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Prestige publications like the Atlantic, the New Yorker, and the Economist are known for producing fine writing across a host of genres. The investigative journalism from these magazines itself makes news, and the range of topics covered is broad: politics and world affairs, history, celebrity profiles, economics, culture, and the arts. But who is the audience for this kind of writing? Is it the public at large, and if so, how might we describe that public? Does this kind of writing find itself under challenge, swamped by the proliferation of writing for niche audiences we see in the digital age? What would be lost in that case? This seminar explores these questions by reading some of the best writing offered by these publications, analyzing it, and debating its contemporary relevance. Our own writing projects will include a genre analysis of an article selected from one of these sources, an academic argument that enters a debate about what constitutes the public sphere today, and finally, a piece of public writing in which you select the topic, define your audience, and work with your peers to produce a class portfolio of high-quality work we can share with the Hopkins community.