The Chronicle invites a variety of contributions:

• Letters to the Editor
• Images to the Editor
• Op-Ed pieces for Open Forum
• Commentary pieces for Insight
• Chronicle Datebook Calendar Listings

Letters to the Editor

To comment on news stories in the main section of the newspaper or to opine on views expressed on the Opinion pages, contact Letters to the Editor.

Please limit your letters to 200 or fewer words... shorter letters have a better chance of being selected for publication.

To comment on news stories in specific sections of the paper, for example Business, Datebook, Food or Sports, please contact the Letters sections of those specific sections:

• Business: bizletters@sfchronicle.com
• Datebook: datebookletters@sfchronicle.com
• Food: food@sfchronicle.com
• Sports: letterstogreen@sfchronicle.com

Some notes on Letters to the Editor from Editorial Page Editor John Diaz.

ALL FIELDS REQUIRED:
First name: Last name: E-Mail: Phone:	City: State: Country:
Comments (200-word limit):

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Images to the Editor

The Editorial pages of the San Francisco Chronicle are looking for images that are thought-provoking, questioning, controversial, humorous and quirky. In short, valuable commentary on concerns of the San Francisco Bay Area.

We are looking for arresting images -- of all points of view -- that speak without accompanying text. Think of them as visual letters to the editor.

Selected images will be printed on the Editorial pages as time and space permit. You will be notified in advance, if your submission is selected for publication. We offer you exposure to The Chronicle's readers in Northern California and the appropriate credit in exchange for the use of your image.

E-mail: forum@sfchronicle.com

Forward your image to the editor in a jpeg format smaller than 1.4 mb. Smaller is better. Please include your name, address and telephone number. We will call to verify authenticity.

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Open Forum

550 or fewer words is the going length. With rare exception, we won't run a writer's work more than once every six months. There are lots of voices out there and we'd like to hear as many as possible.

E-mail forum@sfchronicle.com and put "For Open Forum" in the subject line.

(Please paste the text into the e-mail; do not send attachments.)

Some examples of good Open Forum pieces

Canseco-bashing not merited

What Honduras is - and is not

Are pay cuts the only solution?

Some thoughts on female leaderhip in male-dominated fields

On all submissions, please include your:

Name
Mailing address
E-mail address
Telephone number (home and office)
Fax number

The editors go through hundreds of submissions each day: we receive between 100 and 200 letters a day but have space for six to 10 a day; we receive about 200 Open Forum submissions a week to fill eight or fewer slots.

We cannot notify you to verify receipt.

If we select your letter or op-ed for publication, you will be notified in advance. We will make every attempt to share edited op-ed text with the author before publication.

If we reject an op-ed piece, we will try to contact you via e-mail or with a note via postal mail. Please forgive us ... we don't wish to be rude, but we need to spend our days READING what you send us, which leaves us little time for RESPONDING to you.

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Insight

Insight, a Sunday commentary section, aims to provide a forum to shake up conventional wisdom and provoke fresh thinking. Have a piece about an issue in the news that's unusual in its approach and uncommonly well-written? Cover articles run 900 words.

Mad? Outraged? Ready to rant? Have an only-in-the-Bay-Area story? A story that illustrates why the Bay Area is such a great place to live? Tell us what works. Do you know someone who is tackling a problem or meeting a challenge in a particularly innovative way? Send your 250-word submission to Insight, the Sunday commentary section. Be sure to include a phone number where we can reach you.

E-mail: forum@sfchronicle.com

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Datebook Calendar Listings

The Chronicle and SFGate.com have partnered with Zvents in an effort to offer the Bay Area's most comprehensive entertainment listings, both in print and online. Zvents gives artists, publicists and venues the ability to submit their own listings to sfgate.com, and they will be considered for publication in The Chronicle. You can ensure the timely inclusion and accuracy of listings by entering them yourselves at events.sfgate.com. Here's how to do it:

Go to events.sfgate.comand open a free account. Click on "Add a listing" to fill out the event entry form. If your event takes place over multiple dates, you must check the box for "This event repeats or occurs multiple times" in order to enter all of the event's dates and times.

Adding an event to the database is free, but listings must be entered at least three weeks in advance of publication in order to be considered for inclusion in The Chronicle. As always, the listings are printed on a space-available basis at the discretion of the editors.

For more information on entering events into zvents, go to www.sfgate.com/ZGBD.

Datebook listings cover San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. In addition, we have a Destinations section that covers a select number of the same kind of events in the Napa-Sonoma, Monterey-Carmel, Tahoe-Reno and Las Vegas areas. Because of space limitations we often don't have room to include events in other California areas.

We welcome jpegs for events as well, but no .zips or .tiffs, please.
1. Send just one jpeg (300 dpi or more) per e-mail to listingsphotos@sfchronicle.com, and one per event.
2. In the subject line write (in this order): topic (NIGHTLIFE/CLASSICAL/ART/DANCE, etc.), dates, artist's/production's name and venue.
3. In the body include caption information (who and in what production), photographer's name (for credit), a short press release repeating info from subject line, plus address, phone, web address, time, prices and media contact.

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