Write For Us
Planetizen welcomes book reviews, interviews with prominent planning and development personalities, conference and event coverage, and original unpublished Op-Eds on popular planning topics.
Contribute to Planetizen Features
Please review our basic submission guidelines below, and contact features@planetizen.com for more information or to pitch a Planetizen Feature. As always, you can also submit news stories, including original headlines and subheads, for publication on Planetizen.
Op-Eds should be original, unpublished works which address a controversial topic and be relevant to a national or international planning and development audience. For example, recent topics have included Smart Growth vs. Sprawl, Transit Oriented Development, disaster planning, New Urbanism, and Kelo v. New London. Planetizen welcomes coverage of these and many other issues related to planning and development. Please visit http://www.planetizen.com/about/write/oped and http://www.planetizen.com/oped to learn more.
Book reviews should cover urban planning-related books published by reputable sources during the past two years. These reviews should include a well-written, concise summary of the book's content, as well as thoughtful analysis of the book's success in communicating an original thesis. All of Planetizen's recent top books are eligible for review; in addition, Planetizen keeps a list of recently published planning-oriented books that it would like reviewed. Please visit http://www.planetizen.com/about/write/review to learn more.
Interview and Event Coverage Guidelines
Event Coverage: Planetizen welcomes coverage of prominent planning-related conferences and events. For example, past reports have covered the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association Annual Conference, the American Society of Landscape Architects Annual Meeting and Expo, and the American Planning Association National Conference. The format of event coverage features is highly flexible, but should include a summary of the event, photographs, and interviews with participants, if possible.
Interviews: Often the best way to conduct interviews for Planetizen is in conjunction with one of these events, often by interviewing a prominent speaker soon before or after he or she is scheduled to participate in the event. Interview questions address the concerns of a broad planning and development audience, revolving around the interviewee’s area of specialty. For example, see this interview.
How To Pitch A Planetizen Feature
Please email features@planetizen.com with an initial 100-word abstract of your proposed feature, as well as a biography, for review and approval by our editorial board. Please note that Planetizen Feature pitches which appear to be blatantly self-promotional are unlikely to be accepted.
In general, features should run between 600 and 1,000 words, although this word count is flexible, depending on the subject matter. Interesting images and graphics are always welcome.
Thank you for your interest in Planetizen.
