If you're reading this, you're probably a curious person who loves food. Great! We're glad you're here.
We are looking for a new contributing writer or two: experienced reporters who will write 1-3 articles per month for Gastro Obscura. There's no one formula for being a contributing writer, and no contract. But ideally you'll regularly pitch features of 1,000-1,500 words, take on some shorter, quick-turnaround stories suggested by us, and have a guest account on our Slack so we can edit and communicate more efficiently. We generally pay around 50 cents per word.
The benefit for us will be working with a someone who is smart and writes great copy. The potential benefits for you are faster response times, more feedback on your work, and being offered regular assignments. And being part of a young, growing publication that was recently nominated for a James Beard award, will publish a big, splashy book in October (titled "Gastro Obscura"), and has several prominent projects in the works with potential staffing needs.
You don't need a background in food writing: The only requirements are that you be endlessly curious about food and have good writing and reporting skills. But any of the following are pluses:
*You live in or travel to parts of the world that we rarely receive pitches about (ie not Western Europe or the American Northeast or Midwest)
*Expertise or demonstrated interest in African-American foodways or Indigenous food or history. Or in the food of the Middle East, Latin America, Southeast Asia, or any region of Sub-Saharan Africa.
*Fluency in another language
*A good way to describe Gastro Obscura's recipe content is "cooking for nerds" (think: a 5,000-year-old energy bar recipe). So being a nerd who likes cooking is a plus!
*Photography skills
This is not a job or staff position, so this is not an application. Filling out this form to indicate interest should take you less than 5 minutes.
But we will not ask you to be a contributing writer just because you fill out this form! If you're interested, please also pitch us a Gastro story. We will treat it like any other pitch and make you an offer if it's a good fit. And then suggest a contributing-writer role after you've published 2+ Gastro stories and it's clear to both of us that it will be a great partnership! You can find our pitch guidelines and the email for pitching us via the below link. Please note in your pitch that you filled out this contributing-writer form:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11ESd07ZEPY7AZuI4mca88IFACqEEQgdXOQsSDGDYDqQ/edit?usp=sharingWe look forward to reading your pitch!
