The American Prospect welcomes applications for our 2021-2023 writing fellowships

The American Prospect’s Writing Fellows Program offers journalists the opportunity to spend two years developing their skills with the magazine at our headquarters in Washington, D.C. (or working remotely, in pandemic times).

Each fellow benefits from an intensive mentoring program with the experts on our editorial team, and is expected to contribute regularly. Two fellowships are available starting Summer 2021, running through Summer 2023.

The Prospect is looking for candidates with strong writing and analytical abilities who will generate story ideas as well as take assignments. A passion for politics and policy is a prerequisite. Prior journalism experience is encouraged but not required. The Prospect is committed to a diverse workplace and supports employees with ongoing career-development opportunities. Members of traditionally underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply.

The Prospect’s goal is to ensure writing fellows develop the relationships, credibility, quality of writing, and more than enough clips to pursue a career in journalism. Past fellows have gone on to roles at the New York Times, Vox Media, The Atlantic, Slate, Washington Post, Mother Jones, Daily Beast, and many other publications.

The two-year fellowship pays an annual salary of about $40,000 and includes a full range of benefits (health, dental, vision) plus union membership in Washington-Baltimore News Guild (Communication Workers of America).

The Prospect is a pioneer in nonprofit journalism and a compelling voice for attainable progressive reform. We published our first issue in Spring 1990 as a champion for informed discussion on public policy. Since 2019, under a new generation of leadership, the Prospect has doubled our online traffic, increased our annual print issue count to six, expanded into live-streaming events, and polished our reputation as a leading source of journalism on the progressive left. Our mission is to broaden our impact without sacrificing integrity, and to continuously fortify our tenacious focus on ideas, politics and power.

The TAP Writing Fellows Program application includes…

• Résumé.
• Three or four writing samples.

Consider clips or posts, academic papers and unpublished pieces—anything that demonstrates your writing style and reporting chops.

• Two written recommendations.
• Your letter, covering these topics:

A critique of Prospect content and display, in print and online:

Choose three published pieces and evaluate each for style, clarity, and readability. Tell us if a piece worked well, or if it fell short. Your critique should consider balance, the variety of voices, as well as the quality of the presentation.

Three story ideas:

A reported feature or essay;

A piece on an important debate from the world of politics, policy, or ideas; and

Another topic or genre of your choice.

And answers to these questions:

What magazines, newspapers and websites do you read regularly?

Name your intellectual and political heroes?

Where do you see yourself in five years and why?