Share your story, jokes, photos, and art
AA members around the world have been submitting their personal stories, their experience, strength and hope, their ups, downs, and in-betweens to Grapevine since 1944. Why not join them? You don’t need to have had prior publishing experience. All you need is a little willingness and the desire to share. Here are some suggestions to help you. Grapevine is published both as a monthly, print magazine and frequently updated website.
Read the Editorial Policy here.
Here are suggestions and tips for submitting your art, photos, and writing:
WRITING ARTICLES
Before writing, you might want to leaf through a few issues to see what kinds of articles are published. Most are first-person accounts of the writer’s experience with alcoholism and AA. Grapevine publishes stories for special departments such as Emotional Sobriety, Sponsorship, Newcomers, What’s On Your Mind?, Young & Sober, Old-Timers, Spiritual Awakenings, Service and Home Group, as well as articles about each Step and Tradition, jokes for “At Wit’s End” and letters for “Dear Grapevine.” But you are not confined to these topics. The editors are always looking for innovative material, as long as it relates to AA experience and reflects an awareness of AA’s singleness of purpose. Articles are reviewed by the editorial staff and selected by consensus.
WHAT GRAPEVINE DOES NOT PUBLISH
Poems, prayers, song lyrics, tributes to individuals, plays, previously published material or anything unrelated to AA or that violates the principles of AA.
LENGTH AND FORMAT
Grapevine publishes work of different lengths, from snappy one-liners and one-paragraph anecdotes to five- or six-page articles. Suggested manuscript length is 300 to 1800 words or three to five double-spaced typed pages. Handwritten manuscripts should be written clearly on one side of the paper.
TIMING
The process of article selection for any issue begins about five months before the cover date. Take the December issue as an example: Articles are selected around the beginning of August; the editing and production process takes three months; and the issue comes off the press in early November, in time to be mailed to subscribers by the cover date. As a result, a holiday-themed story mailed to Grapevine in November would arrive after the December issue is already printed. (It might, however, be saved for the following December issue.)
PDF file version here
SUBMITTING ARTICLES, LETTERS, AND JOKES
To submit your story, letter or joke, upload here and follow the easy directions. If you need, you may also mail your submission to Grapevine, Editorial Dept., 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115 or email it to [email protected]. Include your full name, address, phone number, and email address. Important: Please keep a copy of your work, as manuscripts cannot be returned.
Please do not submit any content via the website that you have already submitted via email.
SUBMITTING PHOTOS, ILLUSTRATIONS, AND CARTOONS
Grapevine uses members’ photographs, drawings, and paintings when they relate to specific articles. We are also looking for photos of your AA meetings (without people) for “If Walls Could Talk,” Grapevine’s gallery of meeting places around the world; original cartoons, never published elsewhere; and photos for the annual Wall Calendar Photo Contest. We also are interested in working with artists who can create professional-quality images from assigned storylines.
IMPORTANT: Photos and art must be sent as high resolution (300 dpi) jpegs. Upload here to submit your work. If needed, prints or CDs of your photos can be mailed to Grapevine, Editorial Dept., 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115. If you are mailing prints, each photo or piece of artwork should be clearly marked with your name, address, phone number, and email address. “If Walls Could Talk” submissions also should include the AA group’s name and location.
Revised April 2019