Call for Submissions

A desire path is a trail that forms when enough footsteps choose the same deviation from the official route. These foot-worn edits to the landscape are small acts of free will. A desire path says: I want to go this way.

What do you desire? Often, desire paths are born from to the collective urge to get where we're going, faster. But sometimes they emerge from other desires: to follow the river's edge, to seek out the shade, or to tell a specific story. If the red-bricked Freedom Trail is Boston's official historic walking route, then the  Women's Heritage Trail and the Black Heritage Trail are the "desire paths" that emerged alongside it. So are the makeshift memorials along street corners, the pop-up basketball courts in empty lots, zine racks in indie bookstores, parks that sprung up where people fought against highway development and won, backroom jazz sessions and open mic nights, community fridges, and the little free libraries —each one a path carved by people who wanted something more, or something different, and acted on that want.

Who creates a desire path?  A deer-path diverges from a hiking trail. Rainwater creates rivulets in a hillside. Urban trail planner Miles Howard finds the hidden connections between walkable city environments and links them together into meandering explorations of Boston's neighborhoods.

We want your off-route stories and strange detours. Show us the places where the ground gave way to instinct or repetition or longing. What do you return to? What trails have you made or followed, knowingly or not? 

As always, we will prioritize work that fits best with the season of the issue (Fall/Winter in the Charles River Basin). 

Eligible Regions

All submissions must be based on a specific place within the Charles River Basin, Greater Boston, MA.

Arlington — Ashland — Bellingham — Belmont — Boston — Brookline — Cambridge — Dedham — Dover — Foxborough — Franklin — Holliston — Hopedale — Hopkinton — Lexington — Lincoln — Medfield — Medway — Mendon — Milford — Millis — Natick — Needham — Newton — Norfolk — Sherborn — Somerville — Walpole — Waltham — Watertown — Wayland — Wellesley — Weston — Westwood — Wrentham

FORMATS

We accept a very wide range of formats, including personal essays, reporting, poetry, paintings, drawings, multimedia, maps, field guides, recipes, instructions.

SUBMISSION PROCESS

Applicants will be notified of their submission status within 90 days. Those chosen for publication will receive a free copy of the issue via snail mail.