Before submitting a meditation, please read these writers guidelines to learn what we look for in the meditations we publish.
The Upper Room is meant for an international, interdenominational audience. We want to encourage Christians in their personal life of prayer and discipleship. We seek to build on what unites us and to connect Christians together in prayer around the world.
The meditations in each issue are written by people just like you, people who are listening to God and trying to live by what they hear. The Upper Room is built on a worldwide community of Christians who share their faith with one another.
Millions of people use the magazine each day. The Upper Room is translated into more than 30 languages and can be found in over 100 countries.
You begin in your own relationship with God. Christians believe God speaks to us and guides us as we study the Bible and pray. Good meditations are closely tied to scripture and show how it has shed light on a specific situation. Good meditations make the message of the Bible come alive.
First, good devotional writing is authentic. It connects real events of daily life with the ongoing activity of God.
Second, good devotional writing uses sensory details. Although they may seem mundane, such details help readers connect with your writing.
Finally, good devotional writing is exploratory instead of preachy. It searches and considers and asks questions. It examines the faith without knowing in advance what all the answers will be.
Good ideas come from reading scripture and looking for connections between it and daily life. When you see a helpful connection, here’s a simple formula for getting your thoughts on paper:
We continually need content, and you can submit a devotional at any time. However, to allow time for simultaneous publication around the world, we work far in advance. We are usually short on meditations that focus on church holidays (Easter, Lent, Christmas, etc.).
We buy the right to translate meditations for one-time use in our editions around the world, including electronic and software-driven formats, and to include them in future anthologies of Upper Room material should we choose. We pay $30.00 for each meditation, on publication. We also send you four copies of the issue in which your work appears (but only if you have completed and returned the copyright and W-9/W-8BEN forms we send you).
We are unable to give updates on the status of submitted material or to offer critiques. All published meditations are edited.
Please be sure to include your contact information (email and postal address) with each meditation, since we must send a form to be signed if your work is chosen for publication.
Meditations cannot be returned, so keep copies of what you submit. Please send no more than three meditations at a time.
We look forward to receiving meditations from you to be considered for possible use in future issues of The Upper Room.
Editorial Office
THE UPPER ROOM Magazine
1908 Grand Avenue
Nashville, TN 37212
