“Gonzo”: slang, Boston Irish: The last man standing at an all-night drinking session.
Gonzo: A character in the Muppet Show.
“All I can really get off on is when I can let my mind run. I start to laugh. I understand that Dickens used to laugh at his typewriter. I don’t laugh at my typewriter until I hit one of those what I consider pure gonzo breakthroughs. Then it’s worth it.”
Lets face it: Journalism is dying. Overeducated, sycophantic limp wrists suckle at the teats of the powerful, regurgitating the thin liquid they draw out, half-digested and with added bile, for the man on the street to suck up. Nothing of substance. Zero nourishment.
But that’s not the only way to do journalism. There’s a rich tradition of hard boiled, drug-addled, and driven journalists that produced viable, on-the-ground reporting, thick with personality and insight. Real food for thought. Men went out and wrote what they saw, and how they saw it, even if their vision was clouded by cigarette smoke and the effects of combining Chivas Regal and pills of an indeterminate provenance given to them by somebody or other somewhere—can’t remember his name now…
Journofags and academics called this style of reporting “gonzo journalism.” At MAN’S WORLD, we like gonzo journalism, and we want you to write some. If it’s good—really good—we’ll give you some money. How cool is that?
From September 1, 2024 through January 1, 2025, MAN’S WORLD is soliciting any and all gonzo reporting. Go to an event, do something, see what can be seen, write an article in the classic style (but with your own fingerprints all over it), and submit the article. It’s that simple.
The piece really can be on anything, from a campaign rally to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.
All that matter is that the piece is:
- No more than 10,000 words (the piece should be as long or short as it needs to be within that upper limit)
- An original piece that has not been submitted anywhere else
- Submissions received after January 1 2025 will not be considered. Sorry, but them’s the rules.
- If you win, we’ll pay you $1500 first prize. There will be two $250 runner-up prizes too.
We’ll publish the three winners together in a special physical issue of the magazine next year, and we’ll also run other standout submissions on the website and in other issues of the magazine.
You can submit your piece using the contact form below, or send it directly to mwgonzoprize@protonmail.com. If you’re an anon, make sure you scrub the document of author data, and tell us your Twitter handle if you’ve got one too. By submitting, you agree to allow MAN’S WORLD to publish your piece, in the physical magazine or online, regardless of whether or not it wins.
