Writer
Tessa Okonkwo
Essayist & Newsletter Writer
Introduction
Writer and essayist on technology, culture, and the strange ways they collide. Bylines in The Atlantic and Wired. I write a newsletter 40,000 people actually open.
00/ Index
40k
Subscribers
120+
Features
12
Years
01/ About
I write to figure out what I think. For a decade that meant magazine features — long, reported pieces where I got to spend months inside a subject. Now most of my readers find me through my newsletter, where I write shorter and more often about the week's technology stories and what they're really about. The forms are different; the job is the same: pay attention, be honest, and respect the reader's time.
Write the sentence that makes a complicated thing finally click.
Clarity · Reporting · Curiosity · Reader-first
02/ Selected Work
- 01The Atlantic · Essay
The Quiet Death of the Group Chat
The Atlantic — an essay on how our smallest digital rooms reshape friendship. 2024.
- 02Wired · Feature
Inside the Prompt Economy
Wired — a reported feature on the people quietly making a living writing for machines.
- 03The Guardian · Essay
What We Lost When Search Got Good
The Guardian — on serendipity, the open web, and the cost of answers.
- 04Newsletter · 40k readers
Signal / Noise — the newsletter
Weekly essays on tech and culture for 40,000 readers. Archive and best-of.
03/ Experience
12 years in journalism, essays, and independent publishing
Independent Writer, Self-published + freelance
Grew a newsletter to 40k subscribers. Features for The Atlantic, Wired, and The Guardian.
Staff Writer, The Verge
Covered the culture-and-technology beat; two features nominated for industry awards.
Reporter, Local daily
Cut my teeth on city-desk reporting and deadlines.
Education
BA, English & Journalism — Columbia University 2012
Capabilities
Long-form features, Essays, Reporting, Newsletters, Ghostwriting, Editing, Interviewing
06/ Services
- 01 Feature writing
- 02 Essays & op-eds
- 03 Ghostwriting (founders & execs)
- 04 Editing
- 05 Keynotes & panels
Open to features, select ghostwriting, and speaking.
Features from $2/word · Ghostwriting by retainer
09/ References
“Tessa files clean, reports hard, and finds the sentence everyone else missed. A dream byline.”
“The only newsletter I read the moment it lands. She makes the overwhelming feel legible.”
10/ Recognition
- National Magazine Award — finalist 2023
- 40,000 newsletter subscribers
- Bylines: Atlantic, Wired, Guardian, Verge
12/ Contact