Hi! I’m a writer and author thinking about US history, labor, manufacturing, shipping, and the economy.
I’ve written for leading publications, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Down East, Yankee, Boston Globe, and Boston magazine.
I’m also the author of the critically acclaimed bestseller Into the Raging Sea about the 2015 sinking of the American cargo ship El Faro during Hurricane Joaquin. The book was a NYT Notable Book and among NPR’s best books of the year. My second book, Making It in America, explores the history of manufacturing and labor in the United States.
I’ve held editorships at the Boston Globe and Boston magazine, and taught political journalism at Tufts.
I was awarded a prestigious MacDowell Fellowship in 2024.
I’m is also a screenwriter/producer with several documentary credits, including “The Great War” and “The League.”
I earned a BA in political science from Barnard College and a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. I live in Boston, but my heart is in Maine.
Into the Raging Sea earned starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly; the Maine Literary Award for nonfiction; the Massachusetts Honor Book Award; and the Mountbatten Award for Best Book from the Maritime Foundation UK. It was a NYT Notable Book, an NYT editors’ pick, an Amazon editors’ pick for Best History, and among NPR’s Best Books, Paste magazine’s best books, Longread’s best books, Inc. Magazine’s 7 Best Business Books, the Maine Edge’s favorite books, and Book Scrolling best history books. In 2021, Into the Raging Sea was adapted for a Harvard Business School case study. In 2023, Down East magazine named Slade’s book one of its top 25 “New Maine Classics.”
Rachel’s second book, Making It in America: The Almost Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the USA (and How It Got That Way), Pantheon/Penguin Random House, published January 2024, was #1 on Cosmopolitan magazine’s Best Nonfiction Books in 2024; #2 on Malcolm Gladwell’s Next Big Idea Club’s 40 Nonfiction Books to Look Out for in 2024; Financial Times Top Business Books to Read in 2024; Publishers Weekly Top 10 Pick in Business and Economics; Lit Hub’s “What Should You Read Next?” best reviewed books; and received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.
