Summary

Jay, the new editor of Medium's Human Parts, is seeking personal essays that reflect individual experiences and perspectives, emphasizing creativity, identity, and other life aspects, while providing specific guidelines for submissions.

Abstract

Jay has taken over as the editor of Human Parts, a Medium publication dedicated to personal essays that range from the mundane to the extraordinary. The publication is looking for essays that are deeply personal, reflective of the author's voice, and cover topics such as creativity, family, identity, love, mental health, and spirituality. Jay emphasizes the desire for stories that are engaging and inspiring, encouraging readers to write themselves. Submissions should be first-person essays, and the publication is not interested in reported features, general advice, or marketing content. The submission guidelines are clear: existing Human Parts writers should submit through Medium, while new writers should email their drafts and Medium profile to a specified email address. Jay assures a response time of 1-4 weeks and emphasizes a preference for well-crafted stories with a clear narrative structure and a credited photo.

Opinions

Jay values personal storytelling that is humorous, sad, or otherwise emotionally resonant, as long as it is well-written.
The editor is not interested in life advice, marketing content, or cultural commentary.
Multi-part stories, pseudonyms, and posts with numerous bold subheadings are discouraged.
Essays should have descriptive titles and subtitles, and be copyedited for clarity and quality.
Jay is open to a diverse range of stories, regardless of the writer's following or publishing history, and promises to respond to every submission.
The preference is for essays that are specific and personal, aligning with the motto of Human Parts.

Hi, I’m the new editor of Human Parts

And I want to read your writing

UPDATE 10/13/23 SEE BELOW!

You know those late night conversations with friends when you end up telling your best stories? Those are the ones I want.

I want to collect your beautiful gems in the little eggplant-colored suede pouch that I got from Museum Village when I was 12. I bought it to hold my childhood collection of hand-blown glass marbles, the existence of which is one of the least queer things about me — if you’re wondering. I’ve lost all my marbles since then. Take any of that however you want.

Human Parts backstory you can skip: My name is Jay (it used to be Laura but that’s MY story) and I want to hear your story. Steph (who created Human Parts) and Harris (a little gay man boy who edited the collection for a long time) wrote a good post about what fits well here. I am not as experimental (smart) as them and have a slightly different taste (salty), so I edited and updated the submission guidelines to reflect those changes.

Human Parts is Medium’s home for personal essays and perspectives — from the mundane to the extraordinary to everything in between. More than anything, we strive to inspire our readers to close their browsers and start writing themselves.

We’re most interested in stories that make us want to write: nonfiction with creative form and voice, like Adeline Dimond’s I’m Afraid to Move and Savala Nolan’s On Having Friends Who Still Diet; brave, intimate storytelling that illuminates the broader human condition like Mindy Stern’s Adoption is Trauma; and imaginative writing that doesn’t take itself too seriously like Kate Stone Lombardi’s Separation Anxiety: It’s Not Just for Toddlers and Dan Kadlec’s Ripples in the Sand.

Stories about the following topics are desired:

Creativity: Making things, breaking things, and finding your voice.
Family: Perspectives on parenting, childhood, and everything in between.
Identity: On the art of self-definition.
Love + Sex: Stories about who we connect with, and why.
Mental Health: Dealing with the mess inside our minds.
Spirituality: Brief encounters with the divine.

What isn’t for Human Parts? Things that aren’t first-person essays probably won’t work.

Human Parts is not looking for reported features or for you to tell someone else’s story. Also: Please don’t submit general advice, self-help, or a post that is meant to market anything. Tell us how you live your life, rather than telling us how we should live ours.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Please submit through Medium if you are already a Human Parts writer. Follow up with an email is necessary only if there is something you need to tell me about the post. Otherwise you will receive an accept/decline of the post within Medium.

If you are not a Human Parts writer and would like to become one, email [email protected] with a relevant, unpublished draft and your Medium profile.

UPDATE 10/13/23: Thank you for your response and submissions. Email turnaround is 1 day — 4 weeks. Trying to get it to 1–2 weeks. Give me your Medium handle or nothing will happen, generally. If it’s timely (it probably isn’t) you can put “timely” in the subject and I might see that.

I don’t care how many Medium followers you have, or where else you published — only if your writing is good. I like things that are funny just as much as things that are sad. I respond to every single person.

Please — apparently it bears repeating — don’t submit life advice. Don’t submit something solely designed to get people to sign up for your podcast or for your newsletter or for someone else’s podcast or newsletter or to buy something. Please don’t submit anything with “these days,” or “nowadays,” in it. Please don’t submit cultural commentary.

I love poetry, but please don’t submit poetry because this is an essay collection. We don’t accept multi-part stories. We don’t love pseudonyms. Stories with a beginning, middle, and end, that are about you, are best. It doesn’t hurt if they’re copyedited. Speaking of copyediting, please don’t submit posts with lots of bold subheadings throughout. Also, please have a descriptive, not figurative, title AND a subtitle. Lastly, please have a photo with a credited source.

The Human Parts motto is: Personal and Specific.

I promise I’m not as mean as I sound. I love you all. Thank you for your interest in contributing. I looking forward to reading your work!