Farmer-ish publishes both online issues and print collections. We are excited to announce that the third volume of our print annual will publish in September 2026!
We’re looking for creative and engaging content on farming, homesteading, raising animals, cooking, making, and raising a family. We want creative nonfiction, personal essays, memoir, patterns and instructions, how-to pieces, informational and instructional essays, poetry, and more.
General essays and how-to essays should be approximately 800 to 1,200 words. Personal essays and memoir should be between 800 and 2,000 words. Photographs for recipes and how-to essays should be included when submitting. Poetry can be of any length, though we prefer short to medium.
Be sure to single space after periods and provide hyperlinks to source material when applicable. Please do not use footnotes, endnotes, or in-text citations.
All work must be owned by you. We aim for original work, but if you have published your work on a personal blog, you can re-purpose it for us. Please note you retain copyright for your work. We simply ask that you mention Farmer-ish as the original publisher if your work appears elsewhere. Please also note that we do not accept submissions written in part by generative AI or submissions edited heavily by AI. We want to hear your human voice.
For our quarterly online issues, we do not offer pay at this time, but submission is free. Our online journal also reaches approximately 75,000 readers per year, so your writing will reach a wide audience. For our print annuals, we offer a $25 honorarium or a copy of the book.
Authors retain copyright of their work.
Be sure to review our About page, as well as past issues, to get an idea of what we’re about before submitting.
Journal Submissions for 2026
Summer 2026
Theme: What would Thoreau do?
For our first issue of 2026, we will be celebrating Thoreau’s birthday and examining what Thoreau can teach us during times of instability about how to be self sufficient and prepared, as well as how to resist in times of corruption. In his book Walden, Thoreau argues for simplicity and self sufficiency. How can lessons from Thoreau help us as we live with an economic uncertainty unprecedented in modern times? How can we prepare? What lessons of simple living do we need to learn?
But Thoreau did not just argue for self sufficiency. In his famous essay, “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau wrote that we must prioritize our own conscience and morals over mandates from a government. He argued that slavery in the United States, along with the Mexican-American war, provided evidence that the American government was corrupt and must be resisted. Thoreau refused to pay his taxes and spent time in jail, but our laws and prison system are far from what they were during Thoreau’s life. With that in mind, what becomes realistic? In what ways can we resist through farming, bartering, and creating alternative economies? What do alternative economies look like? How can we create community and resist both political and economic systems that harm so many?
Send us essays, poems, and memoirs with these themes in mind, but don’t forget that we are always looking for how-tos, patterns, and recipes as well.
Submission Deadline: June 20, 2026
Publication Date: July 12, 2026 (Thoreau’s 209th birthday)
Please send submissions via email to farmerish.journal@gmail.com. In the subject line, please put your title and issue for submission. Your submission should be copied into the body of an email. Attachments will not be accepted. If your work is accepted and you are willing to read for the audio files, please let us know in your submission email.
Print Annual 2026 (Fall publication)
Volume III
Find the full call for print submissions here.
Please send submissions via email to farmerish.journal@gmail.com. In the subject line, please put your title and issue for submission. Your submission should be copied into the body of an email. Attachments will not be accepted.
Winter Solstice 2026
Theme: Make Do
One thing challenging economic times can teach us is how to make do with what we have. When, as a culture, we are finally forced to recon with rampant consumerism that harms humans, animals, and nature and keeps us in debt, what does it look like on the other side? How can we make do with less? What are the benefits?
For our Winter Solstice issue, we want to hear about your stories and traditions for simple and affordable living. We hope you will share your strategies, patterns, recipes, and more for making do during hard economic times. Send us your poetry, stories, essays, recipes, book reviews, or craft pieces on the things you make in the winter and how that making sustains you.
Submission Deadline: December 5, 2025
Publication Date: December 21, 2025
Please send submissions via email to farmerish.journal@gmail.com. In the subject line, please put your title and issue for submission. Your submission should be copied into the body of an email. Attachments will not be accepted. Please note this issue will include audio.