Submission Guidelines

Thanks for wanting to share your story and creativity with Velvet Ashes!

We are a community of women living and serving abroad–and we would love for you to offer your words here. We’ll be richer for hearing from you.

We believe truth and hope are best shared through story. And the power of story lies in authentic vulnerability fueled by love. As you prepare a post for Velvet Ashes you may want to read What is Velvet Ashes, We are Women Who, and Responsible, Ethical Storytelling. Poke around to get a sense for what this community is all about.

We sit with a theme for the whole month. There will be one blog post per week, which will give more time to ponder together. Openings for submissions are more limited than they have been in the past when we had 3-4 posts per week. 

The questions and suggestions following each prompt are merely ideas to get you going. Feel free to take your own unique angle on the prompt. Themes with openings are listed below.  

Healing (due March 20): We all have areas that need the tender touch of our God who heals. What does the word ‘healing’ stir up in you? How has Jesus tended to you and to your wounds? 

Travel (due April 15): In many ways we are the travel experts, but we are also the crowd that just can’t get enough. We want to know your travel adventures and escapades, and also your best top tips for travel. This can be for airplane travel, furlough trekking, in-country excursions, and more! 

Justice (due May 17): We know we have a just God. Yet we often find ourselves discouraged, overwhelmed and confused in the face of injustice. What do we do? Here in the Velvet Ashes community we want to be a place where we can have the hard and important conversations. So let’s approach this topic with grace for one another and vulnerability to share how we are seeking to be people of justice, kindness and humility in a world full of oppression, hatred, and arrogance.

Your submission should:

  • Be in the neighborhood of 600-900 words.
  • Be submitted as a Word doc or docx only.
  • Include your name and the title of your post in the document itself as well as in the doc title (example: Sarah Doe – Post Title Here.doc). We do accept pseudonyms as required by context or location.
  • Be original content. We publish content that has not been published elsewhere, including personal blogs.
  • Be aware that essays for online publication need only one space after periods/full stops. This will save us loads of time in the editing process.
  • Conclude with a reflective question to invite conversation in the comments.
  • Include a headshot and personal bio. Headshots should be attached (not in the body of your submission) and no larger than 600 x 600 px. Bios should be 100 words or less, telling us a bit about you, but mostly drawing readers to feel a connection to you. Please include all your social media hyperlinks so that readers can connect with you and so we can tag you when we share your post.

Please send your submission to Sarah at: submissions (at) velvetashes (dot) com

We do have limited spots available. If selected for publication, posts may be edited for length and clarity. We do not offer compensation for published work.

In addition to full-length blog posts, we also have up to four spots per month for micro-blogs! Published on our social media sites, micro-blogs are 200-300 words related to the monthly topic. Micro-blog submissions should be succinct and well-written. Send your micro-blog submissions to the address above! 

We look forward to reading and prayerfully considering your piece. If you don’t hear from us immediately, please don’t be alarmed. We’ll be in touch!

Thank you for the gift of your story,

– The Velvet Ashes Team