Submission Guidelines

Cognoscenti (or Cog, for short) is the ideas and opinion section of WBUR, Boston’s NPR station. Our mission is to foster understanding and connection about the issues and life experiences that matter most. We are a place for stories, original essays and commentaries — online, on-air and in-person.

Our contributors are novelists, journalists, parents, academics, doctors, politicians and more. Our goal is to add substance, insight and depth to conversations taking place in the news and in the world, not simply echo what others are already saying. Above all, we look for great writing, provocative ideas, and a thread of connection.

To get a better sense of some of Cog’s work, the kinds of essays we publish and what we aim to do, take a look at our archive, including the pieces we’ve recently published, and/or this series of essays we wrote on the occasion of the section’s 10th anniversary:

“Celebrating 10 years of Cognoscenti”
“Making space for human voices when the news feels too big”
“Holding the ordinary and unfathomable”
“Our work is to pay attention.”

What to submit

Submissions should be original to Cog.
Submissions should be written in full, between 750 and 1,000 words.
Accepted Cog essays tend to be timely, draw from personal connection or expertise, focus tightly on one issue or idea, in final draft form.

How to submit

Send your submission, pasted into your email — not as an attachment — to opinion@wbur.org.
Please tell us in one line what the piece is about, and provide a one-line bio.

What to expect from Cog

We aim to respond to submissions promptly.
While we cannot offer feedback on stories we don’t accept, we will reply to each one.
Each piece we publish goes through a rigorous editing process – whether the author is an expert in their field, a best-selling novelist or a first-time author.
If your work is published in Cog, it may appear in other platforms, including WBUR’s radio broadcast and social media channels and on NPR’s platforms.

To get to know Cog better, follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, sign up for our weekly newsletter, or watch and/or attend a Cog event at WBUR’s CitySpace.

—Updated August 28, 2024