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.
KneeDeep also welcomes opinion or perspective pieces, or letters to the editor (300-1000 words). But we reserve the right to decide whether to publish them or not.
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.
Other Recent Posts
Uncertainty Requires a Buffet of Resilience Choices
Oakland plans three main resilience hubs. Activists say funding a more decentralized network could be more equitable.
Knock-On Flood Threat Gets 4-Inch Reality Check
Contrary to now popular hearsay, building a seawall won’t necessarily flood your unprotected neighbors along the bayshore.
Delivering BART Muck to South Bay Marshes?
Three million + cubic yards of tunnel muck from a subway extension could help raise South Bay marshes above rising sea levels.
Marin Makes Clean Sweep of Forest Floors
After witnessing fire disasters in neighboring counties, Marin formed a unique fire prevention authority and taxpayers funded it. Thirty projects and three years later, the county is clearer of undergrowth.
Get Plugged In To KneeDeep!
Are you a young writer, artist, photographer, creator, or storyteller? We want you to be a part of our magazine.
Making Shade Where There Isn’t Any
There are few trees and public spaces where residents can escape the unrelenting heat in the eastern Coachella Valley. A master plan for shade equity aims to change that.
New Rules on Rebuilds, FEMA Says No to Wet Feet
New construction projects supported by federal emergency funding must be built to withstand extreme floods, including anticipated rise in sea level.
Memo Distills Joint Approach to Flood Protection
Seven Bay Area agencies sign an agreement to beef up coordination on sea level rise adaptation projects and clarify who’s on first.
Letting the Cliff Crumble
As a community of nature-minded, eco-friendly folks, Santa Cruz has been working on climate adaptation plans for many decades. But no one anticipated the storms of early 2023.
Summer Tales of Fire & Heat
KneeDeep revisits some of our most thought-provoking stories about how we experience hot weather and fire season, and what local communities and governments are doing to protect us from impacts.
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?