to 3,000 words), book reviews, shorter articles, fiction, and poems for Ideas, their living archive of long-term thinking. According to their pitch guide, rates begin at $600 for features and essays and range between $300 and $600 for interviews, reviews, science journalism, and news articles. They pay $100 for science fiction stories and $25 for poems.

6. Hammer & Hope is “a magazine of Black politics and culture.” Their aim is to “build a project whose politics and aesthetics reflects the electric spirit of the protesters who flooded the streets in 2020, a project that breathes life into the transformative ideas pointing us towards the world we deserve.” According to their pitch guide, they pay $1.00/word for commentary, $1.33/word for reported features, and $300/25 lines or less, with $6 each additional line for poems.

7. New Humanist is “a quarterly magazine of culture and science.” They welcome feature pitches on culture, ideas, science, and philosophy. They also welcome poems, book reviews, and in-depth reportage. They also accept pitches for their website. According to an old tweet, they pay £350-£500 for features and about 10p/word for reviews and online-only. To pitch them, refer to this page.

8. Aeon’s mission is to explore and communicate knowledge that helps us make sense of ourselves and the world. They ”ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, science, psychology, society and culture.” They are on the hunt for essays pitches, and want pieces that explore the economics of everyday life, take a deep dive into one of the ‘hard’ sciences, illuminate the history of agriculture and husbandry, among other themes. Essays are generally 2,500-5,000 words. Pay rates are not mentioned. To learn more, refer to this page.