Queries and Essays: For features (1,200 to 1,800 words) and Field Notes (300 to 600 words), please send a query letter or email that briefly summarizes your story and explains why it would be of interest to our readers. If your idea shows potential, we may make suggestions to help you shape the story to the magazine's requirements. For essays (such as A Sense of Place, 800 to 1,200 words), please send a complete manuscript for our review. We receive more essays than feature pitches, so we publish only writers who fully understand essay mechanics and style. For all articles, keep your language clear and direct, use quotes and anecdotes liberally, and feel free to use first-person narration as a device for pulling your reader into the story.
Audience: As you pitch stories or write essays, keep our readers in mind. Nearly all of them live in Minnesota and look to Minnesota Conservation Volunteer to provide information about the state's natural resources and outdoor recreation. This bimonthly magazine of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources circulates to more than 120,000 subscribers in Minnesota—including all schools and libraries in the state—and has a readership of nearly half a million. It is uniquely supported by contributions from its readers.
Editing: Your story may be extensively edited; most Minnesota Conservation Volunteer stories are. We expect the author to vouch for facts, names, and quotations included in the story. To verify facts and ensure accuracy, we may call sources in the story.
If you have questions about submitting your work to the magazine or about subject matter, please contact managing editor Keith Goetzman. He'll be glad to discuss your work and its possible use in Minnesota Conservation Volunteer.
[email protected]
651-259-5338
Minnesota Conservation Volunteer,
DNR, 500 Lafayette Road,
St. Paul, MN 55155-4046
