What does The Drift look for in pitches on international stories? I understand that the magazine has published many essays Gaza because of the issue’s importance in the US (and to The Drift’s downtown NYC readership), but there was a story in the past about Gandhi and the Hindu Right.
How does The Drift determine which international stories are relevant? Asking as a writer not based in the U.S.
The Drift looks for in pitches on international stories the same thing that we look for in all pitches: a sharp, surprising argument and a sense of how the writer plans to make it. Any international story can be relevant, and we’re open to stories that take place anywhere — as long as they make broader points. For example, this piece (https://www.thedriftmag.com/in-ruins/) is not just about a town in the occupied West Bank; it also advances a thesis about how Israel weaponizes archaeology to advance its subjugation of Palestinians. And this piece (https://www.thedriftmag.com/words-exchanged/) is not just about the teaching of Italian in Somalia; it’s also about how “around the world, imperial relationships have been repackaged and sold as benevolence, as aid, as cultural exchange, and, crucially, as so-called capacity-building programs.”
Here's a question we got on Twitter: "Would you guys ever consider doing an issue called 'The Last Wave,' where it’s all stuff that is still cool/interesting but doesn’t fit the zeitgeist?”
To which I say: We don’t actually do themed issues, but we’re certainly always after cool and interesting stuff! The question of fitting the zeitgeist is a tricky one — it’s a losing game to chase the zeitgeist, but we do want all of our pieces to have a sense of “why now.” There may be a super interesting book from the 1800s you’ve rediscovered, for example, but without a larger argument about why this book is telling or revealing — crucially, one that goes beyond that it’s bad that the book was overlooked — writing about said book wouldn’t be quite right for us. (Just the fact of its rediscovery might be totally right for a more newsy publication, or even one that runs straightforward book reviews.) But if you develop a pitch that makes a compelling case for how this overlooked book actually sheds new light on an ongoing debate, for example — and I’m a broken record here, I know — or otherwise intervenes into the discourse, then that’s something in which we’d be more likely to be interested.
i love your pitch guide so much that we lightly plagiarized it for our college mag's pitch guide (mandatory, shameless plug https://www.brinkatyale.com/write-for-us). three questions from me: what is the most common mistake younger writers make when pitching the magazine? what has made something, especially from a younger/unknown writer, stand out from the rest of the slush pile? do you guys take pitches for your substack (and if so, is it substantially different to pitch the substack than the magazine)?
1. I’m not sure if this is the most common mistake, but many young writers spend some precious time enumerating their academic achievements or the classes that they’re taking. That’s understandable — such things can feel so central to one’s existence at that time — but when I’m reading pitches, I care about the idea, not the prestige nor the resume. What’s more, it can basically be a show-don’t-tell problem: don’t tell me that you’ve taken courses that are relevant to the subject you’re pitching, show me by displaying your understanding of the subject through the details of your pitch.
This is also not necessarily a mistake, nor is it limited to younger writers, but more of a personal preference: many pitches include questions that the writer says the piece will explore. To me that’s a bit of a red flag that they haven’t fully thought through the piece yet — and often the answers to those questions promise to be key to the argument! So I’d suggest that any time you find yourself writing questions that you plan to answer, you go ahead and take a stab at answering them. It’s ok if the answers shift or evolve later!
2. We’re proud to have worked with many emerging writers. What makes a pitch stand out from the pack is simply said if harder to execute: a compelling argument, a sense that the pitcher has a plan for how they want to write and structure the piece, and clear, clean copy. (Lots of grammatical errors put the pitch at a clear disadvantage.) The best pitches act as a sample for the essay — both by previewing what the essay would cover, and by giving us a taste of the writer’s style.
3. In these early days of our Substack, we’re keeping it to just our editors and print contributors, but we’re planning on opening it up to cold pitches eventually. We will publicize it here when we do!
Hopefully this doesn’t sound too redundant by now! A pitch stands out if it has a sharp, surprising argumentative hook and a general sense of the evidence and material the writer would use to bait that hook. As I noted above, clean copy helps.
We’re currently commissioning for our Fall 2025 issue and beyond. Because we work on a longer editorial timeline, we’re always looking for evergreen ideas as well as those pegged to books, movies, and etc, that are still pretty far on the horizon. (That being said re: books and movies, we don’t publish straightforward reviews other than those in our Mentions vertical, so a proposal linked to a new release would also need to make the case for how it would expand outward to consider a larger question.) When it comes to particular topics, this is just my idea, not an official institutional one, but: I’ve long been wanting a piece about whether American orthodontia has gone too far.
Thank you for opening up this space for conversation; I appreciate the transparency and feedback. One thing that has kept me from pitching The Drift is that, while I have dozens of published pieces in my field, none have quite the length or rigor as one that I would write for The Drift. Is this a barrier to selection? If so, what can I do to demonstrate that I have the capability to write such a piece?
