Write For Presence

Presencia: Una Publicación Internacional sobre la Dirección Espiritual is a publication focused on spiritual direction, spiritual companionship, spiritual accompaniment, and spiritual guidance. Only submissions that deal in some way with the calling of spiritual companionship in its various manifestations will be recommended for publication.

Presencia Guía de Presentación

Please draft your manuscript in Microsoft Word or convert your document to Rich Text Format (.rtf) format before sending, if Word is not available. Please do not send PDFs. Submit all manuscripts to [email protected] as an e-mail attachment.

Article lengths ranging from 2,000–6,000 words are acceptable. Single-spaced preferred.

Please include within your document:

At the start of the document:

Title of the article
Your name as you would like it to appear in publication. Please include initials of degrees such as PhD, DMin, and MSW in the biography section (see below), not in the author byline.

At the end of the document:

A reference list with full citations in Chicago Manual of Style format
A callout section with three to six suggested callouts or pull quotes from your article
A small, high resolution, ‘headshot’ photo of yourself (you may attach this to the email instead if you like)
A biography section with a brief (50–60 word) paragraph about you that will be printed in the journal, should the article be chosen for print. Share your website here if desired. We reserve the right to edit the bio for appropriate content, style, and length.
Your e-mail and mailing addresses

Style and Documentation

Presencia follows Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) formatting for full bibliographic references. Note that place of publication is no longer required by CMOS. Please refer to the CMOS website for other source guidelines: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-2.html

Example reference list entries (in alphabetical order):

Gibran, Khalil. The Prophet. Alfred A. Knopf, 1923.

Hanh, Thich Nhat. The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation. Beacon Press, 1975.

Merton, Thomas. The Seven Storey Mountain. Harcourt, 1948.

———. New Seeds of Contemplation. New Directions, 1961.

Short, in-text source citations (not footnotes) are used in Presencia for running text.

Make sure the full citation (above) is included in the “References” section at the end of the article. Typical short citation is (Author’s last name, page number). If multiple sources by the same author are cited, include short title (Author’s last name, Short Title, page number) in the short citation. For instance:

(Gibran, 12)
(Merton, New Seeds, 52)

Quotations should not exceed 100 words and are followed directly by parenthetical source citations. Parenthetical citation is followed by a period:

“…end of running text” (Author’s last name, page).

Subheadings

We encourage the use of subheadings, especially in articles over 3,000 words.
Subheadings should be in capital and lowercase letters (like the main title), bold, flush left.

Scriptural References

Please use the scripture translation commonly accepted in your faith tradition, or spiritual orientation.

Names and titles

Do not use courtesy titles (Mr., Mrs., Ms.).
On first reference, use first and last name of a person. On subsequent reference, use last name only.
- Exception: Use last name alone even on first citations to a reference list.
- Exception: Use first and last names on subsequent references if necessary for clarity or parallelism.

Numbers and dates

Do not abbreviate years such as (’96 or the ’90s). Instead, use the entire year (The class of 1996, the 1990s).
Abbreviate a month when it is used in a specific date, such as Dec. 21, 2002, but spell out just a month and a year: December 2002.

Bias-free language

Gender-neutral terms for God, Tao, Allah, the Universe, and other terms referencing the Ground of All Being are preferred, but feminine, masculine, or non-binary pronouns may be used where they are appropriate and necessary.

A common reason articles are not recommended is for poor writing style. If you feel you might need a support or a refresher in this area, refer to: How to Write in Plain English o How to Write More Clearly, Think More Clearly, and Learn Complex Material More Easily before submitting.

Inclusivity

Presencia is an international and multi-faith journal. Terms and ideas not familiar to nationalities or faiths other than your own need to be explained in the text, even if they seem commonplace. Our community consists of members from across the spectrum of religious traditions, as well as spiritual orientations. Although we come from diverse backgrounds, spiritual directors and companions share common core practices, such as deep listening, and respecting the agency of those we companion. We welcome and celebrate our commonalities, just as we do our differences, and a broad array of diverse perspectives, including those that relate to religious tradition, spiritual orientation, race, ethnicity, gender identity, and disabilities, among others.

Editorial Review Policy and Process

All manuscripts will be reviewed by the editor and members of the editorial review panel. On occasion, multiple reviewers may be involved. Everyone submitting a manuscript will be notified within a few days that it has been received. If you don’t get a reply within two business days, please send a follow up e-mail.

After your article is received, it is filed for review in the order received. Sometimes there are many manuscripts ahead of yours to be reviewed, and sometimes only a few. The wait-time to hear if your article is accepted for publication can be up to twelve weeks. Often it is sooner than that. You can always e-mail the editor for an update on where your article is in the process.

Reviewers will often recommend an article for publication after some revisions are made. The editor will communicate suggestions for revision to the author. Major revisions will be the responsibility of the author. Minor revisions may be done by the editor. In most cases, the author will only be notified and consulted if there are major changes to the work.

Copyright

Presencia maintains first rights only. This is also called Rights Reversal. This means that you guarantee that the article has not appeared in its present form elsewhere and we grant you fair use of the article in any way once we have published it. Should the article be reprinted elsewhere, we ask the author to notify and consult with SDI first, and then acknowledge that the article was first published in Presencia: Una Publicación Internacional sobre la Dirección Espiritual along with the correct volume and issue number.

Confidentiality

Permissions to use the names of actual persons for inclusion in articles must be obtained from the individual referenced.

Scheduling

Because Presencia is a peer-reviewed journal, scheduling an article for a certain issue can be difficult. Ideally, your submission would be “timeless” and could be published at any time.

Poetry Submissions

Poetry submissions can be e-mailed to [email protected].

Guidelines for Book and Media Reviewers

Before writing a review, it is best to contact media review editor Pegge Erkeneff: [email protected].

Presencia helps generate dialogue that is across faith traditions, cross-cultural, and socially conscious. Media reviews, therefore, should be written with these perspectives in mind since we are the only journal in the world to focus exclusively on spiritual companionship.

When writing your review, first explain what the item you are reviewing is about. It is not always necessary to outline a book chapter by chapter when an overview would suffice. You might include brief quotes from the material. Be appreciative in your review. Identify the positive heart of the item you are reviewing and connect to it in ways that heighten energy and generate interest for the reader. Was the book well written? Is the material interesting and authentic? Does it foster the relationship between director and directee? Are issues that arise in spiritual direction illuminated? Does it honor dialogue that is cross-cultural and socially conscious? Is there a religious tradition the item is primarily intended for? Who is the general audience? Once the content is established, consider the following questions:

How does this book speak to the issues of spiritual companionship? What is its scholarly or intellectual level? Does it contain graphics, notes, bibliography, or other features? Is its approach narrow or broad? Does it reference other books? Is it reflective of a multicultural, diverse worldview? In what ways would this book help a spiritual companion? Your review need not be entirely praise and recommendation. What improvements would you like to see? Offer your personal response. You might include information about the author, especially if she or he is connected to Spiritual Directors International as a member, office-holder, conference presenter, or author of other books in the field of spiritual direction. Finally, a question that might be helpful to reflect upon after reviewing an item is: “How was I inspired, surprised, challenged, or deeply moved?” by the material.

Each review needs to be approximately 425-500 words in addition to book title, etc. Please refer to back issues of Presencia journal for ranges of style and length. At the beginning of each review, list book title and subtitle, full name of author, place of publication, publisher, date, number of pages, and price (if known). An image of the book cover (if it is photogenic) may accompany your review. Submit your review electronically to [email protected] in a Microsoft Word document, or insert the text in an e-mail. Please include a few sentences about yourself for your biographical note. Your review may be edited for content, style, and length.