Pitches are closed for the month of August.

We hope to see you at the Black Ballad Weekender (23rd - 24th August), otherwise, we'll see you in the Autumn when our pitches re-open.

Black Ballad was created for and is powered by Black women. As such, we only commission those with the lived experience of being a Black woman, Black transwoman or Black non-binary person to achieve our mission and vision.

We have been publishing original writing since 2014, covering a range of topics from politics and pop culture through to beauty, careers, relationships and family life which explore the multi-faceted nuances of Blackness. We love “niche” stories, we love nuanced perspectives, we love articles that expand on conversations that are taking place in our communities or that we’ve covered previously. We are always looking to commission fresh perspectives that enlighten, entertain and engage our audience.

We are open to pitches from writers at all stages of their careers, but please familiarise yourself with the ‘Things To Note’ below to give yourself the best chance of getting commissioned.

We are currently looking for stories and investigations related to

• Current events, pop culture and the news cycle (and can be written within 24 hours)
• Black women’s health and wellbeing (with strong data/research/expert-driven angles)
• Careers, the workplace and Black women
• Queer Black communities
• Black European identities and experiences
• Regional Black British identities and experiences
• Sustainability and Africa/the Caribbean

Things To Note:

• Familiarise yourself with Black Ballad before pitching to understand the type of writing we publish and ensuring that we haven’t already covered your pitch before – and if we have, how is your article going to be different to the one we’ve already published?
• We love original reporting with statistics, data, expert interviews and contributions from relevant interviewees (if applicable).
• We have a global readership, but our core audience will always be Black British (and not just London!), so stats, data and interviewees should reflect that as much as is possible.
• We do not accept articles that are already written, ghostwritten, have already been published or are pitched through third parties (i.e. publicists/PRs).
• We try our best to respond to all pitches, even if we reject them, but given the volume of pitches we are not always able to provide personalised feedback on why your pitch was rejected. 
• Our editorial team do not monitor our social media channels, so do not pitch or follow up on pitches via these platforms.

Book Publicists & PRs

We love books and all things literary at Black Ballad, as do our audience. We accept proofs/review copies of books by black authors for consideration, but we do not publish straight reviews. Instead we try to cover books and authors in creative ways over our social platforms and website.

We do publish features from authors (please see pitching guidelines above) and we also work with authors and publishing houses on events and promotional activities across our platforms. Please email [email protected] to start a conversation.

Commercial Partnerships

Black Ballad has a track record of successful partnerships across various sectors. For more information on ways that your brand or organisation can work with Black Ballad please email [email protected].