Write For Chebacco

Chebacco 2025- The Food Edition

The Mount Desert Island Historical Society is seeking volunteer authors to research and write articles exploring the changing role of food, food sources, and culture on MDI. We invite you to submit an article proposal for the 2025 edition of our award-winning journal Chebacco by April 1, 2024.

From growing or harvesting to preparing ingredients and sharing a meal, varied cultures of food production and consumption are an important part of our human experience. Traditions, memories, and anticipation can be tied to all aspects of the foods we grow, harvest, and consume. Sharing a meal is commonly recognized as an important way to connect with individuals or as a larger community, building bridges between people with different backgrounds and values, or reinforcing our common bonds. Family recipes reinforce our identity and conversely, introduce us to new experiences. We seek articles exploring how has MDI been influenced by food production and consumption.

The food edition will explore food resources before European contact; the introduction of farming and its role in settlement patterns, health, and community, and the shifts that took place as a result of trade and transportation; fishing and the shifts in diet based on the changes to available marine resources; how climate change is impacting the foods of our future; the importance of food to community; what menus and local cookbooks can tell us about diet, accessibility, and changing tastes; the economics of food production and service on MDI; and the influence of immigrants in our cuisine. Topics are not limited to those listed here, so please feel free to submit a short proposal with new ideas.

Chebacco is published annually and has won national and regional awards for excellence. The journal is distributed to approximately 800 readers, and articles are shared online through our website. Authors are also invited to give public talks about their articles after publication. Each article is approximately 3,000 words in length, written in a historically rigorous yet accessible style, and edited by professional editors for accuracy and excellence. For specific guidelines, please read our author’s guide: Chebacco Author Guidelines.

Initial deadlines for first drafts range from September 2024 to November 2024 with time for editing and revisions as needed before copyediting in December 2024. Below is a list of topics authors are working on now, and some ideas for available topics, but feel free to submit your ideas as well.

If you would like to author an article for the 2025 issue of Chebacco, we would love to hear from you! Please send a proposal of 100 to 250 words describing your proposed article by April 1, 2024 to Raney Bench at raney@mdihistory.org.