About

Palimpsest is an independent magazine of essays and criticism covering culture, technology, and how the two shape everyday life. We publish two pieces each week — a longform essay on Tuesdays and a review or reported piece on Fridays — and we are funded entirely by readers, with no advertising and no sponsored content.

The magazine is produced by a small editorial staff and a rotating group of contributing writers: critics, reporters, and researchers, each with a defined beat, from software and media to fiction and public speech. Every piece is edited and fact-checked before publication, and every claim is sourced. Bylines link to each writer’s full archive.

Reader funding means we answer to subscribers, not advertisers — we publish what deserves your attention, not what drives clicks.

A free subscription delivers both weekly pieces to your inbox; a paid membership funds the writing directly and keeps the magazine free of advertising. Enter your email in the subscribe form, or follow new pieces through the Atom feed.

The name comes from manuscripts written over an earlier text. It describes our method: we return to familiar subjects and read them again, carefully. If that is the writing you want, subscribe and it will arrive twice a week.