We’re Seeking a Fellow

This post has been updated

The Canadian Magazine Awards / Les Grands prix du magazine (Magazines Canada) is offering a rare opportunity for journalists, students, and recent graduates to apply for a paid fellowship with host Canadian magazines. Briarpatch is seeking a fellow to report on Saskatchewan’s social movements, politics, and environment for the magazine. The fellowship is right for applicants with ambitions to work in magazine journalism, a strong eye for social justice stories, and impressive writing skills.

Working with the hosting staff at Briarpatch, the successful fellow would be responsible for writing several stories to be published in forthcoming issues of the magazine. There are opportunities to learn about other elements of magazine production, including art direction, circulation, marketing, and audience engagement.

What’s involved?

We would ask the successful fellow to commit to writing five to eight stories over the course of four to six months. The stories would go through a regular editing process with the Editor of Briarpatch.

We would also encourage the fellow to work on an array of tasks in the magazine production process. The purpose of the fellowship is to provide the fellow with valuable experience working in various areas of magazine production.

Fellows can work remotely. While Briarpatch would be the host magazine, there is no firm requirement that the fellow work on location in Regina. We encourage interested journalists and writers from the North, reserves, rural Saskatchewan, and cities to get in touch with us. At least one in-person meeting would be requested, but the bulk of the writing could be done remotely. If the fellowship applicant is successful, we’d ask that they have a reliable Internet connection and regular access to emails.

As the host magazine, Briarpatch will respond to the successful fellow’s requirements around disabilities, child care needs, elder care, or travel restrictions.

Who is eligible?

As per the requirements of the Canadian Magazine Awards / Les Grands prix du magazine, fellowships are open to Canadian journalists, students and recent graduates, as well as international students studying in Canada. To be eligible as an applicant, you must be:

• A Canadian citizen, permanent resident, landed immigrant or an international student studying in Canada and qualified to work in Canada.
• A full-time student in good standing at a recognized Canadian post-secondary institution or
• A recent graduate from a recognized Canadian post-secondary institution. For the 2017 Magazine Grands Prix Fellowships, recent graduates who graduated from their program in the academic years 2013-14, 2014-15 or 2015-16 are eligible.
• You must be 18 years of age or older as of January 1, 2017 to be eligible for the 2017 Magazine Grands Prix Fellowships.
• Note: Individuals who have been employed on staff in Canadian magazines for three (3) years or longer are not eligible.

Whom we’re seeking

Briarpatch is seeking an ambitious self-starter who will come prepared to write a fresh multi-part series or will be able to pitch a variety of stories. As a national magazine, we’re looking for dynamic and nuanced stories that will resonate with readers across Canada and prompt them to think differently about the people, politics, and environment in Saskatchewan.

The fellowship applicant will be curious about the magazine industry and will understand that our mandate is to publish writing and artwork on current events, grassroots activism, electoral politics, economic justice, ecology, labour, food security, gender equity, Indigenous struggles, international solidarity, and other issues of political importance.

How to get involved

The first step is to tell us you’re interested. If this fellowship sounds exciting to you, we’d like to hear from you. Please get in touch with the Editor ([email protected]) to express your interest in the fellowship and describe your qualifications; we’d like to see a brief statement of interest, and a representative writing sample. From there, we’ll support selected applicants (to the extent that they would like) in developing their application to the Canadian Magazine Awards / Les Grands prix du magazine. Applicants will be ultimately responsible for their own submissions. Please read the judging process involved in the Canadian Magazine Awards / Les Grands prix du magazine.

Submissions for the Canadian Magazine Awards / Les Grands prix du magazine fellowship opened on December 12, 2016 and the deadline to apply is January 30, 2017. We would like to work with interested applicants on assembling a strong application to submit together to Magazines Canada. If this fellowship sounds like a good fit for you, please get in touch with us before January 5.

Note: not all details about pay and duration have been released by the Canadian Magazine Awards. We will update this post as we learn more about the details.