MinnPost’s Community Voices section operates like an op-ed page at a newspaper: People submit opinion pieces — some once and never again, and some repeatedly. There is no ongoing commitment. We like to publish a variety of topics, tones, political views, etc.
- Some commentaries are straight arguments for a course of action or a point of view, i.e. “Parks for all? Minneapolis should do better along Cedar Lake” and “Sulfide copper and nickel mining should never be attempted on the border of the BWCA”
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Some are more like personal essays — see, for example, “Cheating on Minneapolis with Edina” and “Requiem for a forest.” Another example: “Ramadan — a personal reflection”
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Still others are reactions to events in the news. Example: “Sex, lies and leadership: What we learn from the sex offender program and Catholic sex-abuse coverup”
All should have some relevance to current events or trends of interest to our mainly Minnesota readers.
We give preference to writers in Minnesota. We generally limit writers to no more than one commentary a month, and usually people’s work is spread further apart than that.
MinnPost does not publish “open letters” to public officials, companies, etc. Commentary arguments should be directed toward MinnPost readers.
We accept only up to three bylined authors. If more than that contributed to the writing of your commentary, they can be listed at the end of the piece as additional contributors.
We do not publish endorsements of candidates in specific political races.
We don’t pay for Community Voices commentaries.
Details: We usually suggest that authors limit their pieces to about 700-800 words, although that’s not hard and fast. Submissions can be sent to voices@minnpost.com either as a Google or Word doc attachment or in the body of an email. We assume commentaries submitted here are intended for publication, unless the correspondence clearly notes otherwise.
Because of the volume of submissions, we are not always able to reply to authors. If we do decide to publish your commentary, we will notify you.
If you submit a commentary, please include a line about yourself to put at the end, including any particular relationship, if any, to the subject matter. Please also attach a headshot photo of yourself, as we like to include author photos whenever possible. Smartphone photos work fine in our format.
For more information, send an email to voices@MinnPost.com.
