Science/DIY magazine covering engineering, technology, and how-things-work explanations. Freelance contributions are typically pitch-based and favor clear, well-researched explanatory writing.

Explore the all-time most popular nonfiction literary magazines. These outlets have been influential for writers of essays, memoirs, and nonfiction.

Most Popular Nonfiction-Only Literary Magazines of All Time

Popular Mechanics

Whether we're digging into the latest scientific discoveries or pondering the secrets of the universe, Popular Mechanics explains life’s mysteries in an easy-to-digest, jargon-free way while also offering readers the depth of information they need to better understand the world around them. We love for writers to highlight what’s specific, cool, unique, and fun about relevant news in an authentic way that serves our readers.

While our team is regularly monitoring what’s going on in all things science, tech, space, archaeology, and more, we’re always interested in something that might be slightly off our radar. If you have a news tip or story pitch, we’d love to hear from you.

News

Popular Mechanics publishes print and digital features that bring science to a large, broad audience. When thinking about what to pitch, consider that often the most compelling story isn’t on the surface, but something more universal through the lens of somebody deeply invested in science, building, or creating. Feature length is generally 2,000 to 6,000 words.

For print features, we look for profiles about people with fascinating obsessions or doing groundbreaking work in their science and tech field and cinematic narratives on mysteries, longevity, and immortality. We publish dramatic infrastructure disasters, natural disasters, treasure hunts, medical breakthroughs, paranormal activity, government mismanagement, space, wild discoveries, shipwrecks, archeology, and similar. Science, tech, and machines take center stage in all our features.

Online, we tell stories that inspire and inform while broaching what's possible in the future—not just what's practical today. These may be stories about the universe's greatest mysteries, profiles of scientists/technologists pushing the envelope in their fields, trend stories on breakthrough or bleeding-edge technology, features exploring and contextualizing controversial scientific ideas, military tech deep dives.

Features

The Popular Mechanics Reviews team extensively tests, evaluates, and reports on tools, tech, and gear across many uses and price levels—past products have included lawnmowers, headphones, work boots, and much more. To submit an existing or new product for potential review, please email detailed information (photos, prices, availability date, where to purchase, etc.) and tell us what makes your product unique and important.

Due to the number of products we receive for testing and evaluation, we can’t cover every one. We highly recommend contacting us before sending anything. Only ship production-ready items—not prototypes—available to buyers in the United States. Please pre-pay all freight and duties for international shipments. Any unsolicited products sent to Popular Mechanics/Hearst cannot be returned and become the property of Hearst Magazines.

Reviews

The team at Popular Mechanics is looking to assign a handful of features for upcoming digital issues, and would love to hear the one incredible idea you’ve been carrying around—the story you’ve thought about for years but never found the right home for.<div><br></div><div>They are most interested in engineering mysteries, aviation anomalies, military secrecy, hidden infrastructure, industrial disasters, survival stories, treasure hunts, scientific detective work, strange machines, environmental catastrophes, unresolved failures, and new clues or breakthroughs in cold cases.</div><div><br></div><div>Tell the story, why it matters now, why it belongs specifically in Pop Mech, and—most importantly—what new reporting, documents, access, or expertise makes it a feature only you can write instead of a Wikipedia entry. </div>

Popular Mechanics

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