Vulgata  Non-Fiction Guidelines

Vulgata is looking for high-quality articles that address issues of interest in Catholic apologetics and culture. Our highest criterion is originality: send us your new ideas, things that you are unsure about, that you think, “Oh, well, that's a realy good idea but nobody would be willing to publish it.” One caveat: the work has to stay within the realm of orthodox Catholicism. If it's some really cutting edge, new thought about why it really would be a good idea to ordain gay sea-lions, you'll have to send it somewhere else. If it's a tentative theology of ghosts, working from the appearances that they make in scripture, combined with various things that appear in the Church Fathers, the writings of C. S. Lewis, and the Romantic Poets, then we're probably interested.

Query first. A good query should tell us what your idea is, what your primary sources are going to be for research, an approximate word count, and what qualifications you have. The latter should not be neglected – and the qualifications don't need to be academic, nor do they need to be professional writing credits – but it should also not be overdone. If you've been published in seventy-three different academic journals, and you've taught at fifteen different Universities, and you have degrees in everything from advanced astro-physics to metaphysical fly-fishing, only list the most relevant things. “I've been published in dozens of publications including...” and then list the top three. No more than three lines of print should be spilled on this.

Stating your idea, on the other hand, should be given more care. Give a one paragraph outline, clearly stating your thesis, giving an idea of how you intend to argue your position, and letting us know why you find this idea exciting. In general, try to show, not tell, us that you have something interesting to say about your subject matter.

Queries should also let us know whether this is an article that already exists, and if not, how long you think it will take you to write it. Please keep in mind that acceptance of a query doesn't necessarily translate into acceptance of the finished work.

Read some of our articles to get an idea of what sort of thing we're interested in. Keep in mind that while we are not opposed to articles on abortion, divorce, contraception, homosexuality, etc. these are topics that have been done to death in the Catholic press, and that have already been covered extensively in Vulgata. If you have something ground-breaking to say about them, send it along. Otherwise, try to send us something that people aren't talking about, but that you think they should be.

Submit queries to slushpile@vulgatamagazine.org

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