Submissions

Since our founding in 2009, The Heavy Table has been dedicated to the idea of paying writers, photographers, and illustrators to create high-quality, thoughtfully edited original work capturing the essence of food and drink in the Upper Midwest.

Fees vary. We typically pay $55 for a short post, or $110 for something longer, but we also typically cover food and/or travel expenses, and have paid significantly higher story fees for reported stories that take more time and/or skill to execute. If you want to get started in a low-impact way, we pay a flat $10 for Hot Five submissions - a photograph and a paragraph or two about a specific food or drink you’ve eaten, typically in a Minnesota restaurant but really anywhere and anything that will catch our readers’ attention.

We are most interested in stories that will be news to our readers, stories that zag where other publications have zigged, and stories that revolve in a deeply informed way around the food, first and foremost. Start with a taste; move out to a food; move out from there to whatever context (agriculture, politics, immigration, etc. etc.) tells the deepest and most engaging story from there.

Heavy Table has a regular stable of contributors, some of whom have been contributing for more than a decade - we keep our team interested and active by sharing cool ideas, tackling group projects (reviews like the first day of the Minnesota State Fair or big taste-offs for things like croissants or pies), and providing intelligent, generous, thoughtful editing and support.

You can learn more about Heavy Table’s voice and submissions process on our website.

Pitch stories or other ideas to our editor, James Norton: editor@heavytable.com