#VQRTrueStory Call for Submissions

#VQRTrueStory is a social-media experiment in nonfiction that delivers stories across platforms—from Instagram to the website to the print magazine. We’re looking for submissions of three nonfiction dispatches—on any topic—with accompanying photos. This project asks the contributor, like any journalist, to look outward. The trick is compressing the longform experience into a shortform template, which often means testing out new forms and upending conventional approaches. Think Studs Terkel with an iPhone, or Thelonious Monk with a reporter’s notebook. We're also interested in work across styles and even genres—essays, satire, humor—as long as it can comfortably be categorized as a "true story."

In your approach to the #VQRTrueStory, it is important to remember that the text should not simply be an expanded caption, and should avoid articulating what the viewers already sees or digests in the image. Rather, this format explores the relationship between text and image, such that the viewer’s attitude or understanding of the image is changed by the time they reach the end of the text. Think of the image as the nut graph and the text as the body of the story.
 

To get a sense of how #VQRTS works, we recommend taking a look at the archive on our website (https://www.vqronline.org/articles/2015/12/vqrtruestory) or our Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/vqreview/?hl=en).

Submission requirements:

1-3 nonfiction dispatches with a max of 2,200 characters (including spaces) each.

Several photos to accompany the written work.