Codon is Now Part of Asimov Press

What happens when a hobby becomes a job? Plus: Updates on the writing fellowship and essay contest.

This newsletter began as a side project.

In the summer of 2020, I was living in a closet-sized apartment (and paying $2,650 each month for the privilege) in New York City’s Lower East Side. I spent my cramped weekends scouring the Internet for research papers and pasting them into this newsletter. Eventually, I began to write longer essays, too, and the newsletter slowly grew in size. I never imagined that my weekend hobby would ever become my full-time career. But now it has. 

Starting today, Codon is officially part of Asimov Press, an editorially-independent publishing venture modeled on Stripe Press. Asimov Press will produce a newsletter, magazine, and books that feature writing about biology, and I’m honored to be leading it with my colleague, Xander Balwit. 

We’ll publish at least one article every two weeks, with additional newsletters and shorter essays scattered in-between. These articles will be much like the essays I’ve published here on Codon in the past, except they will be much deeper (and better) because we have a budget to pay writers, hire artists, and edit.

We are generously funded by Asimov, but will not publish anything about the company or its commercial interests. (I usually roll my eyes when people say, “I swear our funders have no say in what we publish!” but our articles will attest to this.) Writing essays, and helping others to do the same, is now my career. This is a dream come true.

Asimov Press will publish long-form deep dives on everything from biosecurity to vaccine development, in addition to speculative fiction that imagines positive, plausible visions of the future. Photo essays and book projects will launch in 2024. Our pitch guide is available online. Follow us, if you’d like, on Twitter and LinkedIn.

If you received this email, that means you’re already subscribed. The next email you see (starting tomorrow) will be from Asimov Press. Please stay and join us. If you’d prefer to unsubscribe, click the link at the end of this email. Now for some FAQs:

1. Is this newsletter still about biotechnology?

   1. Yes. But we’ll publish higher quality work, more consistently. Asimov Press has received 450+ pitches to-date and we’ve commissioned about 10 essays. We’re really excited to share them with you soon, in addition to the magazine and book projects.

2. Are you selling out?

   1. Believe it or not, I received $0 in compensation for this – no cash or equity. But the transition makes sense: Asimov Press takes up most of my time, which means I don’t have as much time to write essays for Codon. Why not unite my day job and my hobby and just spend 100% of my time writing and editing the best pieces that I can possibly manage?

3. Will you start publishing different types of pieces?

   1. Maybe a bit. Asimov Press is hyper-focused on biology and science, so there won’t be any pieces like “how to write on the internet.” The pieces will also be more professional; many contributors are published book authors or serial writers. I’ll continue to write articles for Asimov Press and elsewhere. 

Other Updates:

In October, I announced a new writing fellowship, called Ideas Matter, together with Pillar VC and Homeworld Collective. We received more than 520 applications and selected 14 fellows for the inaugural cohort. Fellows will spend 8 weeks developing articles about biosecurity, placebos, animal welfare, and other timely topics in biology. (MORE BIOLOGY WRITERS = GOOD THING! ) We’ll share updates on Twitter, LinkedIn, and our website.

The writing challenge, announced way back in August, has also wrapped up. We received about 150 submissions. Homeworld & Pillar will distribute $12,950 in cash prizes. Each submission was reviewed by at least three judges, and all the winners have been notified. Thanks to everyone who wrote a piece, more than half of whom said, in a survey, that they wouldn’t have done so without this competition! (Huge win.) A formal announcement is forthcoming.

And finally, thanks to you for joining me on this journey over the last 3+ years! I hope you have a beautiful holiday with friends and family. Here’s to the years ahead.

- Niko