CHAPTER 58
Talking food & travel with freelancer Ruth Dsouza Prabhu + a primer on Chevening Fellowship + travel writing retreat deets + writing resources + AMA
Dear gentle reader,
It’s freedom month, or is it?
If I go by my inbox, freedom means 15% off on restaurants and/ or products…consumerism zindabad!
NOTE: Next month, I will be one of the mentors at a travel writing retreat being conducted by Bound, in Chettinad. There will be one-on-one mentor sessions, workshops, cultural activities and more. Come, join? More details, here.
This is a packed edition, so I will get right to it. This edition has an interview with my friend and colleague, Ruth Dsouza Prabhu, a short essay on applying for the prestigious Chevening’s South Asia Journalism Programme, pitches, fellowships, resources and more. Also, #AskJo is back!
Ready? Let’s begin.
THE INTERVIEW
Ruth Dsouza Prabhu is an independent journalist and author based in Bangalore, India, with 23 years of experience spanning diverse media platforms. She was the author and editor of India’s Most Legendary Restaurants (Aleph Book Co.), contributed to the Bloomsbury Handbook of Indian Cuisine and served on the organising committee of the annual Indian Culinary Agenda initiative in Delhi. She writes for leading Indian and international publications, and conducts workshops for journalists on food and travel writing, and for PR professionals (how PR can turn ideas into headlines).
It is a long interview but she makes such good points..it is as if she is speaking my mind!
Excerpts from an interview:
What is the most repeated advice you would give to someone starting out in the food/ travel space?
Start small, and you will be guaranteed more and bigger wins. Everybody wants to start with the BBC and The Guardian and Eater and while all of these are great and publications to aspire for, the competition to get to them is much higher. Start with your local newsletters, community newspapers, city newspapers, then the national ones and work hard at remaining consistent in those. Once you know how the whole ideating and pitching cycle works, aim for the big ones…it can be work in progress in the background and not the sole mission.What is the one mistake that all new writers make?
Most newbie and sometimes even published writers, as I have seen in my workshops, tend to give up on their pitches when they meet their first rejection (more on this later). Rejection is a normal part of the process, as is not hearing back from an editor. But that may not mean that your pitch is not workable at all. There are several reasons why a story may not be accepted but don’t give up on it. Tweak it if you have got feedback; put it on a backburner and revisit when another relevant hook comes up; set it aside and look at it objectively after a week, most likely you will find a reason why it did not make the cut. Perhaps your choice of publication was wrong. Give the pitch and yourself a chance. It is a slow process to get there, but once you do, it does get easier.Who should enter the food/ travel writing space? Is passion for either enough?
Passion, I would say, has to be the most basic of requirements for the food and travel space. These genres are not easy because they are oversaturated and the number of publications or spaces dedicated to them are not nearly enough. Many folks believe simply having a good command over language, being a “foodie and loving travel” is enough. It’s not. When you write about food and travel you have to go beyond the surface level. With food, it’s about understanding what you are eating through various lenses — of your travel, of local culinary customs, of the ingredient’s history, the chef and his/her context. These smaller details can elevate even a listicle. Simply parroting a press release or calling a dish, yummy or delicious does nothing for the reader. Similarly with travel — Going “beyond XYZ place is great to see” is not easy — putting an itinerary together for a gourmet food traveller, or the architecture enthusiast or the history buff, or even a family with small or teenage children, is a challenge. Cracking that is important.Food and travel are often seen as glam jobs - visiting new places, eating good food etc. What are some myths you wish to break about this world?
The job is without doubt a glamorous one — you literally fit into that clichéd line of “getting paid to eat and travel. But what most people fail to see is the hard work that goes into bringing all those experiences to life in your stories. The sheen of doing this dies off soon enough when you are taking notes, transcribing endless interviews, making sure you are spelling dishes or city names right. While travel and dining are wonderful experiences and we are lucky to have them — there are also bad trips and bad meals, there are days when you don’t want to travel or eat out but the job demands it. Being objective, completely into it at all times, always looking for a possible story makes you look at dining out and travelling very differently after a while. It’s a reality. But that said, passion takes care of a lot of this.
What’s your most unexpectedly profitable niche in travel or food?
