Pitches wanted (Los Angeles, food) | ~10 cents per word

COMPANY/PUBLICATION: TO-GO ZINE

Deadline: 7 September 2025

To-Go Zine, a LA-focused (for now), charity food zine published by some of the creators (and now LA transplants) previously behind Lunchbox Moments Zine, blends the best of magazine nostalgia with meaningful storytelling. Amidst the disappearance of print magazines, we dream of backseat car rides completing word searches, twirling landline cables while gushing over celebrity crush Q+As, and glossy pages filled with gripping feature writing.

All profits from initial sales of this print zine will go directly to The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), a nonprofit that organizes immigrants and their families to fight harmful policies and demand equity and justice from our government.

The theme of our first issue is: Care Package. The call is open for writers based anywhere as long as the article is related to LA.

Despite days spent traversing LA’s crowded freeways, the city’s residents are digging in. In the face of elevated rents, apocalyptic burning skies, and unannounced militaristic sweeps, Angelenos anchor themselves through weekly takeout orders, parking lot tamale or zongzi pickups, and restocking neighbors’ fridges under roofs covered with ashes.

Over the past few years, we’ve witnessed to-go containers adorned with sharpie hearts and “thank yous” and takeout bags reaching smoke-stained hands. Restaurateurs call rideshares for their workers who slide boxes of leftovers into backseats. Food is one way Angelenos make this city their home.

The eating culture of Los Angeles is defined by the various ways that food is packaged and consumed to-go. As the originator of the drive-through restaurant, where expert cooks purvey gourmet wares from street-side folding tables, food trucks, backyards, Los Angeles is a city in transit where the finest meals are enjoyed in city sidewalks, strip mall parking lots, tire shops, and gas stations. Yet, despite the culture of to-go eating, LA’s food culture is highly situated in tightly-knit communities nurtured by shared food cultures.

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To-Go Zine is a portable, physical artifact that tells stories through in-depth stories and thought-provoking essays. It also emphasizes interactivity, conversation, and joyful playfulness through Q+As, quizzes, word searches, crafts, and games. We engage in play and nostalgia to recall experiences that root us and generate joy in the face of uncertainty, violence, and displacement.

This first issue explores the contradiction between living on the go and dining/digging in. In a city often characterized by idling through hazy smog to get from origin to destination, how do people build or preserve their roots? How does witnessing the stain from birria consommé spilt on a driver’s seat or love found through a fast food speaker box symbolize something special about LA? And above all, how does a care package wrapped in foil or packed in plastic create connectedness and community when these values seem to be fading away?

We seek nonfiction and fiction content related to LA and the region’s food scenes. We are especially interested in undercovered and overlooked stories of people, organizations, and businesses affected by January’s wildfires and recent immigration raids. We also seek stories that represent Indigenous perspectives (this land’s original residents). We hope to publish pieces that cover various parts of LA County.

WE SEEK:

• Short form content of ~500 words or fewer (Rate of $50) (Complete Drafts)

  • Recipes accompanied by brief stories

  • Brief accounts from an undercovered community or group affected by and/or responding to crisis

  • Ideas that fit fun layouts and spreads

    • Think: flowchart quizzes, quick Q+As, top 5 ___, food-related astrology, menus from the future, a love letter to a place that’s gone etc.

    • Pieces where the reader is invited to interact, cut, draw, and write in the zine

    • Guides and maps (of immigrant neighborhoods? Take-out only maps?, ethnic grocery stores/markets?)

• Long form content ~1000 words or more (Rate of $100) (Pitches for nonfiction, full drafts for fiction)

  • Profiles of overlooked longtime institutions or people, especially ones that have resisted displacement

  • Stories of Angelenos doing good in unconventional ways (e.g., grassroots food efforts)

  • Narratives about working or eating at an establishment in its final days

  • Stories about all sorts of movement (e.g., foods crossing categories and audiences)

  • Stories connecting food to survival and perseverance

  • Detailed neighborhood walking/biking guides

  • Stories about takeout containers

In any case, you might be asked for amateur photography (smartphones are fine) to help accompany your piece.

The submission process will include up to two rounds of editing where an editor will send you changes/corrections, and you will be expected to return these edits.

Submit by Google Form by 9/7/25.

The creators/curators of this zine recognize that creative and artistic work is labor. As creators ourselves, we understand the tremendous effort and heart you put into your submissions, and wish that we could pay more for your work. Thank you for your generosity in helping us support CHIRLA.

Questions? Please email togo.zine.info@gmail.com. We aim to respond to your submissions within two months of the closing date for submissions.

Follow us on Instagram.

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CONTACT INFORMATION:

Submissions: Via the webform

Website: https://www.instagram.com/to_go_zine/

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