Call for submissions (January/February)

Briarpatch is accepting pitches for our unthemed January/February issue. Pitches are due September 6, 2020.

What we're looking for

We are looking for investigative journalism, interviews, feature articles, narrative reporting, project profiles, comics and graphic texts, book reviews, and photo essays that are rooted in anti-colonial, anti-capitalist, feminist struggle. 

How to pitch

Your pitch should include what ground your contribution will cover, an estimated word count, and your relevant experience or background in writing about the issue. Please send pitches to pitch[at]briarpatchmagazine.com.

Before pitching, take a look at some of our back issues to see what we have recently covered. Please review our submission guidelines and a guide to pitching Briarpatch to improve your pitch.

If you have not written for Briarpatch before, please provide a brief writing sample.

We’re committed to publishing more writers of colour, especially Black and Indigenous writers. If you’re a writer of colour who wants more support in crafting a pitch or developing an angle for your story, you can email saima[at]briarpatchmagazine.com before August 31, 2020.

If your pitch is accepted, first drafts are due October 12, 2020, with an intensive collaborative editing process lasting until the second week of November. We reserve the right to edit your work (with your active involvement), and cannot guarantee publication.

We aim to reply to every pitch – including those we reject. However, because of time constraints, this isn’t always possible. If you don’t hear back from us within three weeks following the pitch deadline for the issue that you submitted to, please assume that we won’t be accepting your pitch. Feel free to pitch us again, though!

Contributor rates

$100 – Profiles, short essays, book reviews, and parting shots (generally 1,500 words or less)
$200 – Feature stories (generally 2,000-2,500 words) and photo essays
$300 – Research-based articles and investigative reporting (generally 2,500-3,000 words)

Northern Writing Prize

We're also looking for pitches about the land, culture, and communities of Canada’s North for our Northern Writing Prize. The winner will receive $600 and will be published in our January/February issue. Pitches for the Northern Writing Prize are due September 1, 2020. You can find more details here.