Open City: Journalism on Asian Immigrant and Muslim Communities

The Margins seeks pitches and submissions to Open City, its journalism section devoted to chronicling the pulse of Asian America. Through articles, features, interviews, and profiles, Open City covers Asian immigrant and Muslim communities with an emphasis on social, racial, and gender justice issues. Since its inception in 2010, Open City has told the lived stories of Asian communities in the boroughs of New York City. Starting in 2025, they are expanding our coverages to cities and towns all over the United States.

They welcome shoeleather reporting, hybrid essays, personality and place profiles, features, narrative storytelling, and … you get the drift.

AAWW pays all writers and translators. Please refer to their rate sheet for more details.

Application Instructions

Send pitches of no more than 500 words to Noel Pangilinan, senior editor, at opencity@aaww.org. Write “Pitch” or “Submission” in the email subject line. If you can, add a headline to the subject line.

All pitches should include a:

• Short summary of your proposed story
• Rationale for why this story is important and relevant to Asian American and Muslim American communities
• Reporting plan and timeline
• List of sources and/or references
• Short bio
• Links to clips