Attention features, style and food writers: Guardian US wants you (we’re growing).

Jessica Reed
4 min readAug 3, 2015

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Part one: How to pitch to this editor

Part two: Writing is not enough

Six months ago, I published a Medium post with tips about how to pitch to me. People have found it useful. Here’s more.

Art by Sarah Glidden — part of her cartoon about foreign greetings

Since January, the Features section of Guardian US has been growing, and now we’re about to start something new — again. Ruth Spencer (@ruths) is joining me to expand our features coverage to include style and food.

At that stage, we know what we want more of, less of, and what makes us really excited. Here goes.

Long and medium form

Our ambition is to cover the US from Portland, Maine all the way to San Jose — and everywhere in between. We want to publish stories that people across the country will identify with, and will want to talk to their friends about.

A photograph by Katie Orlinsky, part of our feature about whale hunting

Here’s a small sample of stories we’ve published in the last six months which we loved working on — from the very serious to the very silly.

The life and death of Misty Upham

On the frontline with pro-life campaigners

Photo gallery: Whale hunting in Alaska

Exploding demand for grass-fed meat is giving dogs jobs

Inside William Bratton’s NYPD: broken windows policing is here to stay

Cartoon: a guide to avoid awkwardness when greeting human beings

My 49 hours in a Baltimore cell — for being a reporter

Eva: our online dating advice columnist

What we want more of

Illustration for our article about actress Misty Upham — by Vin Ganapathy

_ Writers with a sharp sense of humor who can tell personal stories and/or riff off the news.

_ Illustrators with brilliant editorial ideas + photographers able to pull off a story told in pictures.

_ Outstanding personal essays (but by outstanding, we mean outstanding).

_ For reported features, we’re keen to hear from people outside of New York/San Fransciso/LA. We love stories about small town characters, events, quirky stuff, etc.

_ Jessica has a soft spot for epic adventure stories and outdoors reporting. Make of that what you will.

Style

Photograph: Rex

Style is different than fashion, and here’s why: it has a broader perspective. We want to cover more than designer clothes and runway shows.

Style can be about design, beauty trends, business, or DIY projects. For example: why is Everlane such a US brand success story among millennials? What does minimalism look like in 2015? Are French women still the pinnacle of looking good? Are picture walls as lame as we think they are?

In summary: we want regular writers able to decode the world of consumption says about us. What does the stuff we buy and love say about our modern lives?

Ruth is after trend pieces and reactive blog posts. But we want features, too, and portraits or interviews with the men and women who get to define what American culture is.

Food

Chimichurri! Photograph: Johanna Parkin

Jessica’s brief for this section is simple: make me hungry. Or thirsty.

We will be looking to hire recipe columnists in the medium term, but right now we want writers able to tell us why ramen burgers are a thing of the past (and what will replace it), amazing recipes for the best breakfast to eat at your desk, or why weed-infused food is the next big thing (apparently). This is a great example of what we want: the world of spaghetti cones.

Yay or nay? Photograph: Devon Knight for The Guardian

(Bonus: if you can take pictures.)

In summary: you should write for us if…

_ You can identify and duplicate The Guardian’s famous features tone: irreverent, funny, skeptical yet also knowledgable (and even political).

_ You’re better than listicles, but not so precious that you will only write 5,000 word essays about obscure agricultural policies (although we like some of that too).

_ You can identify a trend just before it hits.

_ If writing long form, you’re willing to deep dive and do the subject justice - while keeping it fresh.

Contact:

jessica.reed@theguardian.com (long form + medium features + food)

ruth.spencer@theguardian.com (long form + medium features + style)

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Jessica Reed

Guardian US features editor. French. 'We can't stop here, this is bat country' - Hunter S Thompson