What is it?
The Food Stories magazine is an activist publication tackling issues regarding food cultures, food politics, food sustainability and food security in the cost-of-living crisis. Employing the talents and skills of many departments within the university, we’ll create a multi-media magazine which brings awareness to social dilemmas within our food system.
What we’re looking for:
Any and all forms of food-centric writing, whether that be fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, screenplays, or flash fiction. This could include recipes, essays, and book reviews of novels/poetry collections. We’ve collected various food stories from students; If you’d like to use these as writing prompts you can access them by emailing Mie at mie.claridge@yorksj.ac.uk.
We’re looking for weird and wonderful pieces of writing in which food plays a central role. There’re no restrictions in terms of genre or form, as long as the piece is original, and hasn’t previously been submitted to any other publications.
Don’t know what to write? Here are a few prompts to get you going:
- Write a spec-fic piece on futuristic food.
- Write about someone/something hunting for their food – is the food something we’d expect to see on the dinner table?
- Write about food on another planet/by another species.
- Get weird with it – write about someone eating/craving something they shouldn’t be.
- Write a fictional dinner party – is it a disaster, or a success?
- Write about the supernatural, cannibals, vampires – what does dinnertime look like for them?
- Write about a restaurant – is there something bizarre about the food that’s being served?
Submission Guidelines:
You may submit multiple pieces of writing in varying forms, however, please note that not all submissions may be successful. All rights will be retained by the creator. Any work that is considered offensive or defamatory will not be published.
Fiction
Submissions should not exceed 1500 words. We will accept two pieces of fiction per writer.
Poetry
Poetry submissions should not exceed 60 lines. You may submit multiple poems provided they do not exceed 60 lines in total. One poem per author will be accepted if successful.
Flash Fiction
Submissions should not exceed 500 words. We will accept two pieces of flash fiction per writer.
Creative Non-Fiction
Submissions should not exceed 1500 words. We will accept two pieces of creative non-fiction per writer.
Submissions window:
All submissions should be sent by Monday 15th April 2024, 00:01 GMT.
Submissions sent outside this window may not be considered for publication.
How to submit:
Please send your submissions to amie.watts1@yorksj.ac.uk with the subject line ‘Food Stories Submission 2024’.
Attach your work as a Word document or PDF, with a title and your name. If you are submitting multiple pieces of work, please attach all files in the same email.
If you wish to be involved in the production of the magazine, come along to our workshops on Wednesdays at 1:30 pm in FT/114.
