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The Belladonna Comedy Celebrates Its Second Anniversary
Special content, events and more to mark growing satire site’s milestone
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (February 2019, New York, NY): Popular online satire outlet The Belladonna (thebelladonnacomedy.com) will celebrate its second anniversary on February 13, 2019, and will mark the occasion with special website and social media content, events and more. The editors are set to headline a special February 13 anniversary event at the Columbus Museum of Art, part of the Thurber House’s Evenings with Authors series.
Crowned “the new Onion” by Vulture, The Belladonna is edited by comedy writers Caitlin Kunkel, Brooke Preston, Fiona Taylor, and Carrie Wittmer (also the authors of the humor book New Erotica for Feminists: Satirical Fantasies of Love, Lust and Equal Pay, released November 13 by Plume/Penguin Random House), and publishes work by women writers of all definitions. In the two years since it launched on February 13, 2017, the site has featured humor pieces by more than 250 contributors (from a pool of more than 750 ardent submitters), including satirical monologues, comedic lists, open letters, comedic “Daily Itineraries,” animations, illustrations, and other short-form satire forms.
The Belladonna has positioned themselves at the spearhead of a movement to widen, strengthen and even create new pipelines and communities for historically marginalized comedy writers. Belladonna writers range from first-time satirists to popular book authors, staffers and/or contributors for The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, HBO, Comedy Central, and many more. The editors offer brief constructive feedback on every piece, provide a free resource-packed newsletter to all who submit, a private online community for writers published on the site, meetups, and more; the founders are also committed to kind, tactful and timely communication that has set them apart. The site has been dubbed one of the “gatekeepers of modern American comedy” by The Writer magazine and “home of some of the best satire on the internet” by The Billfold.
In 2019, the Belladonna founders are set to develop additional Belladonna projects and plan to forge new partnerships with advertisers, continue producing live comedy events, and expand the number of cities where they offer workshops and talks (In 2018, the site’s editors spoke or performed in New York (Google’s NY headquarters, The PIT and others), Providence, RI (Brown University), Chicago, IL (The Second City), Columbus, Ohio, and more.
Writer of the site’s most popular piece of 2017, Rosanna Stevens, has received Arts ACT funding (https://www.arts.act.gov.au/) to develop a Belladonna podcast that profiles established women and non-binary satire and humor writers, and expand the submissions network to publish and develop more work by LGBTQIA+ writers.
Looking ahead to the site’s third year, the founders say they’re excited about “improving and widening the comedy pipeline for ourselves and for those who follow us”, continuing the strategic march toward permanently monetizing the site, and continuing to elevate the voices of funny folks across the US and beyond. “We want to empower writers to believe they’re funny and have something worthwhile to say, and to act on it, especially outside of cities like New York or LA,” says Kunkel. “Even if you don’t have any comedy connections, you can write comedy and begin to build your skills, community and network.” Added Taylor, “We’re greater than the sum of our parts,” says Taylor. “This partnership has yielded and will continue to yield major fruit, and we can’t wait to see what our contributors and other partners accomplish as we enter our third year.”
For interview requests, high-res imagery, and more information, please contact thebelladonnacomedy@gmail.com.
ABOUT THE BELLADONNA: The Belladonna (thebelladonnacomedy.com) is an online publication of top-quality comedy and satire by women and non-binary authors, for everyone. Founded in 2017 by Caitlin Kunkel, Brooke Preston, Fiona Taylor and Carrie Wittmer, The Belladonna proudly encourages, develops, and showcases underrepresented voices through the website, events, workshops, and more.
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MEDIA CLIPS
The Belladonna was called “the new Onion” in this great piece on Vulture!
“The Belladonna is the new Onion, a combination humor/fake news/lifestyle parody site from a sharp, female and/or feminist point of view that delivers precise, critical blows to toxic masculinity, the dumbass patriarchy, and dumbassery in general.”
