Are you interested in joining the post calvin community? We have openings for new writers beginning this August, and we’d love for you to audition! If you submit an audition post, it will be considered by the editorial board, and the writers who are the best fit for the post calvin will be invited to join us full-time. If you are not chosen full-time, your piece will be featured as a guest post (they show up at the end of each month) sometime in the next several months.
So what are we looking for in a post calvin writer and a good audition piece? Here are the guidelines.
A post calvin writer should be:
- a Calvin University alumnus.
- under the age of 30.
- willing to write and submit one post per month through at least July 2025 (one-year commitment with the option to renew).
- conscientious about deadlines, proofreading, and responding to notes from the editorial board.
- a skilled wordsmith who creatively uses language to tell stories, express ideas, and connect with readers.
- willing to join the post calvin community as a writer but also a reader and commenter. We are a collective of artists as much as individuals who publish online.
An audition post should:
- Be 500-800 words on any nonfiction topic. We love personal stories, funny observations, media reviews, current events opinions, career musings, profiles of people you admire—anything that strikes your fancy! Reading past posts should give you an idea of what people write about. (If you’re a frequent reader, you’ll know there are topics that are overdone and tired. Shy away from those.)
- Display your unique voice and perspective as a writer. We’re looking for creative nonfiction stories—not diary entries, not devotionals, not philosophical treatises.
- Include a landscape-oriented (a.k.a. horizontal) photo that relates to your post (not a headshot of you), attached separately and sent via email.
- Include a few sentences of biographical information written in third person (when you graduated from Calvin, what your major was, where you live and what you do now, etc.).
- Be submitted as an editable Google Doc to info@thepostcalvin.com. (You may get a “this user does not have a Google account” message—that’s okay! Send anyway.) A Microsoft Word file is acceptable if you’re not a Google user.
- NOT be time-sensitive. These posts are used throughout the next several months as guest posts (at the end of each month), so writing about your family’s Fourth of July traditions isn’t a great choice. Your post might show up at the end of June or the end of, say, November. Write accordingly.
Audition pieces are judged on topic choice, creativity, content, quality of language, mechanics and grammar, uniqueness of voice, and ability to follow the instructions in this listing.
The deadline for submitting audition pieces is Friday, June 21 at 11:59 p.m. DEADLINE EXTENSION: Wednesday, June 26, at 11:59 p.m.
If you have questions about anything, you can send an email to Alex at info@thepostcalvin.com. Our inbox is open!
We’re looking forward to hearing your unique voice! Good luck.
Sincerely,
the post calvin editorial board
Alex Johnson (’19)
Annaka Koster (’18)
Josh Parks (’18)
Deb Rienstra (English department)

Alex Johnson (‘19) is a virtual computer science teacher and a proud resident of Grand Rapids. When she’s not brainstorming the newest project to inflict on her students, she’s cooking semi-vegetarian food, reading too many romance books, and playing rhythm games.