This is for the traveller who has been somewhere — really been somewhere — and writes about it the way they actually saw it. Not the way a magazine would, not the way a brand would, not the way an algorithm would. Your actual opinion, the moment you remember most clearly, the photograph you took yourself. That's the whole bar.
I run PONTUS as a small editorial publication. I read every story that comes through the form below. I reply to every one. The pieces that earn a place here go live on Your Voices with your name on them, your photographs, and a link to wherever you'd like readers to find you next.
What gets published.
A real moment in a real place. Not "Athens is amazing" — the specific corner where the souvlaki cook handed you the wrap and what you tasted while looking out at the caldera. Specifics, not abstractions. The reader should be able to picture it without you asking them to. (See Athens vs Santorini for the kind of specific I mean.)
An honest opinion. Including the part that's slightly uncomfortable to say. Especially that part. If you think a place is overrated, say it — like Yaron does in Is Santorini Overrated? If you think a famous town doesn't deserve the hype, name what you'd rather. Hedging is the opposite of useful.
Original photographs. Taken by you, on the trip, with EXIF intact. No stock images. No Unsplash placeholders. The image and the words came from the same person at the same moment — that's the whole point.
Your own voice. Not third-person travel-magazine voice. Not AI-flavoured prose. The way you would actually tell a friend what happened. We can edit for clarity together — we cannot manufacture a voice that wasn't yours.
What you get back.
A real edit. I read carefully. I send notes. We work through it together until the piece lands. No template. No content-mill turnaround.
Your byline. Your name, your destination, your photo at the top — like Nishan got on I'm Armenian. I just visited for the first time.
Your social links. A line at the top of the piece pointing to wherever you want readers to find you next — Instagram, your own writing, your country of origin.
The live URL. Sent to you the moment it ships, listed in the Voices archive, linked from related articles. Yours to share, screenshot, and send to your grandmother.
What this is not.
It is not paid. PONTUS is a small editorial publication, and the contributor exchange is editorial — the byline, the URL, the readership — not financial. If money is the reason you write, this is the wrong fit, and I respect you for being upfront about that.
It is not for promotional content. If the piece is a soft pitch for your hotel, your tour, your booking site, your travel agency, that's the wrong fit too. I will reply and tell you so.
And it is not for AI-generated copy. The whole point of PONTUS is that a real person was actually there. AI didn't go anywhere. I can tell — every editor can tell now — and the reader can too. If you used a model to tighten your own writing, that's fine. If the model wrote it, it doesn't belong here.
How to send it in.
The form below is short on purpose. I don't need the full piece on day one — I need a verdict, a sentence or two on what makes it yours, and an idea of where you've been. If we're a fit on that, we'll go from there.
If you'd rather start somewhere quieter, subscribe to the newsletter first — read a few pieces, see if the voice is one you'd want to share a page with, and write to me when something lands. Either way, the door is open.