Submissions
Hi, and welcome to the Ghost Mother Submissions page. Below the general guidelines, you will find the monthly themes for 2026, so that you can determine where your essay may fit best. I am happy to work with you, whether you are beginning to shape your idea or you have a first draft ready for editing. It is an honor to have you join us and a privilege to share your story.
General Guidelines
Word count: Roughly 800–1,000 words
Format: Word doc, Google Doc, or plain text
Deadline: Please submit by the 15th of each month for consideration in the following month’s feature.
What to send:
Your full essay (800–1,000 words)
A 1–2 sentence author bio
A link to your Substack or website (optional)
1–2 photos (either personal or stock) with captions that include:
Who is in the photo
What is happening
When it was taken
Photographer attribution (if not you)1
Email subject line: “Ghost Mother Submissions 2026 — [Your Title]” Please DM me to obtain my email address.
FAQs
Will my submission be edited?
Yes, light editing may occur for clarity, flow, and grammar, but your voice and story will remain intact.
When will I hear back?
I will respond within two weeks of receiving your piece to let you know if it has been accepted.
Do I retain rights to my work?
Yes. You retain full rights. By submitting, you grant me permission to publish your piece on Ghost Mother.
Will my photos be used as-is?
Yes, photos are published with your provided caption and credit. If needed, they may be resized for formatting.
Can I submit more than once?
Yes, but only one piece per writer will be featured in 2026.
Monthly Themes
January: Defining the Ghost Mother
Possible essay ideas:
Invisibility in roles and relationships.
Holding multiple identities in tension: mother, creator, professional.
Seeing the truth no one says aloud.
February: Mother and Creator Identity Split
Possible essay ideas:
Balancing/integrating roles between motherhood and career/hobby/interest/creative work.
March: Blacklight Truths in Family Conflict
Possible essay ideas:
Using your intuition to reveal what’s hidden beneath surface interactions, possibly in your partnership/marriage, with your children, your parents, co-workers, friends. How do you navigate conflict?
April: Infertility and Unchosen Childlessness
Possible essay ideas:
How hope and heartbreak coexist.
Private grief that shapes identity.
Finding language for the invisible (e.g., infertility is often described as grieving someone you never knew).
May: Miscarriage and Unseen Loss
Possible essay ideas:
Giving language and permission to grieve the child you may have never known.
The cultural silence around pregnancy loss.
June: Child Loss
Possible essay ideas:
Love beyond death and the redefinition of motherhood after losing a child.
The spiritual paradox between presence and absence.
How your grief is shaped by love and remembering your child by name.
July: Mothering Special Needs and Disabilities
Possible essay ideas:
What are your stories of fierce advocacy and/or quiet resilience?
What are your identity shifts in the context of constant caregiving, and how do you get your needs met?
August: Invisible Motherhood and Mental Labor
Possible essay ideas:
What is your unseen work of keeping your family life functioning?
How do you feel emotionally invisible in your daily contributions to your family?
September: Stepmothering and Non-biological Roles
Possible essay ideas:
How do you navigate boundaries and love with your stepchildren?
What makes you feel like you are/aren’t a legitimate mother to your stepchildren?
October: Estranged or Lost Mothers
Possible essay ideas:
In what ways have you felt disconnected from your mother(s)?
Describe what remains unspoken in your relationship with your mother(s) and how that chasm feels to you.
November: The Ghost Mother as Seer
Possible essay ideas:
How do you use the insight you’ve acquired through motherhood to connect, mediate, and reveal truth?
How do you expose the hidden dynamics of your motherhood experience?
December: Spiritual Undertones and Healing
Possible essay ideas:
How do you live with paradox and grace?
How do you reconcile loss and longing?
I look forward to reading your submissions! Please remember to send me a DM so that you can obtain my email address.
If you download photos from a website, please make sure they are from a copyright-free site, like Unsplash. Otherwise, downloading images that are not explicitly for common use is a violation of copyright laws. It is important that you ensure the photographs you provide include a caption with attribution if you are using an image that you did not take with your own camera, and that you obtain photographer permission (if you used a professional, for instance) before submitting a photograph to be included with your essay.