Pitches wanted (mushroom) | 40 to 50 cents per word

COMPANY/PUBLICATION: MUSHROOM PEOPLE

Deadline: 25 August 2023

It’s been a rainy August in the corner of northeastern Ohio this editor calls home, and mushrooms are everywhere—freckling the grass, poking up through mulched flower beds and leaf-littered forest floors, and frilling manky stumps. It’s awesome.

Our plans for Mushroom People 2 are taking shape, too. We’ve gotten some stellar pitches this summer, but like greedy foragers, we’re looking for more to fill a few editorial gaps before we make the final call on story assignments. So if you’ve been pondering a mushroom-themed pitch, you have until Friday, August 25, at 9:00 a.m. EST to send it to editors@broccolimag.com. Stories will be assigned by September 1, 2023.

HERE IS SOME GENERAL ADVICE ON PITCHING MUSHROOM PEOPLE:

• Here’s what we love to publish: Thoughtful and illuminating stories about people (not brands!) involved in various aspects of the mushroomy realms, including food and culture and art and science; tales of specific mushrooms and the worlds they inhabit that move beyond human-centered perspectives; explorations of unexpected themes with a mushroomy bent; and all mushroom-y stories tinged with wonder, awe, curiosity, humor, and surprise.
• Here’s what we don’t publish: First-person essays about psilocybin experiences, poetry, fiction, academic writing (no research papers!), PR-written pieces, brand stories, or hype.
• A great pitch will concisely convey three elements—the story you want to tell, your approach to the story (Essay or Q & A? Personal or reported?), and your voice. We should be able to get a sense of who you are as a writer—this is especially crucial if you do not have clips that reflect the style of writing you are pitching to us—and why you are the best person to tell the story.
• No attachments, please; keep it all in the body of the email.
• Do not send drafts or feel you must write a piece in response to a pitch prompt—a pitch email is all we need.
• We pay all contributors; rates are negotiated when a piece is commissioned (rates typically hover around $0.40-0.50 per word, set as a flat rate based on the designated word count).

All right—on to some story ideas. These could be approached in various ways—via Q & As with experts, through reported pieces, or via researched essays with a touch of eco-poetry.

MAKE SURE TO TELL US HOW YOU’D TACKLE THEM IN YOUR PITCH:

• SPACE INVADERS: In our microbiomes—the collection of microscopic beings that live in and on our bodies—are fungal organisms. We’re curious to learn more about the species that share our space—who they are, what they do, and if they help or harm us.
• IMMORTALS: Inquiring minds want to know: Can mushrooms really live forever? Tell us about the science of mushroom lifespans and what it might mean for how we understand life.
• NEIGHBORS: “Community” is often touted as a cure for what ails us, but maybe community is too narrow and loaded a concept for our fractured and fractious time. In The Mushroom at the End of the World, Anna Tsing draws on the concept of assemblage—the fluid coexistence of different organisms sharing a space, which can be beneficial, harmful, or neutral, and change. It’s a more capacious way of looking at the world around us and our place in it. How do the value-laden words used to describe the natural world—parasitism, mutualism, symbiosis, survival, competition—limit our abilities to see our place in it and to imagine other futures and ways of being? And how can mushrooms and their varied ways of being help us think through these possibilities?
• OH WELL: In our cultural mania for quick-fix solutions, specific mushrooms have become hot items in the wellness space. But what happens when a mushroom gets the spotlight? Does the good outweigh the bad that inevitably comes when something becomes a marketed commodity?
• AT THE CLUB: Looking for a mycological society to profile in our pages—we would love to showcase the stories of a diverse, multigenerational group united by mushroom joy.
• MUSHROOM CLOUD: Mushrooms pop up where lightning strikes. Their spores may act as nuclei for raindrops. Open to pitches exploring the magic and science of mushroom weather lore.
• POTLUCK: Got a mushroom-themed story idea that will be an excellent fit for MP2? Great—send it along!

As a refresher, here are the stories we covered in Issue 01 so that you can make sure your idea is not something we’ve already covered:

Mycology 101 with a five-year-old mycologist / Amanita muscaria in folklore / Spore prints / Polyphony / Maria Sabina / Erowid’s crowd-sourced trip reports / Mushrooms in fairytales from around the world / Zoey Gong and mushrooms in Traditional Chinese Medicine / Your brain on psilocybin / Mycoastrology / Fruiting Bodies Collective / Nour Mbarak on making art that fruits / Long Litt Woon on mushrooms and grief / Fashion from the Telluride Mushroom Festival / William Padilla-Brown, citizen scientist / Collecting (and sharing) After the Rain, a mushroom perfume / Sexto, a Mexico City-based collective, on preserving traditional mushroom knowledge and culture / Mushrooms as counterculture / Toxins / On being decomposed by mushrooms

We will respond to every pitch—no need to follow up with us. If you have any questions about the pitch process, contact us at editors@broccolimag.com.

CONFIDENTIAL NOTE: Reports indicate that this opportunity will pay $.40-$.50/word. It is recommended that you discuss the rate(s) with the editor upon the acceptance of your pitch.

CONTACT INFORMATION (please do not share the email address publicly):

Questions/submissions: editors@broccolimag.com

Website: https://broccolimag.com/products/mushroom-people

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