Erin Clare Brown

Couscous in Marsala: The Long History of Sicilians and Tunisians For centuries, the two communities exchanged populations, cultures and traditions that have left an imprint on both shores

A century before "Fortress Europe" policies have clamped down on Tunisians coming to Italy, tens of thousands of Sicilians made the journey in reverse, seeking better fortunes on the Med's southern shore. A super fascinating read about the Sicilian Tunisians:
newlinesmag.com/essays/a-cen...

How Foreign Agendas Hijacked a Local Crisis in Syria Seven months after Assad’s fall, an analysis of the violence in Sweida shows how international interference and internal paralysis are pushing the country back toward chaos

NEW: Seven months after Assad’s fall, an analysis of the violence in Sweida shows how international interference and internal paralysis are pushing the country back toward chaos, writes @hhassan.bsky.social in @newlinesmag.bsky.social

newlinesmag.com/argument/how...

Four Decades After His Imprisonment, France Can’t Stop Fighting Over Georges Abdallah The Lebanese militant’s release is dividing the country — and not for the first time

My latest, for @newlinesmag.bsky.social
The Lebanese militant Georges Abdallah, who has been incarcerated in France for 40 years, was released today. His freedom and the question of what his incarceration meant have deeply divided the nation. newlinesmag.com/spotlight/fo...

Progressives Have No Business Celebrating MAGA’s Epstein Revolt Antisemitic conspiracy theories are central to the far right’s obsession with the sex-trafficking billionaire and his links to the global elite

Hard to find a unique angle on a saturated topic like Epstein but @benlorber8.bsky.social has done just that — he examines the antisemitic underbelly of the MAGA obsession with the billionaire pedophile and warns against progressive amplification of these narratives.

newlinesmag.com/argument/pro...

Annobon Was Free a Century Before Haiti. Can It Find Independence Again? The tiny islet in the Atlantic governed itself for almost 200 years and is now trying to separate itself from Equatorial Guinea’s dictatorship

Geography nerds, this one is for you... can you point to Annobon on the map? The tiny islet is trying to win its independence from the country is says is its third colonial overlord in as many centuries. newlinesmag.com/spotlight/an...

The Congo’s Dinosaur of Discord Once a subject of Victorian fascination, the mokele-mbembe myth is now fodder for creationists on a quest to disprove Darwinism

This is such a good one: It's got dueling paleontologists blowing up fossils, Congolese fishermen's close encounters with the supernatural, and Young Earth Creationists bushwhacking through the heart of the rainforest looking for a dinosaur to disprove Darwin.
newlinesmag.com/reportage/th...

Meeting JD Vance was enough to kill Pope Francis

Should Antarctica’s Ice Have Legal Rights? As a decades-old treaty begins to unravel and world powers eye new opportunities, a group of environmental lawyers is trying to save the southern continent

As a decades-old treaty begins to unravel and world powers eye new opportunities in Antarctica, a group of environmental lawyers is trying to save the southern continent with a curious new strategy...
newlinesmag.com/reportage/sh...

‘Kin Cloth’ Brings People Together — and Sets Them Apart ‘Aso ebi,’ a tradition that started as a symbol of kinship, has evolved into a statement of social standing, a tool for shifting wealth and a canvas for all kinds of domestic drama

Get dressed up or be left out! I loved this story on Aso-Ebi — truly gets to the heart of a tradition that has infiltrated all sorts of corners of the social fabric in Nigeria.

newlinesmag.com/reportage/ki...

My Grandpa, the Fascist? An old family album sent me on a journey through Italy’s dark past in Libya

I sat on the floor with my mom as we flipped through the pile of old black-and-white photos.

What we found spread over more than six pages was a visual account of my grandfather’s days as a soldier in Libya.

Finally: Folks, don't send me a pitch that you used AI to write. These are glaringly obvious and really sad. I work in the news media; there's already enough to be sad about. Please don't make it worse.

Also, if you submit a pitch, please be patient. These calls yield a lot of responses and it takes time to separate the wheat from the chaff (yours is wheat, I'm sure of it). I usually wait until the end of the pitch call to make final decisions about which stories to pursue.

Rates: $600 for a spotlight $800 for regular essays, with some flexibility for extraordinary access, multimedia or other factors.

TO SUBMIT A PITCH, email me with "PITCH" + a suggested headline in the subject of the email. Put the pitch IN THE BODY OF THE EMAIL, and please send a few clips of your past work, particularly pieces over 1500 words. My email is in my bio.

