WRITER GUIDELINES

 

AMERICAN CRAFT is the foremost magazine on contemporary craft in the United States.  A benefit of membership in the American Craft Council, the nonprofit educational organization founded in 1943 to increase public awareness and appreciation of crafts, AMERICAN CRAFT is published bimonthly.  It is read by collectors, gallery owners, craftspeople, teachers, students, designers, architects and other professionals in business, the arts and government in the United States and abroad.  AMERICAN CRAFT has a large circulation among colleges and libraries and is distributed on newsstands and to other retailers.  AMERICAN CRAFT is indexed in the Art Index, Design and Applied Arts Index and Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature.  Book reviews are also indexed in Book Review Index.

 

The focus of the magazine is contemporary work in clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood and other media.  Emphasis is on American crafts, but the magazine occasionally covers related arts and foreign subjects.  Feature articles include profiles of significant figures in the field as well as exhibition reviews.

 

Assignments

 

• Scholarship, critical insight and thoughtful commentary are important to the magazine.  So, too, are clarity, accuracy, descriptive skill and a graceful writing style.

 

• Assignments are confirmed in writing and state the nature of the assignment, the fee and the due date.  Fee payment is made on publication.  Three complimentary copies of the issue containing the article are sent to the writer.

 

• Any difficulty the writer may have in meeting the deadline or completing the assignment should be discussed with the assigning editor.

 

• The editors reserve the right to edit manuscripts for content and style.  (The magazine refers to the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition.)  Substantive changes are discussed with the author.

 

• Illustrations for an article are generally acquired by the editors, who give preference to works discussed in the text.  Captions are written by the editors.

 

• All quotations used by the writer must be attributed.  References to publications must include complete title, author, publisher and year of publication.

 

• Footnotes are acceptable when essential to the text, but as a general rule, incidental information should be integrated into the text and not given as footnotes.

 

• For assigned book reviews, the writer should convey the substance of the book as well as provide an evaluation of its contents---the writing, point of view, scholarship, illustrations and overall design.

 

• For reviews of gallery shows (generally, 600-700 words), the writer should assess the work overall and cite specific pieces to explain a point.  While facts about the artist’s background can provide context, the review is primarily about the work presented in the show.  (When including background or quoting the artist, provide the editors with the source of this information.)

 

Unsolicited Submissions

 

Unsolicited material sent to the magazine will be handled with care, but AMERICAN CRAFT assumes no responsibility for it.  Manuscripts will be returned only if accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

 

 

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e-mail: [email protected]

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