How to Submit a Grief Recipe Story to WYG x Grief Hungry

The Project:

Grief Hungry is a brand and social media account run by Laura Madaio—griever, home chef, and What's Your Grief’s Resident Recipe Developer. With Laura's expertise on all things hearty and satisfying—plus tips for easy recipes, a blunt, realistic approach to grieving and using stuff you probably have on hand—we'll all be nurturing ourselves, honoring our losses and (hopefully) finding the zen in chopping vegetables.

Thanks for your interest in submitting a grief recipe story to our recipe project!

It’s common to connect with deceased loved ones through food – whether it’s in saving handwritten recipes, cooking traditional foods at the holidays, or in fond memories of cooking together. What’s Your Grief and Grief Hungry would like to further explore and honor these connections by collecting and sharing your grief recipe stories.

Submissions should include:

  • A short reflection (roughly 300-800 words)
  • A photograph (old or new)
  • A specific recipe and instructions

If you are still interested in submitting, then please read on.

Guidelines:

We invite you to approach your reflection however you like. Some may choose to write about memories of their loved one cooking in the kitchen. Others may choose to write about what it's like to recreate their loved one's recipe in the here-and-now. There are no rules beyond the approximate word count. 

We're asking you to include a detailed recipe as a part of your submission. That said, we are open to all recipes no matter how simple, common, or unique! Even if you thought your aunt's jello casserole was blech!, that's a story we want to hear. So please don't hesitate to submit simply because you're worried you don't have the greatest recipe.  

Finally, please do not submit pieces that have been posted in their entirety on another site.  We understand you may have shared the recipe elsewhere or even written about it some. That's okay, in these instances just please make sure the reflection you provide us is unique.  

How to Submit:

Please submit materials via email to wygrecipestories@gmail.com

In the body of your email, please include:

  1. Your name as you would like it to appear in the article. You are free to share only your first name if that is your preference. 
  2. Any relevant bio information (a few sentences). You do not have to share any additional information about yourself. However, we are happy to include a few sentences about your background if you like. Please also let us know if you would like us to link to your website.  
  3. The name of your dish and if it is specific to a certain time of year or holiday. We will do our best to post recipes with corresponding holidays, but we cannot guarantee. If your recipe is specific to a holiday, please submit it at least 1- 2 weeks beforehand so we can make plans for sharing.
  4. Make sure to follow Grief Hungry (@griefhungry) and What's Your Grief on Instagram, as we will be sharing there in addition to on the blog!

Please attach to your email:

A document that includes:

  • A reflection or story (approx 300-800 words)
  • A recipe including ingredients and detailed instructions

Photos (1-5):

  • Photos may be new or old or a combination of both
  • Please make sure photos are of good quality. We realize old photos may not be the best quality and that's okay. Really, what we most want to avoid is blurry, poor quality camera phone pictures.

Though we've tried to provide guidelines, we are generally pretty flexible so please reach out to us with any questions, concerns, or difficulties regarding the submission process.