This has happened in three ways for me. The first is when PR (and very few do this skillfully) curate a detailed FAM itinerary and it almost always assures me of multiple stories. A trip to Sweden gave me 9 stories. One to Ahmedabad gave me 3, one of which was an international one. It makes taking the time out for this one trip profitable not just monetary-wise but also byline-wise. There is just so much potential to an itinerary. The second has been working in content development in the world of hospitality — this I do with corporate hospitality entities on a retainer-basis. I find it a much better way to take home a salary of sorts at the end of the day. Additionally, I am a massive proponent of diversification, so after 24 years in the field of media, I now teach — I give guest lectures to journalism students on feature writing and also conduct online and offline workshops for aspiring travel and food writers and PR professionals looking to improve their pitching skills with journalists.
How do you pitch a ‘tired/oversold’ destination or restaurant without sounding like everyone else?
I actually have multiple approaches to this. The first trick is to know a publication’s style sheet — what kind of stories do they take, what is their approach to the story, what kind of English do they use (British, American, Global), how viral are the kind of stories they take? This helps in finding a way to make a boring old pitch look a bit new.
Another approach is to answer a question that you can’t find an answer to. I wondered by everyone dismissed meat-eating as unhealthy, couldn’t find a comprehensive article to support it, pitched the editor of a health magazine who said go for it and worked on the story. Turns out the key is in the cooking techniques to get the most of meat’s nutrition — not all the bad rep it had was valid.
Another approach is to find a similar string of happenings and put them together. There was a time, menus had dedications to them — Aunty Mary’s Sunday Roast, Col. Mehta’s Mutton Curry, Khushnuma’s Dhansak — I wanted to know the stories behind the dedication — it became a story.
For places, looking at them from a fresh lens helps — try riffing off a news item — take the 99% Italy campaign that addresses over-tourism in Italy. Now put all the famous tourist spots of Italy in context and explore what the impact of reducing tourism in these would be OR talk about the rest (99%) of Italy and what could be alternate to the popular places — that way an old and a new place get mentioned.What is one example of a publication or client that totally got your voice—and what made that gig special? (If you are okay sharing this)
That would have to be a story I wrote for Al Jazeera on How the Colonization of India Influenced Global Food. This was an idea that got rejected by most Indian publications. It finally found a home with Al Jazeera. The publication was more than happy for me to tell the story through a first person approach, pretty much the way I researched the story and found the people to qualify my research. It just gave the whole piece so much more depth. I won Honorable Mention in the International Food Wine Travel Writers Association Excellence in Journalism Award in 2021 for this story.
What’s your secret weapon for getting repeat clients?
Standing my ground — on retainers and what I am worth, on working hours (exceptions come in much later when I know the team I work with better), on scope of work, and on clear briefs. Once I have this, it is always about maintaining deadlines, going above and beyond on occasion to bring value-add to the table, providing feedback, even if unsolicited on what may or may not work on occasion. And maintaining a strictly professional relationship, which can be friendly to the extent of an occasional coffee meet once in a blue moon.
If you wish to attend Ruth’s workshops, get in touch with her on ruthdsouzap@gmail.com
PITCH CALLS
More to Her Story is seeking from journalists in conflict zones, remote villages, and underreported regions, ready to report not just the struggles, but the strength, agency, and ideas of women and girls in their own communities.
- Submit: Pitch, here.
- Rate: a flat fee of $300National Geographic is looking for pitches in health, credible wellness/fitness trends, and odd and/or this is not the first time in history.
- Email: starlight.williams@natgeo.comBroad Sound is a new arts and culture journal that is accepting pitches for its first issue (launching in November 2025). Details, here.
- Rate: $100 per piece
- Email: broadsoundmag@gmail.comEvery DejaVu music blog is looking for pitches about music/ artists who are lesser known or a part of a niche subculture.
- Rate: $40-100
- Email: ryan@everydejavu.com | madison@everydejavu.comClimate Home News welcomes article pitches from freelance journalists, experts and organisations working on climate policy. Details, here.
- Email: News, analysis and feature pitches, and comment pieces to Megan mr@climatehomenews.com and investigative pitches to Sebastian sr@climatehomenews.com@PatinaMag is seeking pitches for volume 2 of the magazine, from writers, creatives, academics, curators, etc. The theme is legible: stories that examine the politics, mechanics, and cultural dynamics of being seen and understood. Deadline: Sept 5.
