Stories need care before they need attention.

What Sunday Dinner publishes

We consider reported features, analysis, interviews, community history, personal essays, cultural criticism, reader reflections, and other writing organized around a meaningful central question. Work should preserve knowledge, deepen understanding, or bring evidence and lived experience into conversation.

What we do not publish

We do not accept plagiarism, invented quotations, unsupported accusations, disguised advertising, hate material, generic promotional copy, or submissions whose conclusion cannot change regardless of evidence.

Who may pitch

Experienced writers, first-time contributors, researchers, tradespeople, elders, students, community historians, and people with relevant lived experience may pitch. A credential is not a substitute for evidence, and a missing credential does not erase knowledge.

Reporting and format

State the central question, intended format, likely sources, reporting plan, and why the story matters now. Major long-form work should use substantial connected paragraphs and clear sections. Personal essays must distinguish remembered experience from independently verified fact.

Originality, AI, conflicts, and images

Submit original work and disclose simultaneous submission, previous publication, material AI assistance, financial or advocacy conflicts, and image ownership. AI output is not a source. Do not submit images without permission or a defensible license.

Editorial process

Promising pitches may proceed through assignment, drafting, editing, fact review, Discovery Review, contributor fact-check, and publication approval. Editors may revise structure and language while preserving the contributor’s meaning; substantial factual or interpretive changes should be discussed before publication.

Compensation

Commissioned reporting or substantial editorial work receives a fee agreed in writing before work begins, with scope, deadline, expenses, payment terms, and any negotiated kill fee documented. Narrow voluntary community reflections or letters may be considered without payment when their voluntary status is explicit. Unpaid submissions are not used to obtain investigative labor or recurring professional production.

Rights

Contributors retain copyright unless a separate signed agreement expressly states otherwise. Any accepted work requires a written agreement covering first-publication rights, exclusivity, archive and promotional use, RSS/newsletter use, payment, and image permissions. Broader syndication, translation, anthology, adaptation, audio/video, or paid reuse requires explicit agreement where applicable. Binding contributor agreements require professional legal review.

Response policy

Submissions receive an immediate on-screen acknowledgement. Sunday Dinner aims to respond within 30 days when interested but cannot guarantee individual replies. After 45 days without a response, treat the pitch as declined unless told it remains under consideration. Simultaneous pitches are allowed when disclosed. No assignment exists until accepted in writing.