So What is The Poleax?
Hello, there.
First off, what the hell is a poleax?
A poleax — alternatively spelled pollaxe, polax, and a number of other ways — is, well, basically an axe on a pole. Used by infantrymen and dismounted cavalry alike, the poleax was a democratic weapon. Sometimes it was used for knocking someone — literally — off their high horse, but more often it was for when two people were forced to fight at a ground level and could be both an instrument of skill and a blunt piece of work. We like that duality.
Additionally, as a verb, “to poleax” someone is to shock or awe them, as if, you guessed it, they were hit with a poleax.
What’s this have to do with the site?
We operate under the simple premise that the world is full of smart, talented, engaged people with unique voices who can write incisive, creative, and otherwise interesting things. A lot of these people don’t think to pitch their ideas or submit their work because the writing world can be a cold, indifferent place. Trying to get a response to a pitch, much less get one’s work published, is daunting for almost anyone.
But we want to hear from those people.
We believe in the egalitarianism of words. We believe 1) that those aforementioned smart people have smart things to say about the things they know and care about and 2) that they can do it as well if not better than a lot of purported experts on the internet who don’t really know what the hell they’re talking about.
So our goal is pretty simple: seek out and publish fresh voices, wherever they’re from and wherever they may be in their career, whether it’s a first-timer, an academic who wants to try something on a general audience, an established journalist who wants a space to experiment with something outside their wheelhouse, etc. We have editors in the US and UK and are actively engaged with people around the globe, so while we’re a US- and UK-based site, we are very much inclusive in our scope.
Whoever you are, we’ll work with you. Because while we live in a world where in general no one seems to feel responsible for their hot-takes, from syndicated columns to Facebook rants, we believe that if everyone thought about words a little more carefully — both theirs and others’ — , we’d have a very different (i.e. better) world. So that’s why we’re here.
So calling the site The Poleax is a kind of an obvious piece of symbolism, huh?
Probably — but we want to call bullshit on rhetorical disingenuousness and dishonesty. Might as well be direct.
What kind of stuff are you looking for?
See Submission Guidelines under our Contact Us page. However, if you run into one of us at the bar and ask, we’ll likely answer, “What you got?”
More specifically, we’re interested in how the personal interacts with larger forces. We’re also interested in analysis of complex issues that’s accessible to a general audience but doesn’t dumb it down either. Just as we believe in people’s ability to write better, we believe in people’s ability to read better.
Given the fact you work trans-Atlantically, should I do US or UK spelling? Is trans-Atlantically a word?
Honestly, either is fine. Do what works with your writing voice. Trans-Atlantically is a word . . . if you want it to be.
Where do you stand on the serial/Oxford/Harvard comma?
Glad you asked! While we think AP style is just great, we also believe very firmly in the serial comma. It just makes logical sense. It’s probably the only thing we don’t consider open for debate.
