Pitches wanted (food) | $250-$1,250 per piece

COMPANY/PUBLICATION: OXFORD AMERICAN 

Deadline: 7 October 2020

The Oxford American’s Spring 2021 issue will be devoted to the exploration of food and guest edited by Alice Randall, the New York Times best-selling novelist, award-winning songwriter, educator, food activist, and cookbook author.

For this special issue, we are looking to commission personal essays, narrative journalism, and short dispatches and meditations that address cooking as an act of profound empathy; food and legacy; and food and intersections, including food as it appears in music, literary text, and fine artwork and photography.

“We will look back to move forward, centering the Southern kitchen, in the African diaspora, and in conversation with other arts—for in the African-American experience cooking in the South has long been both an expressive and global practice,” said Randall. “This time of racial reckoning includes overdue celebrations of Black excellence. The honors earned yet ungiven. In the spirit of Sankofa we will honor and celebrate. And we will do some hard reckoning on racism in the Southern food world now. Old heads and new voices invited.”

Randall has contributed to the Oxford American since 2010, most recently to the 2020 Southern Music Issue, for which she reflects on the artistry of LaVern Baker. Her book Soul Food Love: Healthy Recipes Inspired by One Hundred Years of Cooking in a Black Family, coauthored with her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams, won the NAACP Image Award. Her most recent book, the novel Black Bottom Saints, shines a light on notable Black women singers and songwriters who functioned as public intellectuals but were not recognized as such in their era.

We expect to assign pieces ranging from 500 to 5,000 words. Payment will range from $250 to $1,250 depending on length and complexity of assignment. To receive first consideration, please submit pitches to editorial6@oxfordamerican.org by October 7. Drafts will be due on December 4.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

• Questions / submissions: editorial6@oxfordamerican.org
• Website: https://www.oxfordamerican.org

TO HELP YOU CRAFT YOUR PITCH:

• Learn more about the publication: The Oxford American is a nonprofit, quarterly literary magazine dedicated to featuring the best in Southern writing while documenting the complexity and vitality of the American South. More information here.
• Read through a selection of recent food-related articles/stories here.
• Check out our collection of pitch excerpts on this page and find more sample pitches at The Open Notebook Database and at SuccessfulPitches.com.