The Belladonna Editors were honored to be included in this feature article in The Writer Magazine on “the gatekeepers of contemporary American humor!” Check us out along with the editors of Shouts & Murmurs in The New Yorker Chris Monks of McSweeney’s, Marty Dundics of Weekly Humorist, and the Robot Butt guys.
One of our editors, Caitlin Kunkel, was featured in Splitsider, the leading comedy news website (recently acquired by New York Magazine)!
Thank you to the editor of McSweeney’s, Chris Monks, for saying he reads The Belladonna in this excerpt from his Splitsider interview with Sarah Aswell!
“What humor websites do you read?
Well, I check out The Onion. I read Daily Shouts. I read Reductress. I read a relatively new site, Belladonna. I do check out Splitsider’s humor section. That’s really it, though, because I’m reading all the time. It comes to a point where reading published humor feels like work, and I need a break sometime.”
Thank you to Upwrite Magazine for this interview with co-founder Brooke Preston!
Thank you to our friends at The Rumpus for this write up.
Thank you to Chivomengro for this piece!
Thank you to (Net)Work B*tch, Design Mom and Cup of Jo for inclusion in their newsletters!
PAST PRESS RELEASES
FEMALE-FUELED ONLINE COMEDY AND SATIRE PUBLICATION THE BELLADONNA SET TO LAUNCH
The Belladonna aims to showcase that “women aren’t funny. We’re hilarious.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Feb 1, 2017 (New York, NY): The Belladonna, a new online satire and comedy writing publication, is set to launch the week of February 13 on Medium. Its mission: to showcase the wide and vibrant range of comedic voices and styles amongst today’s female comedy writers, satirists and illustrators.
The Belladonna’s co-founders and editors, Caitlin Kunkel, Brooke Preston, Fiona Taylor, and Carrie Wittmer are themselves established writers, satirists and editors (and will regularly contribute content to the site.) The editors count bylines in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, Reductress, The Second City Network, StarWipe, Splitsider, Public Radio International and many others between them collectively.
They noticed a common plea among their peers and students: more quality outlets dedicated to developing and showcasing the diverse voices and exceptional talent of female writers, including non-cis women, whom the publication welcomes. Said Preston, “We each belong to many of the same online women’s writers groups. We kept hearing these very funny, talented, self-motivated women pine for more places to be published, earn quality bylines and build an audience. And they’re right — many places either don’t accept outside submissions or are very difficult for less established writers to crack. Plus several of our favorite sites like The Toast and Starwipe recently shuttered. So the four of us began dreaming together, which quickly snowballed wildly, and here we are!”
The Belladonna will accept submissions of comedy and satire pieces from both emerging and seasoned writers, as well as illustrations and comics. Recurring columns (each accepting submissions) will include “Reviews About Everything,” “Rejection Letters From Unlikely Entities”, “Daily Itineraries” and other essays, short cartoon/comics, and short/long-form satire and comedy forms (but no fake news or poetry). Full submission guidelines will be available on the site beginning on launch day.
The editorial staff has publicly committed to offering some of the industry’s best response times, constructive criticism, promotion of published pieces, and professional development opportunities including the creation of The Belladonna Workshops, a series of quarterly online workshops to help writers who are almost there get over the hump.
Interviews are available by phone, email or in person with the Belladonna editors. Photos, bios and the logo suite (by Marlowe Dobbe) are also available for inclusion in press coverage.
Please contact thebelladonnacomedy@gmail.com with subject “MEDIA REQUEST” for prompt reply.
WEB: www.thebelladonnacomedy.com
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/thebelladonnacomedy
TWITTER: twitter.com/The_Belladonnas
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/thebelladonnacomedy
About the Belladonna: The Belladonna is an online home for top-quality comedy and satire by women, for everyone. We proudly encourage, develop and showcase the broad diversity of backgrounds and voices and the deep pool of talent that makes up today’s female comedy writers, artists and satirists. Find us on Medium and love us forever @thebelladonnacomedy and on the web at www.thebelladonnacomedy.com.