- Submit, here.Betches is looking for pitches on thought-provoking, conversation-starting stories about trending news, internet culture, friendship, and sharp social commentary.
- Rate: $250-$500 range
- Email: melaniewhyte@betches.comSlate is looking for pitches about features and essays till December.
- Email: leah.prinzivalli@slate.comThe next print edition of the Green European Journal will ask what culture and democracy can do for each other. They are open to essays, photo essays, interviews, graphic stories, and more. Deadline: Sep 5. Details, here.
- Email: alessio.giussani@gef.euPriya Raj is seeking pitches on WFH, AI, and the 4 day work week - why are these good/bad, challenges, Q&As, from employer POV for the Business Guide which will be distributed with The Telegraph.
- Email: priya.raj@aplmedia.co.uk
MISCELLANY
STORIES: A curation for a Contemporary Indian-Language Science Fiction Anthology is seeking stories in English or vernacular Indian languages by October 31. 4000 words. Email: kalpabiswa.sf2025@gmail.com
WORKSHOP: The 8th edition of Writing for Rage by Pragya Bhagat is a 6 session, online workshop exploring the relationship with anger and rage. Through writing and drawing prompts, creative exercises, reading poetry and prose, and lots of discussion. Starts September 8. Email pragya.bhagat@gmail.com.
JOB: Mongabay is hiring an Investigations Editor (remote is fine too). Details, here.
JOB: Juggernaut is looking for two contributors. You will have one story due per week. Ideally someone who’s a bit business/techy/econ-y + someone who can do hot cultural takes. Email careers@thejuggernaut.com
JOB: A curated list of job opportunities for the month.
AWARDS: The Society of Environmental Journalists is accepting entries for its 2025 awards, celebrating excellence in environmental reporting across 10 categories, including feature story, investigative reporting, & explanatory reporting. Details, here.
FELLOWSHIP: Applications are now open for the StiglerJIR Fellowship program! Applications are due by October 1. Apply now.
FELLOWSHIP: Cultures of Peace, an annual programme run by Zubaan in collaboration with the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, New Delhi – India is offering two research grants for young researchers, writers and artists between the age of 20-35 years and hailing from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim or Tripura (incl. Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong)Send applications on Google Form. Deadline: August 29. Details, here.
SUBMISSIONS: Westland Books has issued an open call for submissions from artists for their new imprint dedicated to comic book adaptations of classic Indian stories from different languages, for publication in 2026-27. Deadline: Sep 1. Details, here.
RESOURCE
The Chevening’s South Asia Journalism Program is a UK Government’s international scholarship programme. The Chevening Scholarship Program is open for applications. Deadline: Oct 7. Details, here. Pallavi Pundir, an independent journalist from Uttarakhand, was a Chevening Fellow 2024, shares some advice.
After nearly 13 years working with Indian and international newsrooms in and outside India, I was desperate to take a break, not so much to slow down, but to do something beyond my daily pitch-report-publish regimen. I’ll be honest: I had applied to a journalism fellowship in Singapore in 2019 and 2022 — I didn’t get it. Back then, I felt it was reflective of my lack of experience in investigative or political journalism. It was also enough for me to think that maybe I’m not good enough for these serious fellowships. After all, I didn’t start off as a news beat reporter — I covered culture for The Indian Express, The Open magazine and Conde Nast India as an employee. In 2018, I joined the recently launched but tumultuous Vice India where I allowed myself to get out of my comfort zone and join their Asia-Pacific news team where I brought in my interest in covering gender, identity and socio-economic complexities of South Asia to cover everyday news. Looking back, I *think* I did reasonably well!
Cut to 2023, I was freshly unemployed and was testing freelance waters when I decided to get over my imposter’s syndrome and apply for the Chevening’s South Asia Journalism Program. It’s a two-month on-site program administered by the University of Westminster and sponsored by the UKFDCO. For the first time, I sought help from previous cohort members, who were more than generous. One dear friend even shared his application essays with me (Note: Not many are comfortable doing that). This enabled me to describe a lifetime’s worth of journalism experience in 150 to 500 words, and also quantify it in a way that is just the right amount of humble brag.
