Work With Us
Submission Guidelines
KneeDeep Times editors welcome story, film, photo and art submissions on a wide variety of climate resilience topics. Editors are actively working to expand the magazine’s freelance and editorial pool to better reflect California’s diversity.
We sometimes seek time-sensitive pitches on specific topics. Please scroll to bottom to view active pitch requests.
KneeDeep pays up to $1/word for most stories. Preferred lengths are 500 or 1000 words.
We prefer solution-driven stories about the greater San Francisco Bay Area. But we welcome stories about California, the West Coast, or even elsewhere in the country as long as you can add information about what it has to do with our region (example two part story: New Jersey Shells Out for Retreat + Coast Leaders Talk Graceful Withdrawal).
KneeDeep also pays for professional photography, art, and film.
Feel free to contact us, either to introduce yourself and the types of stories you like to cover, or with pitches. Contact the editor Ariel Rubissow Okamoto.
Citizen Stories & Snaps
KneeDeep welcomes citizen stories and personal reflections on climate adaptation and resilience on the California Climate Quilt. Our editors are also available to help you shape and share your story this way. While we do not pay for quilt squares, we hope to organize some occasional prizes for best images and stories soon!
Picture of the Month
The editors chose a Picture of the Month and feature it at the bottom of the home page. All submissions must be of high resolution and in a horizontal format, and include an interesting caption, either telling the story of what we are seeing in the picture or of what the photographer felt and was trying to capture in the image. We pay up to $100 per picture of the month.
Republication Guidelines
KneeDeep welcomes republication of its stories. See our guidelines here.
Calls for Pitches
- Know someone in your community, business or government “being the change” ???? KneeDeep is always looking for stories about people innovating, acting, doing, helping, growing, stewarding …. Send us your ideas for profiles.
- KneeDeep is also interested in small town or small community portraits. What are the special things in these particular places at risk from climate change, whether it’s flood, fire, inequity or other challenge? What steps are local neighbors and leaders taking to protect and sustain their special place?
Jobs with KneeDeep
KneeDeep is currently looking for a strategist to help us grow our audience (contract posiiton). We may also be looking for more editorial help soon. Feel free to check in.
Other Recent Posts
Rising Waters Bring New Toxics Threat to Hunters Point
S.F.’s Hunters Point is already toxic for residents and the Bay. Sea level and groundwater rise, along with bigger storms, threaten to make the problem worse.
Harmful Blooms Spur More Wastewater Upgrades
To reduce nitrogen loads, the Bay Area is facing an overhaul of wastewater plants to the tune of $16B. Sea level rise calls for other retrofits. The two could require the heftiest investment in clean water infrastructure in decades.
Cultivate Climate Champions with Nature-Based Education
Everyday Climate Champions Podcast
Growing Resilience with Seed Libraries
Sierra Garcia, San Francisco
Fifth Graders Model Climate Resilience
Laurel Dell Elementary, San Rafael
Resilience is like? Caption Contest
Cartoons can tell so many stories about being kneedeep in climate resilience work. What’s your idea for a cartoon?
Teaming Up to Tackle East Bay Wet Spots
Partners push for three projects and a big grant to protect a critical swath of the East Bay shoreline from sea-level and groundwater rise.
The Itchy Cost of Hotter Summers
Mosquito-borne disease is on the rise thanks to climate change. Will the Bay Area get new mosquito species? Climate change might push them to cooler climates.
Rail Line Reinvents Itself After Pandemic Slump
This North Bay rail system is winning back ridership against the odds, catering to bikers, hikers, shoppers and commuters.
Hard Park Going Soft in Alameda
The City of Alameda is planning to de-pave an area of the former Alameda Naval Air station the size of nine football fields and transform it into an ecological nature park.