Chalk is a new magazine publishing intelligent writing, exploring ideas about culture, history, science, nature, and life in general.

The sort of feature articles we want are well-researched, interesting, and fun. We want great ideas and unexpected stories. These could be on a range of topics including culture, history, science, and nature. A Chalk feature should change a reader’s perspective on a topic.

Features should average around 3,500 words but might be more or less depending on the subject. Short features should be around 2,000 to 2,500 words.

Most of our extras are written by the editorial team, but we would also love to hear ideas for these. Do you have a weird fact that wouldn’t fill a whole feature, but think is still worth the ink? Or, a little satire that pokes fun at pretention and academese?

We are looking for pieces that are timeless – as much as this is possible – and so we are less interested in news or trends. Similarly, Chalk doesn’t want anything too gloomy (no end-of-the-world articles). We don’t want to read about AI. We really, really, really don’t want to read anything written by AI.

We invite pitches from all writers. Given Chalk’s interest in unusual topics, we are keen to hear from academics and journalists.

We pay all of our contributors for their words.