Call for Submissions

Stories for ‘Campfire Stories: Volume II’

The Call for Submissions is now closed.
Selected writers will be informed no later than June 1, 2021

Campfire Stories is an anthology of stories about some of America’s favorite national parks. Intended to be read together around the fire, the collection was created by Ilyssa and Dave Kyu and published by Mountaineers Books in 2018.

Campfire Stories features a diverse range of tales found in the libraries, archives, and communities surrounding our beloved national parks, of Acadia, Great Smoky Mountains, Rocky Mountain, Zion, Yosemite, and Yellowstone. These stories were carefully curated to capture the essence of each park and reignite our imagination about the wild. Over 25,000 copies have been sold to date, including through retailers such as REI, LL Bean, Anthropologie, Terrain, Parks Project and national park stores.

While ‘Campfire Stories’ featured writing from the past 100 years of our national parks, the new ‘Campfire Stories: Volume II’ will share park stories of today.

For the next volume, Ilyssa and Dave are now actively seeking contemporary stories and writers who would like to be a part of this new anthology.

What We’re
Looking For

Like the earlier volume, Campfire Stories: Volume II will strive to capture the essence and highlight the distinctive experiences of each featured park. We're specifically seeking stories that reflect the diversity of all people who visit and enjoy the parks today, not just preserved narratives from our past, and thus are encouraging and prioritizing stories from writers who are Black, indigenous, LGBTQ and people of color.

We’re hoping to collect existing stories as well as to commission new works about the following seven national parks and scenic trails:

• Grand Canyon National Park

• Everglades National Park

• Olympic National Park

• Glacier National Park

• Joshua Tree National Park

• Appalachian National Scenic Trail

• Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail

For more information on the kinds of stories and storytelling mediums we’re looking for, see the Story Criteria below.

Story Submissions

Below, we’ve highlighted the three submission opportunities to be included in Campfire Stories: Volume II:

Submit an existing story.

We’re looking for submissions of existing stories, including any that have been previously published, about the national parks and trails listed above to be republished in this anthology.

We will select 12-18 of these existing stories. Stories must adhere to the criteria outlined below. Stories will be selected no later than June 1, 2021, and writers whose stories are selected will be paid a one-time permissions fee of $150.

Create a new story.

We plan to commission 12-18 stories, based on previous experience(s) in the selected parks and trails. To be commissioned to write a new piece, we ask that you:

• Submit three writing samples that best capture your writing style and that most closely align with the story criteria (listed below). These writing samples do not need to be stories specifically about the relevant national park, trail or the outdoors; and will not be used in any way beyond our review process.

• Submit a one paragraph summary of which park or trail you’d like to write about and why.

  
  We will select writers to create these new works in April - May, 2021, with final drafts due by June 1, 2021. Each commissioned writer will receive a one-time usage fee of $300. 

Apply for a travel stipend to visit & create a new story about a selected park or trail.

We’re providing a modest travel stipend for writers who wish to visit a national park or scenic trail, and create a new piece about that park or trail based on that new experience. We will grant one stipend for each of the national parks or scenic trails listed above.

We encourage writers to submit who live within driving distance and/or within the same state as the selected parks or trails. Any writers who receive this stipend must follow all CDC, state, park and trail guidelines while traveling during the current Covid-19 pandemic.

We’ll select 6 writers to travel to the designated park or trail between April 2021 and June 2021. Final pieces are due by July 23, 2021. Each selected writer will receive a stipend of $600 (a one-time fee for travel and story usage), as well as a U.S. National Park Annual Pass.

Story Criteria

All submitting writers must have a lived experience in one of the featured national parks or scenic trails. Submitted stories should draw from the writer's own experiences and learned insights about the selected park or trail. We strongly encourage submissions from those who identify as Black, indigenous, person of color or LGBTQ.

Stories should not exceed 2,500 words and should…

• Capture the essence of each place.
  Whether incorporating park or trail history or sharing more about what the writer sees and experiences (i.e. plants, animals, geologic features), each story should help readers gain a deeper understanding of the park and share its natural essence.

• Spark the imagination.
  We are looking for adventure stories, myths and legends, descriptive and colorful recountings of place, survival stories, and more! Stories should capture the magic and aura of the given park or trail, and transport readers there through strength of storytelling and imagination.

• Engage readers and listeners.
  It is a campfire story after all! We are looking for stories with strong reader hooks, such as clear narrative arc, a surprise element, engaging tone, or a tense climax, as well as stories for which the structure, language, rhythm, and flow are conducive to being read aloud around the fire.

• Span all forms of written storytelling.
  Similar to our original book, we plan to feature a broad range of storytelling formats in Volume II, including essays, short stories, poems, songs, ballads, legends, folklore, and more. While the details about each park or trail must be authentic (i.e. history, fact and figures, physical features or qualities of the park or trail), we will consider writings that use fiction as a way to capture the essence of the park or trail.

• Follow Leave No Trace principles and park or trail guidelines.
  For the protection of each park or trail and enjoyment for all people, it’s important to follow Leave No Trace principles and all park and trail rules. While the stories don’t need to specifically capture such rules, it’s important they don’t stray from them. For example, we will not include stories about feeding bears, flying a drone, or going off trail.

For more information and/or questions, please contact us at:

hello[at]campfirestoriesbook.com

NOTE: Submitting writers should not contact Mountaineers Books with any inquiries regarding this project.