Thank you for this question! We really do spend most of our evaluative energy on the pitches themselves, not on their writers' other works. So please do pitch us! The best way to demonstrate your capability would be through the writing of the pitch itself. As I wrote (somewhere) above, the best pitches provide a sense of the writer's argument, proposed scope, and style.
Thank you for the information and the encouraging words. I've enjoyed reading your responses to the other questions as well. I look forward to developing and sharing my pitch with the editorial team.
There’s no right answer here, and it definitely varies from publication to publication, but I think my ideal pitch is 2-3 paragraphs long. Any longer than that, and my eyes start to glaze over, especially when I have a lot of pitches to get through. Any shorter than that, and there are probably some unanswered questions still lingering.
Are you open to essay pitches where the format and content is not traditional? For instance, I have a personal essay style pitch in mind but one that also includes data analysis, graphs, and maps.
In general, we’re not looking for personal essays. Sometimes our essays will have a personal element, but only when we feel that it is crucial to the piece and isn’t being relied on to bridge argumentative gaps. I could certainly imagine a piece that uses data analysis, graphs, and maps — though we’d have to consult with Ivy, our layout and design wiz, to figure out how it would all work in print.
Even in the pitch stage, editors go back and forth with writers to develop their ideas. I’ll often come back from a weekly pitch meeting bearing a whole new set of questions for a pitcher to consider. We try to leave writers alone when they’re actually drafting, but we are always available for phone calls if they want to chat. When it comes to editing, we’re hyper-involved, and often send back Google Docs with so many tracked edits and comments from different editors that the doc can start to look like a rainbow in an oil slick. This process can go on for a very long time — it’s not uncommon for a piece to take over a year to get to publication — and I sincerely thank all of our writers for being so game. And so patient.
Yes, we have a fiction-specific newsletter in the works, where we’ll cover what we look for in fiction submissions, what makes a “Drift” story, and more!
What does The Drift look for in pitches on international stories? I understand that the magazine has published many essays Gaza because of the issue’s importance in the US (and to The Drift’s downtown NYC readership), but there was a story in the past about Gandhi and the Hindu Right.
How does The Drift determine which international stories are relevant? Asking as a writer not based in the U.S.
The Drift looks for in pitches on international stories the same thing that we look for in all pitches: a sharp, surprising argument and a sense of how the writer plans to make it. Any international story can be relevant, and we’re open to stories that take place anywhere — as long as they make broader points. For example, this piece (https://www.thedriftmag.com/in-ruins/) is not just about a town in the occupied West Bank; it also advances a thesis about how Israel weaponizes archaeology to advance its subjugation of Palestinians. And this piece (https://www.thedriftmag.com/words-exchanged/) is not just about the teaching of Italian in Somalia; it’s also about how “around the world, imperial relationships have been repackaged and sold as benevolence, as aid, as cultural exchange, and, crucially, as so-called capacity-building programs.”
Here's a question we got on Twitter: "Would you guys ever consider doing an issue called 'The Last Wave,' where it’s all stuff that is still cool/interesting but doesn’t fit the zeitgeist?”
To which I say: We don’t actually do themed issues, but we’re certainly always after cool and interesting stuff! The question of fitting the zeitgeist is a tricky one — it’s a losing game to chase the zeitgeist, but we do want all of our pieces to have a sense of “why now.” There may be a super interesting book from the 1800s you’ve rediscovered, for example, but without a larger argument about why this book is telling or revealing — crucially, one that goes beyond that it’s bad that the book was overlooked — writing about said book wouldn’t be quite right for us. (Just the fact of its rediscovery might be totally right for a more newsy publication, or even one that runs straightforward book reviews.) But if you develop a pitch that makes a compelling case for how this overlooked book actually sheds new light on an ongoing debate, for example — and I’m a broken record here, I know — or otherwise intervenes into the discourse, then that’s something in which we’d be more likely to be interested.
i love your pitch guide so much that we lightly plagiarized it for our college mag's pitch guide (mandatory, shameless plug https://www.brinkatyale.com/write-for-us). three questions from me: what is the most common mistake younger writers make when pitching the magazine? what has made something, especially from a younger/unknown writer, stand out from the rest of the slush pile? do you guys take pitches for your substack (and if so, is it substantially different to pitch the substack than the magazine)?
Thank you! To answer the questions in order:
1. I’m not sure if this is the most common mistake, but many young writers spend some precious time enumerating their academic achievements or the classes that they’re taking. That’s understandable — such things can feel so central to one’s existence at that time — but when I’m reading pitches, I care about the idea, not the prestige nor the resume. What’s more, it can basically be a show-don’t-tell problem: don’t tell me that you’ve taken courses that are relevant to the subject you’re pitching, show me by displaying your understanding of the subject through the details of your pitch.
