The Family Room
Submit to The Family Room
A badass room on our website full of features and departments:
- Currently,: We read a lot of newspapers. We’ve tried to stop reading our own social media feeds. We’ve deleted some personal social media. We’ve watched a lot of talk shows and news reports about what’s going on in the world. We’re tired of secondhand accounts. We want yours—firsthand. Tell us what’s going on in the world, according to you.
- PauseCards: Address people places or things in the form of one of our online postcards designed in house! (I.e. Dear Australians, Dear Hulu, Dear White Person, Dear Firefly Fans, Dear Baby on the Airplane Sitting Across from Me).
- The Great Pause: Rearview 2020: A coffee table book! In 2020, the year of our Lord, things got—weird. Some things are getting better. Some things are getting worse. Some things are standing still. In this department, we hear from writers and artists from around the globe talk about their experiences in quarantine/isolation/social distancing/civil unrest/revolution. All work featured here will be compiled into an (anti-fascist, humanist, fun, awe-inspiring, breathtaking, breath of fresh air) emergency coffee table edition out somewhere near the end of 2021. Submissions for the coffee table book are closed but you can still publish in The Great Pause online!
- The Midnight Snack: You can’t fool us. Just like you couldn’t fool your mom in sixth grade, sneaking into the kitchen at two a.m., pilfering a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch from the pantry to eat in front of the TV while you watched the Sham Wow! infomercial for the third school night in a row. We aren’t going to ground you though, and we won’t tell your mom. Why? Because we’re right alongside you as fully grown adults eating cold grocery store fried chicken at midnight while we pretend not to cry watching Steven Universe on our second-hand couches. We’re The Midnight Snack, and we eat our feelings just like everyone else. So open your pantries, raid your fridges, empty that one pillowcase full of candy from your kid’s last Trick-or-Treat sesh, and send us all the food writing our nutrient-deficient digestive systems can handle. Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Ingredient Lists, Recipes, Nutritional Information: we want it all. Just don’t use the microwave—you’ll wake up Dad. Got a pitch for The Midnight Snack?
- Press Play: You ever drink a lot of wine and sit around sobbing at nineties classic rom-coms or yell at old black-and-whites when a Cary Grant type calls an Ingrid Bergman type a silly lady? …No? Just us? We pile onto our fading floral-print seventies couch—you know the one; your grandma has one just like it—watch movies, and write our thoughts. Sometimes they’re reviews or commentaries; sometimes they’re braided personal narratives. We’re watching everything from Get Out to 10 Things I Hate About You all the way back to A Philadelphia Story. What are you watching?
- Throwbacks: We get nostalgic. We love old things (like VCRs and scrunchies and tape decks and remember that weird yo-yo trend in the 90s?). Browse past hits & weird old ditties. Check out new translations of classic works, read from the public domain, relive your childhood dreams. Send us your fave throwbacks.
- Craft-Splaining: A space for recorded craft talks by contributors. What can our readership learn from you and how you approach your art and writing? This is your space for exploring your craft. Craft videos can be in the form of interviews, demonstrations, presentations, one-act plays, stop-motion animation ;), et cetera. Anything goes! If you don’t have video editing experience, no worries. Record your vision and we’ll do the rest! We'll also accept personal craft essays in this space.
- Reading Corner: Tell us what you're reading or send us a book review!
Want to set up shop in The Family Room? To pitch a column, feature, or department to The Family Room, fill out our pitch form. For more info, email info@presspausepress.org.