The St. Louis Fed seeks essays for a book on life in rural communities. Smaller Places: Exploring Innovation in Rural America will highlight the vital contributions that residents of rural communities make. The focus is on positive essays about what's working in rural places.

Essays should be written in the classic narrative style and geared to a nonacademic, nontechnical audience. The submission deadline is September 15. Proposed topics include food (for example, natural capital, innovations in agriculture and local food systems), work (human capital innovations in labor, livelihoods, and economic development), money (financial capital, innovations in investment, lending, and saving), and neighboring (social capital, innovations in leadership, collaboration, and community life). Essay length should be 2,000 to 5,000 words in a Word document. Please send submissions to matthew.w.ashby@stls.frb.org.

Besides essays, other original materials may be submitted on rural themes, including photographs, illustrations, poetry, diagrams, or infographics.