I just heard from Katherine that the prep call for Friday's webinar was so inspiring and far-reaching. You won't want to miss this webinar, whether you're already creating long-form journalism or just hope to, one day!

Long-form journalism offers a unique way to build empathy and understanding across lines of identity and circumstance, as you immerse in both the larger context and small details of a person or situation. Often, these projects are the highlights of our careers, leading to awards, job offers, book deals and other opportunities—not to mention exposing injustice and prompting policy changes.

So if you’re curious about long-form work or in need of some tips on how to sustain a meaningful career in it, please join us Friday, Oct. 27 at 12-1:15 p.m. ET for our webinar and see if it’s right for you!

Successful freelancers will share how to perfect pitches, build editor relationships, select assignments, generate income, and more. You’ll even learn how fellowships, grants, teaching, and book projects can fit into your work portfolios.

Speakers include:

Cerise Castle, independent journalist: Cerise Castle is a Los Angeles-based journalist specializing in arts & culture, civil rights, criminal justice, and human interest stories. In 2022, she was a recipient of the International Women in Media Foundation’s Courage Award for her work covering the deputy gangs. In 2023, she received the American Mosaic Journalism Prize for her reporting on the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Her reporting and commentary have been featured by ABC, Autre, Capital & Main, The Daily Beast, The Los Angeles Times, The LAnd, Los Angeles Magazine, MTV, National Public Radio (NPR), Salon and Vanity Fair. In addition to writing, Castle is the managing editor of Knock LA where she oversees teams of editors, photographers, graphic designers, and writers who cover local news in the greater Los Angeles County area.

Fernanda Santos, editor in digital and audio: Fernanda Santos has focused her career on elevating the stories of underrepresented and misrepresented communities. She got her start in journalism in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, her home country, and was the first Brazilian to become a staff writer for The New York Times, where she worked for 12 years. She’s a contributing columnist for The Washington Post, a writing coach in the Poynter Institute’s Power of Diverse Voices and a co-writer of the Off Broadway musical ¡Americano!. Her first book, The Fire Line, is about one of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history. She’s currently at work on a memoir.

Sarah Carr, independent journalist: Sarah Carr has covered education for The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Slate, and more, winning numerous awards. Past fellowship grants include the Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship, the O’Brien Fellowship for Public Service Journalism, and the Russell Sage Visiting Journalist fellowship. She is the author of “Hope Against Hope” (Bloomsbury, 2013), about New Orleans schools after Hurricane Katrina, which was selected as a campus-wide read at Tulane University and Macalester College. She has taught and mentored students at both SUNY New Paltz and Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Carr was also editor of an investigative education reporting team at the Boston Globe, The Great Divide, and a staff writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education, the New Orleans Times Picayune, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Moderated by Jaeah Jonae Lee, independent journalist: Jaeah Lee is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine and a 2021-2022 Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow. She has written for California Sunday, 1843 Magazine, Columbia Journalism Review, Topic Stories, Vice News, and Mother Jones. She is a recipient of the American Mosaic Journalism Prize for excellence in longform, narrative reporting on underrepresented groups in America. Jaeah recently served as a board member for the Asian American Journalists Association's San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, and as a contributing editor for PEN America’s The Sentences That Create Us (Haymarket, 2022), a book about the craft of writing for incarcerated people.

RSVP here.

We'd like to thank the O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism for sponsoring this webinar. If you'd like to support future IIJ programming and connect with a robust community of independent journalists of color, please contact [email protected]

Since 2013, the O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism has supported nine-month reporting projects proposed by 40 journalists based in the U.S. Reporters selected for this Milwaukee-based fellowship at Marquette University get: a $75,000 stipend, student interns as reporting partners, and funds for reporting travel and research. In service of the Fellowship’s mission to identify problems and potential solutions, O’Brien projects have tackled issues around environmental and racial justice, inequities in education and health care, criminal justice and more.

Submit Your Conference Proposals Today!

