Six months ago, myself, Alex Thurston, and others here at The Seminal joined with Robert Greenwald and Leighton Woodhouse and others at Brave New Foundation to create the Afghanistan Blogger Fellowship.

Blogging is hard, and it’s usually unpaid. But we wanted to change that, because we felt Afghanistan too important an issue to go uncovered. The fellowship was designed to promote a blogger who was passionately against escalating the war in Afghanistan. If they brought their research, intelligence, and rhetorical skill to bear fighting against escalation of this meaningless war, then we would bring that blogger traffic and influence to get the message out.

We chose as our first fellow an unknown blogger from Austin, TX by the name of Derrick Crowe. Derrick was smart and he had a knack for research. He was also a religious Christian, and brought his background of faith to the anti-war message, creating a potent argument. Over the course of six months, Derrick has transformed himself into a leading voice against escalation in Afghanistan, regularly appearing throughout the blogosphere and in the mainstream media. And, as he’s just announced here, he’s now working full time on the issue with Brave New Films.

We’re sorry to lose our blogger fellow, but thanks to the generosity of people here, on other friendly sites like Crooks and Liars and Down with Tyranny, and our friends at CREDO mobile, we have raised the funding we need to continue the fellowship for another year. We just need a blogger.

Do you want to get paid to write about Afghanistan? Are you against the war and looking to help find a way out? Are you a blogger who needs an audience? If so, apply for our fellowship!

Details below…

Responsibilities:

The fellowship is a three month commitment, which the option of extending for a full year by mutual agreement.

As a fellow, you will be expected to blog three times every week on the war in Afghanistan, with a special focus on the domestic political implications and the 2010 elections.

You will also be expected to keep up to date with breaking Afghanistan news with more blog posts if events warrant.

You will be expected to speak with the media about your work and views.

Qualifications:

Qualified applicants are already writers. Bloggers are preferred (even if hardly anybody reads your blog), but you can and should apply even if you’ve never published your work online.

Qualified applicants should have a strong moral stance against the war in Afghanistan and be able to articulate that stance persuasively.

Qualified applicants should have a strong grasp on American domestic politics and elections.

Compensation:

Fellows are compensated at the rate of $480 per month to support their efforts.

To apply:

Send an email to me at seminal@theseminal.com with:

  • your name
  • email address and phone number
  • 500 words on why you would be a great recipient for this fellowship
  • links to (or attached) writing samples – the samples do not have to be about Afghanistan, though it is preferred
  • a short resume

I look forward to reading your applications! And of course, if you know a friend who would love this opportunity, please pass them a link to this post so they can apply.