My neighbors across the street always have a banner flying from their porch. Sometimes they are holiday related, but mostly the colors of various sports teams. Many are international, thanks to their son’s passion for soccer. A few days … Read more
What do you do when you are a freelancer who is frustrated by the business mysteries (and abuses) of freelancing? You start a business about the business of freelancing. That’s the quick backstory behind “The Writer’s … Read more
The Pivot: A brief prelude On an early afternoon in early March in Upper Manhattan, a dozen graduate students in Columbia Journalism School’s Arts and Culture seminar gathered their notebooks and coffee mugs as class wrapped up for the week. Read more
The job I moved back to New Hampshire for was not Shift Supervisor at the local branch of a national drug store chain. Back in February, I folded up five years of full-time freelancing to take a “perfect” journalism … Read more
The first year I had to work from home, it was dictated by a crisis. During a weekend visit with me and my family, my mother contracted bacterial meningitis and nearly died. In less than 48 hours, she went … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: We came across this interview with freelance journalist Barry Yeoman on the Creatives in Conversation site, run by Allison Kirkland, and are so glad we did. Because now we know about one more … Read more
Maria Streshinsky, executive editor of Wired, wouldn’t say the magazine has grown skeptical about the promise of technology. But compared to the optimism of past editorial regimes, she and editor-in-chief Nick Thompson, who took their posts in 2017, have … Read more
Editor Kayla Webley Adler is a freelancer’s dream. She’s willing to gamble on unknown writers if they bring her a great idea. She’s written a detailed guide to pitching that she’ll share with anyone who asks. And she responds … Read more
Adventure narratives thrive on the nearness (or near miss) of doom’s heavy paw, but Eva Holland gives readers something other than a saga of suffering and survival in her recent account of her slog across the frozen sea near … Read more
Jennifer Sahn, executive editor of Pacific Standard, understands why writers sometimes feel frustrated when editors take weeks to respond to their pitches or don’t write back at all. But she wants writers to see the other side, too. The … Read more