How to Get Published in Street Level

Deadlines for 2007-’08

Fall term courses: December 21, 2007
Spring term courses: May 14, 2008

Who we are

Street Level is an online magazine, co-edited by Pete Hamill and Alyssa Katz, showcasing the top undergraduate work from the NYU Department of Journalism.

We’re looking for the year’s best stories from Advanced Reporting and Beat courses—long-form print and broadcast pieces that bring the people and places of New York City and environs to life.

Upcoming editions

This year, we’re planning to publish two issues of Street Level.

ISSUE #2
Publication date: May 2008
This edition will feature the best work of students enrolled in Fall 2007 Beat and Advanced Reporting courses. During the Spring term, contributors will be expected to work one-on-one with Profs. Hamill or Katz, and to attend occasional Street Level story meetings. Contributors will revise their fall stories or (if they choose) report new ones.

ISSUE #3
Publication date: September 2008
This edition will feature the best work of students enrolled in Spring 2007 Beat and Advanced Reporting courses. Students will be expected to revise their stories over the summer, with the guidance of Profs. Hamill or Katz.

Spring semester Advanced Reporting students who are interested in contributing to Street Level may also participate in the story meetings during Spring term. Interested applicants should propose a story idea and submit a sample of long-form reporting they have completed during the fall term.

The submissions process

All submissions must be nominated by faculty. We are asking all instructors teaching the Beat or Advanced Reporting to identify three students each semester whose work is superlative and have demonstrated a willingness to follow through on a piece for publication. Recommended students should submit their work to Cathleen Dullahan at cd8@nyu.edu, by the above dates.

Radio entries may be sent as audio files, while video should be uploaded to YouTube.

What are we looking for?

Street Level stories open up the overlapping worlds of work, family, friends, places of worship, along with the connecting presence of sports and entertainment. We want to know about people’s dreams, their fears, their nostalgias. The stories are driven by reporting that shows us something new. We want to see pieces where the reporter goes somewhere in this city and through hard digging brings the residents to life, while telling us about the rhythms of the place, the sounds, odors, light, color, and textures, and how the weather was. We want to know more about how New York people live now, how they work, how they deal with failure and success. We want articles that take the readers into a city that is continually renewing itself. Each article should present readers—including the most jaded New Yorkers—with a sense of surprise.

We are looking for long-form features from Advanced Reporting, at 3,000 words and up, as well as shorter features produced in Beat classes. We’re not only looking for pieces from New York City; a section called “Out There” will look at the rest of the world, through intimate reporting on places and people. We also welcome first-person journalism, if it’s rigorously reported.

For more information about Street Level, please contact Undergraduate Student Services and Assessment coordinator Cathleen Dullahan at cd8@nyu.edu.