Writer's Guidelines
The Cheyenne Mountain KIVA

The Official Journal of the Cheyenne Mountain Heritage Center

Thank you for your interest in writing for KIVA!  KIVA is the annual journal of the Cheyenne Mountain Heritage Center which is dedicated to keeping alive the voices of the past and a consciousness of the region's history and character.  Much of that effort is borne out in the pages of KIVA.

KIVA was first published in 1997 and has been sustained through the financial support of members of the Cheyenne Mountain Heritage Center and Cheyenne Mountain Alumni Association.  Content for KIVA comes through people like you who are willing to take a topic, research it, and write about it.…all for just the chance to contribute to telling the stories of our past and seeing your work in print.

All submissions need to be written adhering to AP Style and submitted through either email or on CD as a Microsoft Word document or text file.  Photographs should be submitted as full-color prints, or as jpeg or tiff files at 300 dpi.  Also note that submissions written for or about a business should not contain overt publicity for the organization itself, but rather through the story achieve a natural “plug.”  There are several main categories for which we take submissions:

Feature Article
Feature articles are the backbone of KIVA. If you’ve read National Geographic or Smithsonian, you will see the types of human-interest, fact-based stories that we seek. Your feature can be about nearly any topic, focusing on a person, place or thing. It just must have a local connection at some level. You will be responsible for all fact checking, choosing the appropriate photographs and arranging for the rights to use them (except paying any fees, all of which must be approved by the editor before use). Feature articles should be a minimum of 2000 words, with a maximum of 5,000. Stories that exceed 5,000 words will likely need to run across two issues or be divided into several smaller pieces. Each feature article should have between four and eight good photographs.

Short Feature
The short feature is just like the feature article but shorter.  We like to have two or three of these stories for each KIVA.  They read well and vary the pace of the journal.  Word length is up to 2,000 words, with two to four good photographs.

Book Review or Artist Profile
Single book reviews can be up to 500 words, with a picture of the author and the book cover.  Artist profiles can be up to 1000 words, with one to three pictures.

Poetry
We will consider all genres of poetry.  There is no word count maximum.

Photography/Time Capsule
KIVA is always interested in good images, especially if there is copy to describe each one.  We will print historic or new photographs.

Call for Submissions
KIVA gladly accepts submissions for publication of feature articles, nonfiction works, poetry, book reviews, original artwork and photography and letters to the editor. Please send any manuscripts and digital files of art to editor@CMHeritageCenter.org or to the mailing address listed below

Cheyenne Mountain Heritage Center
1118 West Cheyenne Road
Colorado Springs, CO 80906

Please see our Writer's Guidelines (pdf file).

Cheyenne Mountain Heritage Center, P.O. Box 38971, Colorado Springs, CO 80937
Phone: 719.632.7000     Email: info@CMHeritageCenter.org
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