mostly trees, partially concrete

I’m a Northern California-based author, National Magazine Award-winning essayist, and journalist. I’m passionate about making things; I particularly enjoy the experience of making things come alive in text, whatever they may be. Thomas Paine wrote that the pen is mightier than the sword, and that’s an idea I can get behind. There’s something mystical, powerful, and intensely exciting about the written word, and the ability it has to transcend boundaries to create lasting change, speak to readers in unexpected ways, and have a profound impact on social attitudes.

My focus as a National Magazine Award-winning essayist and journalist is on reframing social issues with work that is expansive, challenging, and accessible without being simple. As a reporter and cultural critic, my work is grounded in curiosity, exploration, confrontation, being in conversation with the work of others, and providing mentoring and support to emerging writers. It is deliberate and thoughtful when it comes to establishing and building relationships with sources, particularly those from communities that are wary of journalists. As an author, I explore larger institutions and structual systems that shape the world around us, and envision a different, better future for all of us.

find me

My essays, op-eds, reported features, and more have appeared in publications such as AlterNet,  The Guardian, Bitch Magazine, Truthout, The Daily Dot, Yes! Magazine, Jezebel, Salon, Esquire, Think Progress, xoJane, Catapult, Longreads, Atlas Obscura, Rooted in Rights, Teen Vogue, Time, Nerve, VICE, The Week, Bustle, In These Times, Vox, Rolling Stone, Mic, Pacific Standard, the Washington Post, the Nation, Civil Eats, The Verge, and Rewire.News. You may also have heard me on the airwaves of the BBC, WBUR, KJZZ, KPFA, NPR, KQED, and the CBC, or seen me speak at conferences such as the Midwest LGBQT Health Symposium and Sirens.

My work has been printed in numerous anthologies, including The Feminist Utopia Project (2015), (Don’t) Call Me Crazy (2018), Disability Visibility (2020), Body Language (2022), and Disability Intimacy (2024). My forthcoming book from HarperOne, All My Dead Cats and Other Losses (2026), engages with grief and culture in the United States, exploring what ‘good grief’ could look like in a culture that moves beyond fear of mourning.

I am a cofounder and worker-owner of The Flytrap Media, a feminist media collective focused on cultural criticism against the algorithm with a biweekly newsletter including original features and reprints from Bitch Magazine that support and preserve the legacy of feminist cultural criticism. Subscribe to support worker-owned independent media.

I also support Scarleteen with providing progressive, inclusive, trans- and queer-led sex, health, and relationships education to young people and the people who love them.

just here for a bio to cut and paste? here’s…

a short bio

s.e. smith is a Northern California-based journalist, essayist, author, and critic who explores contemporary culture and topics around labor, disability, technology, feminism, death and dying, and animal welfare. smith's cultural criticism and reported features have appeared in publications such as The Washington Post, Time, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, The Verge, Esquire, and The Nation, and was recognized with a National Magazine Award in 2020 in Columns and Commentary for the “An Unquiet Mind” column in Catapult Magazine. Their forthcoming book, All My Dead Cats and Other Losses: Practicing Good Grief in a Culture That Fears Mourning (HarperOne, 2026), explores death, dying, and conversations about loss; smith’s work also appears in numerous anthologies, most recently Disability Intimacy (Vintage, 2024). smith is a cofounder and worker-owner of The Flytrap, a feminist journalism collective.

an even shorter bio

s.e. smith is a National Magazine Award-winning Northern California-based journalist, essayist, and author.