Editing

Here are some types of pieces for our Life and Culture sections that I’d love to commission for Slate. 

I’m always looking for pitches for pieces that make connections across culture, life, and politics, and that feel urgent, necessary, and (sometimes) fun. Here are some examples of pieces I’ve edited that fit this bill. Here’s an interview I did about my editing process that says more about what I like. 

Intellectual genealogies of ideas that are driving The Discourse.

• Aaron Bady, “The Problem With Dune: Part Two,“ 3/16/24
• Elissa Strauss, “Permission Culture Needs to Stop,” 1/21/24
• Tyler Austin Harper, “There Are No Heroes in a Nuclear War,” 3/17/22
• Adam Kotsko, “What Happened to Giorgio Agamben?,” 2/20/22

Smart pieces about politics and culture online. 

• Dorothy Fortenberry, “The JD Vance Sperm-Cup Situation Was Ridiculous. Democrats Should Take Note Anyway,” 8/23/24
• William Hogeland, “Resistance Historians Like Heather Cox Richardson Have Bugged Me For Years. Now Everyone Is Starting to See It,” 7/11/24
• Phil Christman, “For Years, the Left Has Laughed at Rod Dreher. Is That Over Now?,” 4/16/23

Personal essays that use an experience as a “way in” to talk about something bigger.

• Maud Newton, “My Mom Gets Her News From Someplace Worse than Fox,” 9/17/23
• Amy Key, “I’ve Been Single for Decades. The Effect on My Finances Has Been Staggering,” 5/8/23
• Travis Nichols, “My Epic Struggle to Get My Son to Swing At One Single Youth-Baseball Pitch”, 10/8/22
• Jesse S. Summers, “What I’ve Learned From Having Cancer Is Nothing,” 8/29/22
• Jenn Lyons, “My Mother’s Abortion Saved My Life,” 6/6/22
• Lucas Mann, “I Think I Know Why Men Don’t Talk About Parental Leave,” 1/26/22

Fresh, strongly-argued coverage of what’s going on in American higher ed and in K-12 schools. 

• Stephanie H. Murray, “The Darkest Reason Why Parents Are Against Phone Bans Seems Irrational—But Is It?,” 6/9/24
• Siddhu Pachipala, “I Lived For A Yearly Ritual That Told Me How Smart I Was. Then I Saw the Light,” 5/17/24
• Adam Kotsko, “I Don’t Know Why Everyone’s In Denial About Students Who Can’t Do the Reading,” 2/11/24
• Myya Helm, “Everyone at West Virginia University Knew Something Was Up. I Hate That We Were Right,” 8/18/23
• Jana Mathews, “How Female-Heavy Sex Ratios Are Changing the College Dating Scene,” 10/1/22

Pieces about parenting that combine personal narratives with reporting, science, and history.

• Lucy Huber, “Please Let Me Bring Gifts to Your Kid’s Birthday Party,” 9/24/23
• Lucy Morris, “Parents are Panicking About Kids Drowning Days After They’ve Come Home From the Pool. Is That Real?,” 7/2/23
• Ian Bardenstein, “We Couldn’t Decide On Our Baby’s Last Name. Then I Had A Crazy Idea,” 1/15/23
• Nancy Reddy, “I Was Promised That the ‘Golden Hour’ Would Make Me a Mom,” 4/7/22

Pieces that tell good historical stories with a side dish of analysis.

• Max Felker-Kantor, “The DARE Snitches,” 9/30/23
• Flora Cassen, “My Great-Uncle, the Kapo,” 11/29/22
• Stephen R. Kelly, “How a Long-Lost Soldier’s Survival Story Riveted—and Confounded—‘70s Japan,” 1/31/22
• Lawrence B. Glickman, “How the American Right Claimed Thanksgiving for its Own,” 11/22/21 

And…  here are the nuts and bolts: 

• It’s rebecca dot onion at slate dot com.
• This page was updated in September 2024.
• Slate has a good Pitch Guide with more details about the format (plus a list of other editors and their areas of interest).
• If something is time-sensitive (i.e., pegged to news that you imagine will drop out of the cycle quickly), do put that in the subject line of your email.
• We usually run pieces between 1000-2000 words.
• We can pay $300 and up, on a scale according to the piece’s complexity and required reporting. 
• If you don’t hear back from me in 10 days’ time, please assume I’ve passed on the pitch.