Contributor portal

Interested in contributing to The Longleaf? Welcome to the contributor portal. Please scroll down and read our editorial policies below before submitting content.

Policies for written pieces:

1. Content created by generative AI is prohibited. All writing must be at least 75% human-generated, checked against AI-detection tools.
2. NO MUDSLINGING. If you are accusing a person, company, or local government department of something, you must reach out to them at least seven days in advance of submission and give them a chance to comment. Provide this to the editing team or include it in your story
3. All works published must have an observable tie to the region.
4. Excessive use of profanity is prohibited. Cuss tastefully.
5. The Longleaf is not the community complaint line. While topic and situation writing is encouraged (ex., environmental, social issues) in a broader scope, we will not be publishing works that are personal or interpersonal gripes.
6. All work must be original and created by the submitting author(s). We will be searching for signs of plagiarism.
7. Honors system: Do not submit work with outside private financial incentives. For example, a business pays you to write about them.
8. Think big; the topic you planned to write about may connect to broader, more enduring stories.
9. We encourage writers also to provide photos or art to use when publishing the work. It’s not required, but encouraged to help promote the content.
10. We will be fact-checking nonfiction work for accuracy. Please provide sources or attribution in the text or to the editing team.
11. We reserve the right to make reasonable edits to your writing before publication in a way that will not substantially alter the work.
12. We publish all content as creative commons/ public copyright, so your work may be republished in other places.It is your work, and The Longleaf will attribute this with credit you for this; however, it will legally belong to the general public for republication and reuse.
13. Honors system: Submitting writers should disclose any personal conflicts of interest or ties to the subject of their work either in the submission or to the editing team.
14. While we take freedom of expression with the utmost importance, we will try to honor the work and intent of the submitter, but retain the right to reject the work for any reason. We will try to inform the submitter why their work was not accepted whenever possible.
15. Recurring authors will get priority for space in the printed edition. Want to be more prominently displayed? Keep writing!

Policies for art, photos, and videos

1. AI-generated or heavily assisted visuals will not be accepted. If AI-detection software finds the image is more than 20% AI-generated, it will not be accepted in The Longleaf.
2. The art must be digitized into a ready format that can be published. JPG, PNG etc. (Take a photo.)
3. The work must be original, created by the submitter(s). We will be checking for plagiarism.
4. All works accepted will be published by The Longleaf, with credit, as creative commons/ public copyright. We can promise we can credit whatever you submit to us, but the work's digital likeness will become the property of the general public for reuse or republication.
5. Nudity is generally prohibited with little exception.
6. Expletive material (feces, pornography, obscenity, etc.) is generally prohibited with little exception.
7. Works should either have a tie to the people, landscapes, or concepts of northwest Florida or otherwise be done by a resident of northwest Florida.
8. As with writing, we hold freedom of expression to the utmost importance, and will generally try to honor that; however, we retain the right to withhold publication for any reason. We will try to explain to the submitter why their work was withheld whenever possible.
9. Videos will only make it into our digital publications; we can’t print a video.

We can also be reached at LongleafEditor@gmail.com.