Rachel Slade

Rachel Slade spent a decade at Boston magazine and in 2015, steered the pub to a top national award. Her two-part story about Boston’s secretive planning and development agency also won national awards and laid the groundwork for Mayor Michelle Wu’s sweeping reforms to the city's planning process. In 2016, Rachel's story for Yankee mag, a long-form narrative about the sinking of the container ship El Faro, led to the national bestselling book, Into the Raging Sea. Into the Raging Sea earned starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly; the Maine Literary Award for nonfiction; the Massachusetts Honor Book Award; and the Mountbatten Award for Best Book from the Maritime Foundation UK. It was a NYT Notable Book, a NYT editors’ pick, an Amazon editors’ pick for Best History, and among NPR’s Best Books, Paste magazine’s best books, Longread’s best books, Inc. Magazine’s 7 Best Business Books, the Maine Edge’s favorite books, and Book Scrolling best history books. The book was adapted for a Harvard Business School case study and in 2023, Down East magazine named it one of the top 25 “New Maine Classics." Rachel’s second book, a vivid look at American life through the history of manufacturing, will be published in October 2023 by Pantheon, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Rachel has also held editorial posts at the Boston Globe and Down East magazine. She earned her BA in political science from Barnard College and a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. She splits her time between Brookline, Massachusetts, and Rockport, Maine.