Another interesting facet of Chevening’s selection process is their focus on leadership. In India’s traditional journalism space, leadership is often taken as a position or role within an organisation. But Chevening wants to know how you went above and beyond to exhibit leadership skills. Aspects like taking a stand, guiding/mentoring younger professionals, facing challenges in ways that your profession didn’t train you for, and highlighting larger issues in the country and your profession as a changemaker. With the interview, the idea is for you to answer simple questions succinctly and with great clarity. Sometimes they nitpick an aspect from your essays and throw a surprise question. The trick is to remain calm, take a breath, and answer with raw honesty.
When I got the acceptance email in January 2024, I couldn’t believe I made it to the cohort along with some excellent journalists from our subcontinent. But this was just the beginning. In London, despite my incredulous self-doubt, I took to the program like a fish to water. The cohort is designed in a way that allows one to speak their mind and share experiences in a way that is reflective of the times we’re all living in, all under the Chatham House rules. Thanks to my Vice News stint, I had experience in working with journalists from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and even the US and UK on various documentaries and reportage. That helped during the program, where I could share my experiences of cross-border collaborations, writing for global audiences, TikTok journalism and more. But the best bit of the program will always be the inimitable experience of working and living with our South Asian neighbours — living in close quarters, we ate, laughed and discussed everything from gendered similarities, to food and politics, to life and relationships and more. Sure, there’s a lot of sightseeing and field visits such as those to newsrooms in the UK and institutions that can help you with resources. But the program allowed us to think beyond the everyday grind of this profession and reflect on issues larger than your story-list for the week.
There’s also the Chevening Scholarship by the way, and it’s a similar but a more thorough process because it supports your academic goals in the UK. An important note: If you want to do this fellowship AND aim to study in the UK, apply for the latter first. A caveat of the SAJP fellowship is that you can’t apply for a UKFDCO-funded scholarship for the next 5 years once you're in.
To help applicants, Chevening Awards is hosting two sessions where you can seek more guidance about this year’s applications.
August 26th (Tuesday), 3-4 PM: https://lnkd.in/gfyP9U-z
Sept 10 (Wed), 3-4 PM https://lnkd.in/g8Pa8u_z
For anything else, connect with her on pallavipundir@proton.me
ASK JO
If you’ve been with me since the beginning, you may remember I would offer one-on-one mentorship/ sessions with people who had questions about freelancing. It’s still there, but there have been no takers. I thought I would use this newsletter to address some of the questions people will ask me on socials or LinkedIn.
Sometimes when publications reject our pitches without giving any feedback, we feel lost. What should we do then?
- The lovely Ruth has answered this question in her interview above. I am elaborating on her response. First up, understand you are not alone. I still get pitches rejected/ no responses from editors. It is normal and it will happen.
- It is important to remember that a rejection isn’t always about your pitch or writing. Sometimes editors are so inundated with pitches, they may have skipped it [Always follow up] OR it may not fit their current themes OR they may just not be feeling it. As someone who is also an editor, I can vouch for all these things happening. Note: you can always ask for feedback, and if the editor has time, they may reply. Whenever people ask me for feedback at Goya, I always offer it.
- Take a break from the pitch/es. As with life, when something isn’t working out, taking a step back always helps. You can then return to the pitch with fresh eyes and a fresh mindset and may find something that can be changed.
- Important: Always read the publication before pitching them. It could be your pitch doesn’t fit their style | they may have already carried something similar | it is too similar to what another publication has written. If you TRULY believe that you have a story worth telling, keep honing that pitch. If I believe in a pitch/story, I will keep reworking and sending it out (two years is my limit!).
- If you have a network of freelancer friends, send it to one or two of them to get their feedback. An extra pair of eyes is always useful.
August has personally been a really difficult month for me, and I am grateful to my incredible support system. I am fortunate to have a wonderful working relationship with editors, who were most understanding about changes/ delays in deadlines. Work remains one of my greatest passions and people like them allow me to do my best.
If you’ve also had a difficult month, here is me reaching out to say, you are not alone. Tides do ebb and flow. You will get better, and stronger.
Until next time, keep moving forward. One day at a time.
Cheers,
Joanna