Spotlight Archives

All our spotlights are here: newlinesmag.com/spotlight/

I’m also looking for pitches for Spotlight, a newsletter about underreported news and cultural trends from around the world. These short (~1500-1800 words) pieces tackle the upswell of ideas/events before they go mainstream, or they untangle a hot topic in a new and fascinating way.

Taiwan’s Literature Is Having a Moment in Central and Eastern Europe Publication of contemporary fiction in Slavic languages is a sign of growing political support for Taipei

Or this unexpected confluence of cultures about Taiwan's literature and its appeal in Eastern Europe newlinesmag.com/reportage/ta...

My Grandpa, the Fascist? An old family album sent me on a journey through Italy’s dark past in Libya

Stefania d’Ignoti writes about discovering her grandfather’s past as a soldier for Italy during its fascist expansion into Italy. It weaves together the personal elements with lots of history and uses all of that as a lens through which to view the present day newlinesmag.com/first-person...

We are currently flush with stories about conflict, migration and climate change, so I’m looking for stories that touch on different, fresh topics and do it in a New Lines way.

Here are a couple that do that really well:

As ever, I'm looking for hard-hitting & enlightening reportage that touches on topics & places traditional outlets ignore. My primary beat is NORTH & WEST AFRICA & the diasporas of those places. I’m especially interested in stories from Algeria, Morocco, Burkina Faso, Mali & Mauritania

📢📢📢PITCH CALL. I’m looking for pitches for two verticals at New Lines Magazine to run in April, May and June. Deadline for pitches is March 31. Read on for details.

BP to slash renewables investment and ramp up gas and oil production. The energy giant will announce its strategy later after rivals also rowed back on green energy plans.

The final nail in the coffin for anyone who ever believed that Big Oil was going to solve the climate crisis. It was always a lie. It was always greenwashing nonsense. It was never going to. And it never will. It was always profit over people and planet. To the death.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A sizzling, truly marvelous piece of cultural history by @simongandrew.bsky.social about the making and mourning of the Egyptian musical legend Ahmad Adawiya

You'll love this essay even if you've never heard Adawiya's music — which you will want to do after (no, *while*) reading it!

This Friday in London! Please come to the Frontline Club for a discussion of what 2025 is shaping up to be around the globe - from Russia to the Congo to Syria, many countries are facing major change. Reserve your free place here: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-world-...

Poland’s Allure for Tajikistan’s Exiles Despite recent right-wing populist rule, Warsaw has become a base for the Central Asian country’s refugees and political opposition

The Aga Khan died yesterday. A great time to revisit this @newlinesmag.bsky.social piece about the Pamiris, a community of Ismaili muslims, who fled Tajikistan and found an unlikely home in Poland, bolstered by the broader Tajik opposition movement: newlinesmag.com/reportage/po...

From Lagos to Los Angeles, the Global Rise of African Music The Grammys are set to showcase some of the continent’s biggest artists, but as audiences grow, questions remain about who is profiting

If you've spent any time on TikTok (or Instagram reels) you've heard "Water" the breakout sensation by South African artist Tyla. More and more African artists are making it big on social media — can they break into the mainstream?
newlinesmag.com/reportage/fr...

Syria Needs a Strong Society, Not a Strongman The Islamism vs. secularism debate misses the point — the real struggle for the post-Assad state is democracy vs. authoritarianism

The world is worried about the jihadism of Syria’s new leaders, but the world may be missing the point, argues Robin Yassin-Kassab @qunfuz.bsky.social in this powerful intervention in the Islamism/secularism debate in post-Assad Syria, for @newlinesmag.bsky.social.

newlinesmag.com/argument/syr...

House and Home in Syria and in Exile — with Ammar Azzouz, Wendy Pearlman and Lydia Wilson Ammar Azzouz, author of “Domicide: Architecture, War and the Destruction of Home in Syria” and Wendy Pearlman, author of “The Home I Worked To Make: Voices From the New Syrian Diaspora” join New Lines...

A great conversation on thr meaning of home. Queue it up for the weekend! newlinesmag.com/podcast/hous...

1. 🧵 The British Museum is a popular, beloved institution. Is there a way to square the circle — returning controversially acquired objects, yet also saving the collection for the millions of visitors it receives each year?

youtu.be/xYdipAjMD0s

Reflections on the Ceasefire in Gaza A Palestinian father and journalist writes from exile on what the pause in fighting means, and the damage it cannot undo

As a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Gaza takes hold, my friend @mohamhawish.bsky.social reflects for @newlinesmag.bsky.social on survival amid unimaginable loss and the uncertainty around returning home. newlinesmag.com/spotlight/re...