Hello, writers!
We just wrapped up our first IRL Broccoli editorial team meeting in FOUR YEARS (whoa) and our brains are brimming with plots and plans for our ever-expanding galaxy of publishing projects. Mushroom People II is happening (you can find the pitch call for that on our Journal; it’s open all summer) and look out for a future call for book-length projects. In the meantime, though, here’s a call for Broccoli Issue 19, which will be out in the wild sometime in the spring of 2024.
First, the essentials:
✿ All pitches in response to this call are due by 9:00 p.m. EST July 14, 2023.
✿ Send pitch emails to editors@broccolimag.com.
✿ All Broccoli Issue 19 stories will be assigned by July 19, 2024.
✿ First drafts for Broccoli Issue 19 will be due starting August 30, 2023.
✿ Rates: $.40-$.50/word, negotiated as a flat fee at commission, with flat rates for shorter pieces (under 300 words) around $100.
✿ Broccoli Issue 19 will go to print in late fall and hit stands in Spring 2024. All commissioned writers will receive a free copy of the magazine where their work appears.
Next, the stories:
STRANGE MEDIUMS: Broccoli has a long-standing fascination with mediumistic art (see Issue 01, where we talked about a then-little-known artist named Hilma af Klint back before she dominated the Guggenheim). Right now, we’re mesmerized by Barbara Honywood’s floral fantasies, but we’re always open to pitches from smart, impassioned writers on artists who look to forces beyond (or within) themselves to conjure strange worlds. Could be a profile of an individual artist or a group, or a q&a with a curator or scholar. 500-1200 words.
THE ALNWICK POISON GARDEN: Have you wandered among the caged plants in this peculiar and deadly garden? Tell us about it: 300-500 words, bringing in points of historical and botanical interest.
Q & A WITH LELEN RUETE: Seeking a conversationalist to chat with Ruete, a cannabis photographer, on her career and weed culture in South America. 800-1200 words.
WOMEN UNDER THE INFLUENCE: Q & A with the Los Angeles-based WUTI on their approach to curating works and events celebrating women filmmakers. 800 words.
CAROLINE ZIMBALIST: Zimbalist sculpts works that evoke alien flowers and frozen explosions of color from bioplastics and materials she makes herself. Seeking 600-800 words on her work and practice.
STEPPING INTO THE PORTAL WITH EQUIHUA: 800-word profile of Brenda Equihua, maker of the coziest and most covetable coats, on her eponymous fashion line.
SCORING WEED IN NYC: The weed scene in NYC is undergoing continual revolutions. Looking for a human and humane essay styled as a journal documenting what it is like finding weed in the city these days. How is the weed community changing? What feels the same? What’s changing? What’s better? What’s worse? Looking for something approachable and relatable, not a festival of flexes, name-dropping, or scene-y humblebragging.
FLASH FICTION: CYBERWEED. Fiction writers and fantasists, this one's for you. Send us the full text of a tale, no more than 250 to 500 words long, on the theme of cyberweed (whatever that means to you). Rates between $75 and $150 for those selected for publication, based on length.
POTLUCK: Want to pitch us something else? Go for it! Broccoli is mostly about looking at culture through a stoned lens, meaning we prioritize any story that invites wonder, curiosity, beauty, and/or a good laugh with friends. Stories don’t need to have a specific cannabis angle to fit the brief.
We read and respond to every single pitch. We’ll try and get you a reply as quickly as we can, but we appreciate your patience—we’re a super small team. We care a lot that you take the time to write.
Before you smash that send button, here’s some helpful hints, especially for those potluck pitches:
✿ Stories, not content. We’re about creating opportunities for writers to explore the stories they want to write, especially the ones that won’t find a home anywhere else. In other words: all killer, no filler. So don’t pitch us anything you aren’t actually passionate about writing.
✿ If you have more than one story idea (wonderful!), put them all in a single email. No attachments, please. Make sure you’ve got the goods. If you pitch an interview, know you can get access. If you pitch an artist, understand who holds the rights.
✿ Think evergreen. Our production cycle is too long for this-very-instant trend pieces.
More questions? Reach out to editors@broccolimag.com. If you are a brand or PR agency interested in being featured in the magazine, please contact hi@broccolimag.com to learn more about paid partnership opportunities. Lead photo by Carl Ostberg for Broccoli Issue 08.
