Say you were to freeze the 59 seconds of a New York minute and take stock of the city around you. What do you see?

A world of faces, noises, events, smells and actions exist in any given New York moment. And that's what we want to capture at grittycity.com: those details which set New York apart from any other place in the universe.

If New York is a drug, then let's analyze why it's addictive to some, lethal to others and hallucinogenic to most. If you're already addicted, then make grittycity.com your therapy.

What We Are Looking For

We are open to philosophical debates, absurd scientific studies, semi-incoherent ravings and any other form of writing you might find scratched into the walls of subway bathrooms (if they weren't padlocked).

Think visually too: pictures, diagrams, graphs and other visuals should add extra zing to your pieces.

Some ideas:

• Write a review of your regular knish stand, or your favorite street corner or most despised building in the city.
• Profile a person with an unusual job, or someone you see regularly in the street or at the gym.
• Recount an only-in-NYC experience you had.
• Spotlight a particular detail of New York's urban texture, such as a long forgotten storefront sign, brilliant writing on a wall, or the pattern of tiles in your subway stop.
• Have fun. Be witty, give your piece an edge, do something unusual.
• Tell your New York Story.

For example, we aren't looking for a review of a good restaurant you ate at (you can find that in every other magazine or web site), but we might want a review of a restaurant's restroom. We don't want an article about the difficulty of finding an apartment in NY, but we might want a story about your experiences visiting homes of strangers while looking for an apartment.

Be SPECIFIC, be personal, be funny, or be whatever you think is gritty new york. It's about urban anthropology and having fun deconstructing the nitty gritty of the gritty city.

And write with flavor. Let's hear the din of the Second Avenue Deli and make us hungry for fatty pastrami on rye.

Nuts and Bolts

Put your ideas for articles down in a short note and email us. A paragraph or two about each proposed article is fine to wet our appetite.

If you already have an article you want to submit, please attach the text (word document or text file), with a cover letter.

Want to write but just aren't sure what? Contact us anyway and we'll do our darndest to inspire you.

Note: Your article and copyright will remain yours and will only be published here by your permission.

OK, now it's time to think gritty and get busy.

This is New York after all; whadda-ya-think, we got all day? Get a move on it buddy!

— The Editors

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