The IIJ is an education and mutual support organization, but we’re also a community, which is why we’re asking you to help us shape the IIJ conference.

Which editors do you want to learn the art of pitching from? Which publications do you want to land a byline in? What speakers do you want to hear from at our next panel or webinar?

Aside from suggesting speakers and assigning editors, you can also help us by:

• Sharing our events and newsletters with your audience

• Suggesting funders and partners who would be a good fit for our webinars and events

• Making a donation to support our work

• Volunteering to be a chat moderator or convention programming member

Submit all your ideas and thoughts here.

All speakers, moderators, and volunteers will receive complimentary conference registration.

The conference will be held Feb. 29-March 1, 2024 from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET.

Questions? Email IIJ founder Katherine Reynolds Lewis at [email protected] or volunteer coordinator Sa’iyda Shabazz at [email protected] 

We look forward to hearing from you.

Pitch Callouts, Fellowships, and Other Opportunities

The Tarbell Fellowship

If you’re interested in covering artificial intelligence, consider applying to the one-year program, The Tarbell Fellowship.

Fellows will work in a major newsroom for nine months, participate in a study group covering AI governance and technical fundamentals, and attend a two-week-long journalism summit in Oxford.

The stipend is up to $50,000.

For more information or to apply, visit their site here.

The deadline to apply is Nov. 5, 2023.

The Guardian Call for Pitches

If you have any pitches for stories on climate/environmental justice and efforts to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for the climate crisis, consider sending them to Danielle Renwick at The Guardian.

Rate: $1/word

Email story ideas to [email protected] 

Material Queer Call for Pitches

If you’re an LGBTQ+ writer covering queer culture, Material Queer is looking for interviews, features, and reviews.

Rate: $180-$270

Email story ideas to [email protected] 

The Open Notebook’s Early-Career Fellowship Program

If you’re a science journalist with fewer than three years regular professional science writing experience, consider applying to the Open Notebook’s Early-Career Fellowship Program.

Fellows receive a $6,000 stipend.

For more information or to apply, visit their site here.

The deadline to apply is Oct. 31.

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Interesting Reads

The greater IIJ family includes people in both Israel and Palestine; we pray for their safety and an end to the violence. This week, we’re reading about the realities of reporting in Gaza, why word choice matters when covering a war, and the importance of covering Israel and Palestine with care and nuance.

• Read Ren LaForme and Angela Fu’s op-ed “Word choice matters, especially when covering a war” for Poynter. In it, they discuss the ways that journalists are searching for the “most accurate and objective terms” and how their decisions can affect audiences and their reading experiences.

• Read Laura Wagner’s “It’s becoming impossible to report from Gaza” for the Washington Post. In it, she explains how electrical and internet outages are getting in the way of journalists’ livelihoods as they try to evacuate their own families amid the war.

• Please take a minute to look over The Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association’s Media Resource Guide for Palestine-Israel. Whether you’re reporting on the events or not, it’s important to stay informed, understand the historical context with nuance, and know the importance of accurate language.

• We're always eager to connect with freelance journalists of color who'd like to be involved in the work of the IIJ or contribute to future programs. Email [email protected] to volunteer—or if you have an idea for a partner, funder or topic we should explore.

Calendar

We love growing the IIJ family and connecting with fellow freelance journalists, so please come to one of our events! Here are the upcoming IIJ events and presentations by IIJ leaders:

• Oct. 27 long-form journalism careers webinar. RSVP here to attend.

• Nov. 16 AIR webinar on the business of freelancing. For more information, click here.

• Nov. 17 business and personal finance editors panel. RSVP here to attend.

• Dec. 8 travel and lifestyle freelancing webinar. RSVP here to attend.

• Jan. 19 insurance for freelancers webinar. RSVP here to attend.

• Feb. 9 sports and fitness journalism webinar. RSVP here to attend.

• April 12-April 14 presentation at the 2024 Women in Journalism workshop at the Reynolds Journalism Institute. For more information, click here.