There is an art to great columns – just ask the Romans.

Here at IdeasTap we pride ourselves on our fantastic roll call of past columnists.

Jamie Ross, our first and most northern columnist, not only entertained hundreds of us every week with his witty take on everything from Chat Roulette to The World Cup, he has now gone on to win a Guardian Student Media award for Feature Writer of the Year.

Our second columnist, Nell Frizzell, not only disgusted and delighted her readers with her take on live-tweeting television, dancing in galleries and creative cock ups, she also went on to become IdeasTap’s very own Assistant Editor.

Next came Nicola Robey, who beat over 200 other writers to bring us her hilarious tales of cabin fever, bromance, incest, runaway pigs and horror films with weekly side-splitting columns on life as a young creative.

Finally, there is John Nugent, who has charmed, entertained and beguiled us all with his columns on everything from heckling in “the piss-stained tourist coop of Leicester Square” to cleaning dog shit from an oak-wood office floor, and even brought us the opening paragraphs of his straight-to-service-station romance novel.

And so, we are once more on the hunt for an IdeasMag columnist to pick up the reins and give arts and culture the ride of its life.

As the columnist you will be expected to write a 500-word column each week, and you’ll get paid £125 a week for the privilege. 

Initially, it will be a two-month trial, but if successful, you will be our columnist for six months – after which, we’ll run the brief again.

To apply, please write an example of a 500-word column on culture and the arts, plus two ideas for further columns. You MUST also support your application by uploading further examples of your writing in your portfolio.

This brief closes at 5pm on 11 January 2012 and is open to IdeasTap members based in the UK.

 

Brief image: Writer by Florian Stamm via Flickr under a CC BY-NC 2.0 license 

Follow this brief to download the application form