Submissions Are Open

ISSUE 02: HOME

Submissions close October 25, 2026.

What makes a place feel like home?

For Issue 02 of Sisterly, we're exploring HOME — not just the rooms we live in, but the lives we build inside and around them.

Home can be a childhood kitchen, a first apartment, a garden slowly taking root, or a house filled with people you love. It can be something inherited, something lost, something returned to, or something you have had to create entirely for yourself.

We’re interested in the practical side of making a home, too: cooking, cleaning, hosting, gardening, decorating, repairing, organizing, budgeting, preserving, and learning the skills that make everyday life feel a little more cared for.

As always, we’re looking for work that feels like something you’d share with a sister — honest, useful, thoughtful, personal, and worth passing along.

What We’re Looking For

We welcome personal essays, reported pieces, how-to guides, recipes, poetry, photography, illustrations, and other creative work exploring the idea of home.

Possible topics include:

  • Creating a home of your own

  • Family homes, childhood homes & the places that shaped us

  • Homemaking without perfection

  • Living alone, with a partner, with family, or in unconventional spaces

  • Hosting & gathering

  • Cooking, baking & recipes with a story

  • Gardening, homesteading & self-sufficiency

  • Cleaning, organizing & caring for what you own

  • Decorating, thrifting & making a space feel like yours

  • Home finances, budgeting & the realities of keeping a household

  • Traditions, rituals & seasonal practices

  • Moving, leaving home & starting over

  • Housing, renting & homeownership

  • Multigenerational homes & chosen family

  • The emotional meaning of home

  • What women have taught you about making, keeping, or finding home

These are starting points, not requirements. If HOME means something different to you, we want to hear it.

The Sisterly Perspective

Sisterly is built around the idea of sharing what we know with one another.

We especially love submissions that leave the reader with something: a new skill, a different perspective, a story she recognizes herself in, a tradition worth carrying forward, or the feeling that someone has been there before her.

You don't need to be an established writer or creator to submit. We care much more about having something meaningful to say.

How to Submit

Please send your submission or pitch to submissions@sisterlymagazine.com along with:

  • Your name

  • A short contributor bio

  • Your email address

  • Your social media or website, if applicable

  • Your completed piece or a brief description of what you'd like to contribute

If you're pitching rather than submitting a completed piece, please tell us a little about your proposed angle and why you're the person to tell it.

Submissions close October 25, 2026.

A Note From Your Big Sister

Don't talk yourself out of submitting because you don't think you're "qualified enough."

Some of the best advice, stories, recipes, traditions, and lessons we carry through life don't come from experts. They come from other women saying, here's what I've learned.

That's what Sisterly is for.

Submission Guidelines

  • Please include a link to your work (Google Doc, portfolio, Dropbox, Drive folder, website, etc.)

  • Make sure sharing permissions are enabled for submissions@sisterlymagazine.com

  • You’re welcome to submit completed work or a strong pitch/concept

  • Selected work will be considered for our print + digital magazine

  • For visual submissions, please only send work you own or have the rights to share

  • While not every piece must explicitly use the word home, it should feel meaningfully connected to the theme

What to Expect

We review every submission carefully, but may not be able to respond individually to each one.

If your work feels like a strong fit for Sisterly, we’ll be in touch.

If selected, we may follow up for higher-resolution files, usage permissions, or additional context around the work.

What Contributors Receive

Sisterly is an independent publication in its first year, and we aren't able to offer monetary compensation at this stage. We're transparent about that, and we're genuinely grateful to every person who trusts us with their work.

Selected contributors receive:

  • A personal digital copy of the full issue

  • A contributor bio with a link to your website or portfolio, published in the magazine

  • Full rights retention, with a 90-day exclusivity window from the release date

  • A feature in our contributor highlight email

  • A dedicated social media feature on the Sisterly feed + story

  • An official letter of publication for your portfolio, press kit, or grant applications

  • First consideration for future Sisterly issues

We hope what we can offer grows with every issue. For now, we're honored to share your work with our community and to celebrate it as loudly as we can.