How to Pitch: Bookforum

Tends toward more formal, sometimes academic/pretentious writing about books and literary culture.

TONE

Tends toward more formal, sometimes academic/pretentious writing about books and literary culture. Essays that aren’t directly about literature lean towards political, sociological criticism. Primarily longform book reviews written by a roster of regular contributors or commissioned from established writers, but there’s space in the online edition for cold pitches — particularly web-only reviews and themed book syllabi.

STRUCTURE

Print and online editions. Print is published 5 times a year, online updates daily.

Print

Each edition of the print version opens with four featured essays around a theme (E.g. Summer 2018 is “1968 Now,” with essays about the 1968 presidential conventions, second-wave feminism, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Yukio Mushima).

Followed by 15 to 20 shorter essays on the theme.

Other sections: Columns (usually from regular contributors), Fiction (usually one interview, ~4 fiction book reviews), Current Affairs & Politics (~5 non-fiction book reviews), Arts & Letters (~5 non-fiction book reviews, one critical essay).

Online

• Daily Review: web exclusive reviews, print reviews, and POV reviews. All the book stuff is in one place online.
• Omnivore: basically just a blog that collects links around a specific theme. E.g. “Trump and the Politics of Football” links out to a bunch of new research papers, some Vox reporting, The Baffler essay, etc.
• Paper Trail: daily news blog, include industry news, links to notable writing about new books / authors, and an events section.
• Syllabi: Super-specific and written-through themed reading lists (e.g. A Syllabus For The End Times). Occasionally they solicit submissions for these, so likely the easiest thing to cold pitch.
• Interviews: They run a lot more of these online than in print. Two or three a month.

COLUMNS

• The Best-Seller List: typically where new commercial fiction and non-fiction is reviewed. Sometimes retrospective pieces about old best-sellers or landmark books that adhere to an issue theme. Not always from regular contributors and publishes more often online than in print.
• The Cultist: Tom Carson’s column. Usually on books about American politics.
• Roundup: Blurb-style roundups (e.g. “this summer’s outstanding art books”) typically written by regular contributors.
• Hit Parade: Year-end best-ofs. Written by regular contributors.
• Luxury & Degradation: Print-only. Weirder essays often with a looser literary connection. Not always by regular contributors.
• Food: Melanie Rehak’s column. It’s food. (Summer 2018 issue is an essay on Julia Child’s TV show, tied to 1968 theme)
• Syllabi: The site says, “Writers interested in contributing to bookforum.com should send short pitches and samples of recent work to [email protected]. We commission web-exclusive book reviews; syllabi, which are thematically-organized reading lists of between six and ten books; interviews, and reporting on literary events.” Suggest a syllabus: [email protected]

EDITORS TO PITCH

Managing Editor: David O’Neill
[email protected]

Pretty much only ever worked at Bookforum, he’s been there since 2008. Covers a lot of art (particularly photography) and music books personally for the print issues, and writes about global politics pretty often. Edited the David Wojnarowicz audio journals project. Not a very public dude. Pitch for print.

Senior Editor: Namara Smith
[email protected]

Relatively new at Bookforum, previously a senior editor at n+1. Writes a lot about gender and feminism in literature. Pitch for print.

Associate Editor: Maggie Foucault
[email protected]

Been there about two years, Master’s student at NYU. Mostly interested in East Asian culture, music and film. Handles pitches for web reviews and syllabi and responds quickly. Pitch for web.

Online Editor: Alfredo Perez
[email protected]

Edits all of the blogs, and created Omnivore. He’s done that for something like 15 years now. Kind of a mysterious figure otherwise. Responds quickly to web pitches, but will likely direct you to Maggie. Pitch for web.

PITCHES THAT WORKED

Pitched by: Kaitlyn Tiffany

Pitched to: Maggie Foucault

Pitch: 

For syllabi: Books that inspire love of the postal service. (Tied to all of its sweet, sad attempts to appeal to Millennials. Some of us love it already!) So like, Lynne Tillman’s Motion Sickness (EU postal service), Jang Eun-jin’s No One Writes Back (Korean postal service), Amy Hempel’s Tumble Home (American), this Jacobin essay on all the New Deal-era art in post offices, Eudora Welty’s “Why I Live at the P.O.” and maybe Drew Barrymore’s Instagram.

NOT The Crying of Lot 49, which will only make you afraid of the postal service.

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