This is also not necessarily a mistake, nor is it limited to younger writers, but more of a personal preference: many pitches include questions that the writer says the piece will explore. To me that’s a bit of a red flag that they haven’t fully thought through the piece yet — and often the answers to those questions promise to be key to the argument! So I’d suggest that any time you find yourself writing questions that you plan to answer, you go ahead and take a stab at answering them. It’s ok if the answers shift or evolve later!
2. We’re proud to have worked with many emerging writers. What makes a pitch stand out from the pack is simply said if harder to execute: a compelling argument, a sense that the pitcher has a plan for how they want to write and structure the piece, and clear, clean copy. (Lots of grammatical errors put the pitch at a clear disadvantage.) The best pitches act as a sample for the essay — both by previewing what the essay would cover, and by giving us a taste of the writer’s style.
3. In these early days of our Substack, we’re keeping it to just our editors and print contributors, but we’re planning on opening it up to cold pitches eventually. We will publicize it here when we do!
Hello editor ! i have made a pitch on the email of the drift magazine but there is no response from your side. why is this so? please try to reply.
So sorry for the delay! It can sometimes take us a few weeks to reply to pitches.
What are things that make a pitch stand out? For upcoming issues, are there any particular topics that you're on the lookout for?
Hopefully this doesn’t sound too redundant by now! A pitch stands out if it has a sharp, surprising argumentative hook and a general sense of the evidence and material the writer would use to bait that hook. As I noted above, clean copy helps.
We’re currently commissioning for our Fall 2025 issue and beyond. Because we work on a longer editorial timeline, we’re always looking for evergreen ideas as well as those pegged to books, movies, and etc, that are still pretty far on the horizon. (That being said re: books and movies, we don’t publish straightforward reviews other than those in our Mentions vertical, so a proposal linked to a new release would also need to make the case for how it would expand outward to consider a larger question.) When it comes to particular topics, this is just my idea, not an official institutional one, but: I’ve long been wanting a piece about whether American orthodontia has gone too far.
Hello editor ! i have made a pitch on the email of the drift magazine but there is no response from your side. why is this so? please try to reply.
Hello editor ! i have made a pitch on the email of the drift magazine but there is no response from your side. why is this so? please try to reply.
Do you have a specific age in mind for "young writers"?
There's no age range! We look for emerging writers, who are sometimes but not always young.
Are links to previously published works recommended within the pitch document?
If they're relevant, sure! But most important is the pitch itself.
Thank you for opening up this space for conversation; I appreciate the transparency and feedback. One thing that has kept me from pitching The Drift is that, while I have dozens of published pieces in my field, none have quite the length or rigor as one that I would write for The Drift. Is this a barrier to selection? If so, what can I do to demonstrate that I have the capability to write such a piece?
Thank you for this question! We really do spend most of our evaluative energy on the pitches themselves, not on their writers' other works. So please do pitch us! The best way to demonstrate your capability would be through the writing of the pitch itself. As I wrote (somewhere) above, the best pitches provide a sense of the writer's argument, proposed scope, and style.
Thank you for the information and the encouraging words. I've enjoyed reading your responses to the other questions as well. I look forward to developing and sharing my pitch with the editorial team.
Thanks for reading! Look forward to seeing your pitch.
How long should pitches be? Often torn between being pithy and trying to give so much information that I basically write the piece.
There’s no right answer here, and it definitely varies from publication to publication, but I think my ideal pitch is 2-3 paragraphs long. Any longer than that, and my eyes start to glaze over, especially when I have a lot of pitches to get through. Any shorter than that, and there are probably some unanswered questions still lingering.
Are you open to essay pitches where the format and content is not traditional? For instance, I have a personal essay style pitch in mind but one that also includes data analysis, graphs, and maps.
In general, we’re not looking for personal essays. Sometimes our essays will have a personal element, but only when we feel that it is crucial to the piece and isn’t being relied on to bridge argumentative gaps. I could certainly imagine a piece that uses data analysis, graphs, and maps — though we’d have to consult with Ivy, our layout and design wiz, to figure out how it would all work in print.
How do editors work with writers to further develop and hone their ideas? How involved are editors in the drafting and editing phases?
Even in the pitch stage, editors go back and forth with writers to develop their ideas. I’ll often come back from a weekly pitch meeting bearing a whole new set of questions for a pitcher to consider. We try to leave writers alone when they’re actually drafting, but we are always available for phone calls if they want to chat. When it comes to editing, we’re hyper-involved, and often send back Google Docs with so many tracked edits and comments from different editors that the doc can start to look like a rainbow in an oil slick. This process can go on for a very long time — it’s not uncommon for a piece to take over a year to get to publication — and I sincerely thank all of our writers for being so game. And so patient.
Yes, we have a fiction-specific newsletter in the works, where we’ll cover what we look for in fiction submissions, what makes a “Drift” story, and more!