Newsletter Submissions
Submission Guidelines: Introspective Spaces Newsletter
Welcome, writers. We're so glad you're here!
Note: You do not have to be "a writer" to submit!
Our Purpose
The Introspective Spaces newsletter + Substack reaches over 1,500+ readers who come to us for nourishment and to remember 'there's one of us in every department.' Our readers are a very wide variety of clinicians from front line staff, to institutional leaders, to mental health professionals, and other healers who who have maintained some belief that a different way is possible in healthcare. Our people are dreamers who value reimagination, community, and that people over profit could become true again.
The goal of each piece is to create a moment of genuine reflection — something a reader might carry with them through the rest of their week and remember that we are not navigating this journey of staying human in healthcare, on our own.
Your piece will be considered for our Newsletter or Substack for publication.
What We Publish
We welcome essays, reflections, poems, book responses, and creative nonfiction across our core themes:
Creativity — a path to healing and meaning whether for our own wellness or a clinical tool
Contemplative Practice — see the contemplative tree for ideas: https://maiaduerr.com/tree-of-contemplative-practices/
Spirituality/ Mutuality/ Liberation— tracing the invisible threads that connect us to one another, to our patients, and to the natural world (and to a higher power); Our outcomes our bound together/ Nobody is free till we are all free
Justice & Equity — the systemic, the structural, the deeply human
Books, Art & Poetry — responses, what a work of art opened in you
Clinical Life— our shared experience of continually opening ourselves to other human's suffering as we also struggle in a system of inhumanity
These themes overlap — and the most interesting pieces often live at the intersection of two or more of them.
What Makes a Good Submission
The best pieces do one of a few things:
Take something personal and make it universal. Begin with a specific moment, image, or encounter — then let it open outward. A conversation with a patient. A line from a poem. A morning walk. Readers connect to the particular before they can receive the universal.
Sit with complexity rather than resolve it. We are not looking for tidy conclusions. Pieces that stay in the question, that hold tension, that resist easy answers — these are often the most resonant.
Formats
Format
Word Count
Personal essay / reflection500–1,200 words
Poem or prose poem - No strict limit — but consider the reader's breath
Book or art review response 300–800 words (connect to the clinicians life)
Short contemplation or practice200–500 words
If your piece doesn't fit neatly into one of these, submit it anyway and tell us what it is.
Submission Requirements
Please submit the following:
Your piece (as a Word doc, Google Doc link, or plain text submitted into the box below)
A 2–3 sentence bio written in third person
A photo of yourself (optional, but encouraged)
A note about yourself — what drew you to write this
How to Submit
We review on a rolling basis and aim to respond within 4–6 weeks.
Questions?
Email us at hello@introspectivespaces.com
Progress over Perfection!!!!! Submit it Anyways!
Introspective Spaces is committed to publishing a diversity of voices, experiences, and perspectives. We actively encourage submissions from writers who are BIPOC, LGBTQ+, disabled, and from communities underrepresented in medicine and publishing.