Laura Preston is the 2025 recipient of the Richard J. Margolis Award for social justice journalism. Her narrative nonfiction has appeared in The New Yorker, n+1, The Believer, and the Columbia Journalism Review, and has been anthologized in The Best American Essays 2025.
While at MacDowell, Preston worked on her first book, Slopopolis: Travels in the New Digital Kingdom, a rambling, tragicomic romp through the world of AI bandwagoners and techno-charlatans. The book, which will be published by Liveright, weaves together deeply reported, character-driven narratives from the AI gold rush to create a kaleidescopic impression of American ambition and delusion at a major technological turning point.
