Content Submission

Submission Guidelines for Freelance Writers & Multimedia Producers

Our goal at Black Restaurant Week is to develop conversations around the Black food history, culture and recipes. Is there something interesting about Jerk Chicken? Maybe you want to share more about the emerging Black food scene in your city? We are excited to see what you find interesting within our community. We would love to connect with talented contributors and chefs to share your thoughts and recipes with our audience.

With a large social media following and a national subscriber base, this is an opportunity for writers and multimedia producers from around the country to put their work in front of a highly engaged audience while amplifying their community’s culinary stories. Unpublished drafts are our preferred submission type, but previously self-published stories may also be considered. Unsolicited pitch ideas are welcome as well. 

Here is an example of the type of content we’re looking for: 

  • Listicles
  • Essays and/or reported articles that sit at the intersection of food and culture 
  • Reported articles about the intersection of food and technology 
  • Reported articles regarding food security, food & environmental justice, food advocacy, community led projects that fight hunger, waste, etc. 
  • Profiles of chefs, operators, restauranters and other professionals
  • Content around Black food history
  • Content from around the African diaspora
  • Miscellaneous – try us! 

All pitches should include: 

  • A sample headline 
  • A few details about the idea you’re proposing, showing us your grasp of the story and why you’re the person to write it. This line from Medium’s submission guidelines is a good start: If it’s an essay, let your voice shine through. If it’s a reported story, who would you talk to? If it’s a profile, do you have access?
  • Proposed word count and imagined treatment. Would this be best as a Q&A? Profile? Essay? Slideshow? Listicle? Video? Audio series? Something else? 
  • A few words about yourself and at least two writing samples. 

Send all pitches to our Content Manager at content@blackrestaurantweeks.com .

Please include: BRW Pitch in the subject line. Add URGENT if the content is time-sensitive. We will respond to as many emails and pitches as possible, but please be patient while waiting for a response. We look forward to hearing from you! 

How to Pitch an Article

When you pitch, provide a one paragraph explanation of what you would like to write about and how it would fit in with the content that we have on our website. We are looking for FOOD FOCUSED writing.

Here are Some Pitch Tips

  1. Make sure your story is unique and has not been published on our site.
    We would love to see an original pitch for something that you have not written about before in another publication or blog.
  2. Feel free to send more than one pitch. We would prefer that you send a maximum of three pitches so that we have a few options.
  3. Tell us about yourself! We plan on building a lasting relationship with you.
  4. Tell us about your writing experience, send a couple of samples of your work, and we’d love to know a fun fact about you.
  5. MOST IMPORTANTLY DO NOT PLAGIARIZE! We want to celebrate your originality. Please do not copy anyone’s work and if you interview someone, do not adjust their quotes.

Where to send your pitch?

First thing! If you did not read the list above STOP and go back to read the instructions above. Send your pitches via email to content@blackrestaurantweeks.com with “PITCH: (Title of your idea)” as the subject line. If you are sending more than one, just put the best one as the subject.

  • Be advised that if your pitch is accepted we will discuss next steps, on-boarding, distribution and compensation.
  • Be aware that most article lengths are 1200-1500 words unless advised otherwise.

Our goal with our recipes is to share with our audience recipes that a regular home cook can make. Nothing too technical or complicated. We want people to bookmark this recipe and come back to use it many times over. Remember that we would like to showcase old,new and innovative recipes that capture the Black culture but before you pitch, please review our how to pitch below.

How to pitch your unique recipe

Do we already have this dish on our website? If yes, please pitch something else or explain why your dish is DYNOMITE!

Is this a seasonal recipe or is it evergreen? For example, if you are pitching your Thanksgiving recipe in October, then it is a bit too late. We are preparing seasonal recipes 2-3 months in advance.

Why should you be sharing this recipe? You don’t need to be a professional chef, you just need to know how to curate and present a recipe that is unique to you and would be interesting to our audience.

Are you sharing an old family recipe or a unique recipe to a classic dish? We want to know what inspired you to share this recipe with us.

Have you published this recipe anywhere else? As long as it is not published with another publication or for sale anywhere else, we’d love to see what you are making. We love to work with professional chefs, home cooks and food influencers.

Have a video of the recipe? Awesome, send a link to it with your pitch.

Be advised that if your pitch is accepted we will discuss next steps, on-boarding, distribution and compensation.

Be aware that with recipes they must be in standard recipe format. A standardized recipe specifically describes the exact, measurable amount of ingredients and the method of preparation needed to consistently produce a high-quality product. The exact procedures, the type of equipment, and the quantity and quality of ingredients are listed.