All papers accepted for a Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium topic are evaluated for inclusion in Pikes Peak Library District’s online Digital Collections repository. Papers must meet minimum requirements outlined in Writing Tips. Accepted papers are added to the online collection as submitted with no editing or illustrations, and with only uniform formatting changes. If papers do not meet the minimum requirements,  contributors are offered an opportunity to submit revised essays for consideration.

Papers received by the stated deadline are also evaluated for possible print publication. Papers accepted for a potential book must meet higher scholarly standards than for the online collection and must be based on new research using primary sources and either expand on common knowledge of a topic, or draw new conclusions. Qualifying papers are edited for content and style.  Illustrations with author-provided captions will be included in printed publications.

“How can I get my proposal accepted for presentation at the annual Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium?” Refer to the Proposal Guidelines. Following the guidelines is especially important as your proposal will be evaluated by the panel of readers using those guidelines.

The annual theme offers wide latitude in your selection of topic but the most important thing to remember as you organize your essay/presentation is that the readers are not looking for a retelling of an already well-known event or historical person. Beyond a brief summary or biography of the event or person, if needed, the readers will be looking for a unique interpretation of the evidence in your telling of the story as well how it makes a new contribution to the historical narrative or opens up new avenues of research.

Excellent examples of these points were the 2013 presentations at the Massacres of the Mountain West symposium by Chris Rein and Katherine Scott Sturdevant, as follows.