Bitch Media, an independent, nonprofit feminist media organization now in its 20th year, is pleased to announce the Bitch Media Fellowships for Writers, a series of three-month intensive writing fellowships whose goal is to develop, support, and amplify emerging, diverse voices in feminist, activist, and pop-culture media. The program will be directed by Bitch cofounder Andi Zeisler.
Bitch Media’s mission is to provide and encourage an engaged, thoughtful response to mainstream media and pop culture. We strive to be a fresh, revitalizing voice in contemporary feminism, one that welcomes complex arguments and refuses to ignore the contradictory and often uncomfortable realities of life in an unequivocally gendered world. We publish the award-winning magazine Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture, daily online articles and opinions, weekly podcasts, and offer lectures and workshops around the world through Bitch on Campus.
We are pleased to kick off the second year of our fellowship program. We seek fellows who are passionate, engaged, and interested in developing their unique voices for these four fellowships, each of which pay a stipend of $2,000 for the three-month period.
Fellows will work with Bitch Media during one of the following four quarters:
- January 1 – March 30
- April 1 – June 30
- July 1 – September 30
- October 1 – December 31
Fellows will work in one of four subject areas during the fellowship period:
- Reproductive rights & justice
- Pop-culture criticism
- Technology
- Global feminism
During the 3-month fellowships, our fellows will:
- Produce a minimum of six online articles for Bitch Media in the topic area of their fellowship. These pieces can take a variety of forms: reported, analytical, advocacy-focused, even infographic, and are least 600 words in length.
- Produce at least one longform article to be published in the quarterly magazine Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture.
- Participate in biweekly discussions (by phone or Skype if fellows cannot meet in person) with the fellowship director and other members of the Bitch Media staff.
- Receive mentorship and support in creating, shaping, and editing articles and blog posts.
- Receive follow-up support with placing future articles and essays, and make great connections within the feminist-media community.
- Have access to the Bitch Media library, which houses more than 2,000 books on feminist theory and activism; gender, race, and queer studies; pop-culture criticism, and social-justice history.
- Receive a $2,000 stipend for the three-month fellowship.
Who should apply?
This fellowship was created in order to cultivate and amplify new voices. If you are a writer who has minimal publication experience, we strongly encourage you to apply. If you are passionate about one of the above subject areas but do not have a history of writing or blogging about them, we strongly encourage you to apply. If you are a writer still figuring out what subjects obsess you, we strongly encourage you to apply.
This is not a full-time position, but an independent fellowship designed for writers who want to develop confident, well-rounded voices and are particularly interested in feminist criticism and mission-driven journalism. Fellows may be based globally, and U.S. citizenship or residence is not required to be a fellow. Writers who have contributed to Bitch before will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Bitch Media is an independent 501(c)3 organization and an equal-opportunity employer. We seek a variety of perspectives and encourage applications from qualified writers of any age, race, color, gender, religion, ancestry, disability, marital status, and sexual orientation. We hope that our fellows will be able to find a community among their co-fellows and the staff of Bitch Media.
Applications due September 15, 2016 and can be found here