Eric Smillie | Writer

About

Eric Smillie is a freelance journalist covering art, travel, food, and culture for GOOD, Make, VIA, Wired, and other publications.

Contact

eric at ericsmillie.com

Articles

All
GOOD
Make & Craft
VIA
Wired
XLR8R

Friends

Alison Kendall
Awesome Pickle
Clare Judith Bowers
Evan Rail
Chicken Wings!
Matt Jones
Miyoko Ohtake
Social Creature
Tuesday Smillie
Weird Vegetables

About

Eric got his start in journalism in the traditional manner — by traveling to Slovakia, where he worked as a copy editor, staff writer, and editor for the country’s English-language newspaper, The Slovak Spectator. When he wasn’t being confused for a notorious Czech swindler and mistakenly arrested, he edited a travel magazine, made many, many cold calls in a foreign language, and cut his teeth on stories about bad caves, dangerous washing machines, and the sublime beauty of socialist architecture.

Once back in the United States, he moved to the San Francisco Bay area to work as a freelance writer for technology and culture magazine Wired, Lowell Thomas Award-winning travel magazine VIA and others (see the list of publications on the right for links to recent stories). He lives in a co-op with some dogs and some fruit trees and likes going outside to rock climb, hike, bike, camp, garden, and lie around in the grass. When he’s inside he makes fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, beer, kombucha, natto, kefir, and pickles of all kinds.

Most of all, he likes to know how things work, and finds writing a convenient excuse to call up interesting people and ask, “How’d you do that?”


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