Welcome!   

The Departure Lounge accepts submissions for original personal essays, listicles, Q&As, opinion and reported pieces about closure and completions—honorable and otherwise.  We also welcome multimedia projects such as video and cartoons/illustrations. 

Written submissions can be as short as one paragraph or as long as 800 words (max).

We look to publish frank and open pieces about all aspects of closure, no matter where you are in the process and seek out a wide range of voices. Please note, we do not publish fiction or poetry. 

Laugh-out-loud funny? Great. Rabble-rousing? Yes. Provocative? Please. Politically correct?  Not necessarily. The personal essays we run tend to be tightly focused on that month’s theme, zeroing in on your key learning’s from an experience, rather than an overview of one’s journey.

As our small but mighty team handles all the submissions we appreciate your patience with our reply. We promise to email you prior to publication if we'd like to proceed with your offereing. 

Approved submissions can be published anonymously. We realize many stories are sensitive and some will be freer in their expression if they have the assurance of anonymity. 

A word about timing: Submissions are due by the last day of the month, for release the following month. For example, submissions received by December 31st have the possibility of being chosen to post by January 31st.