Submit to the magazine

We want to know what you think! We encourage letters to the editor, which should be sent directly to Dan at dmahoney@coa.edu. The magazine has long been a forum for debate, often about important issues, and we try to print all letters that we receive, in accordance with the guidelines below. Due to limited space in the print magazine, we edit letters, sometimes quite heavily, for length and clarity. When many letters are submitted on the same topic, and we don’t have room for all of them in the print magazine, we print a representative sampling and publish the others online. 

Letter writing guidelines

The magazine prints only those letters that are sent in response to content we have already published, which includes articles and letters to the editor. We do not print commentary on current events that is not directly related to content that we have recently published. Letters responding to COA policies or actions that have not recently been reported in the magazine should be directed to the appropriate COA administrator. The magazine does not print ad hominem attacks on individuals or groups or known false statements of fact, and does not print letters containing obscenities or what would be deemed vulgarity by journalistic standards. However, we do not censor opinions. Rather, we encourage alums to share views of support or disagreement with our content, as well as to debate, interrogate, and confront diverse and conflicting viewpoints in this forum, which is open to all COA graduates. To limit the possibility that we will have to edit your letters down, please restrict them to 200 words.

Social media messaging

We encourage alumnx to engage with our content and with each other on social media. However, we are not adequately staffed to respond in a timely manner to social media messages. Please address comments and concerns for the magazine to dmahoney@coa.edu.

Submitting story ideas

The magazine has a long tradition of publishing award-winning, independent magazine journalism. We welcome story pitches from professional writers, and we especially love working with writers who are also alumnx. We occasionally print first-person writing by alumnx. We also encourage all alumnx to let us know of stories they think we should be covering, and people we should be profiling. Alumnx are our best story scouts!

Send pitches and ideas to dmahoney@coa.edu. If you are pitching the story as a writer, please tell us a little about your writing experience and include links to or PDFs of several relevant clips.

We have a small staff, so responding to your submission may take several weeks.