James Dennin '13 Shares His Writing Career Journey and Offers Alumni Connections Advice

by Matt Mandel '19

James Dennin ’13 is the Innovation Editor at Inverse, an online publication that covers the latest news on science, innovation, entertainment, technology, and culture.

Dennin, who hails from New York City, graduated with a double major in Political Science and English. While at Kenyon, he was an Admissions Fellow, a Writing Consultant for the Center for Innovative Pedagogy, blogged for the Office of Communications, served as an upperclassmen counselor (now known as Orientation Leaders) and was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity.

Two months after graduating from Kenyon, Dennin landed a job as Head of Content for Kapitall, an up-and-coming stock brokerage firm targeting Millennials.

“It was a scrappy little start-up started by a mix of finance nerds and video game nerds,” Dennin said. “They had this big blog that they ran, and they needed someone to come write it... it helped me accumulate lots and lots of clips.”

In fact, this early professional writing experience was key for Dennin, who was not only able to learn on the job, but expand his knowledge of subjects he did not previously know. As he did not take many courses in economics while at Kenyon, Dennin had to learn about the stock market as he was writing about it. “I was still able to identify the gaps in my knowledge and close them. I was able to reach out to alums who worked in finance who were able to tell me what books I should read.”

“The ability to make connections and draw things together and describe something that was dry in a compelling or interesting way sort of became my career specialty.”

As his portfolio started to grow in this fast-paced industry, so did his connections and reputation. He moved to Moxie Communications Group as their Content and Media Specialist where he wrote about entrepreneurship and how to grow businesses. While at Moxie he found himself recruited as a part-time writer by Splinter, an online news and opinion site known for its direct writing approach.

After Moxie and Splinter, Dennin became a full-time reporter for the Money section at Mic — a media company that creates content aimed towards Millennials. When he reflected on how one position led to another he found that his liberal arts background continues to inform the skills that he has built during his career.

“All of these things that I think people ask, ‘Well, why should I be interested and pay attention to that?,’” Dennin said.  “Part of that is just a limitation of curiosity … Kenyon really prepared me to always be like, ‘No, I’m going to go learn about that. If I’m being paid to write about it, there’s something interesting here and let me go figure out what it is.’”

Dennin believes that the “boundless curiosity” for learning he gained at Kenyon gave him the perfect foundation to be a reporter.

“That’s why I’m scheduling source interviews at eight o’clock or nine o’clock at night if I want to talk to somebody. I once scheduled an interview at three o’clock in the morning because some person lived in Australia and I really wanted that interview. I think that curiosity is really important and that’s really what the liberal arts education is about.”

Dennin’s work keeps getting noticed. “Eventually, the executive editor of Inverse [direct messaged] me on Twitter and asked me to put together a vision for their innovation section.” Long story made short, he recently accepted their offer. Dennin is now writing about subjects like renewable energy and organic chemistry, a far cry from the subject of money, which he had been covering since his first position at Kapitall.

“I had to write a story drawing on organic chemistry the other day and when that story came back with no corrections, that felt like the biggest miracle in the entire universe … That is just the liberal arts education shining through again. I don’t know anything about carbon dioxide, but I know how to ask the right questions and I know how to choose my words very carefully so that I’m not accidentally introducing errors into my copy.”

For students who want to go into the media world, Dennin recommends getting in touch with editors, as he believes they are “eager” to engage more diverse perspectives into their sections. He also explains that some even directly profit from growing their network.

“Employers have bounties for when you help recruit people who get hired. At Mic they would pay you money if you referred people who ended up getting a full-time job,” he said.

Dennin suggests pitching story ideas to the editors of your favorite publications. “I would be really excited to hear from more college kids who are like, ‘I have this idea about this app,’ or ‘I have this idea for this social media channel,’ or ‘I saw this meme and I think it means something bigger,’” he said. “It takes 15 minutes to write an editor or journalist and put together 100 words of a story you’d like to do, and that’s really all a pitch is. A lot of them might get ignored, but if one person gives you a tryout, that’s really all you need.”

In terms of what to put forward? Dennin explains, “Don’t be afraid to pitch some ideas that sound a little stupid or are a little half-baked. People really like quirky, weird stories.”

Dennin recommends a proactive approach more generally when looking for work. “You kind of have to follow up and find someone to reach out to and say, ‘Hey, just to let you know that I applied.’ And that’s not treated as pushy or opportunistic, that’s just what a normal person who wants the job does when they really want the job.”

A little over a year ago, that’s exactly what Liam Ingoglia ’19 did. He reached out to Dennin after applying for a sales internship at Mic. According to Dennin, it showed Ingoglia was good at following up and had a real desire for the position.

“What he did right was he just took his shot and read up on Mic, found that there was an alum there, found my email, and wrote to me. That’s all that it took to catch my eye because it doesn’t happen as much as you would think.”

It’s clear that Dennin bleeds purple and has no question about the value of a Kenyon education.

“I’ve commissioned at least three or four Kenyon writers at this point. I think people know that I like to help my fellow Lords and Ladies out,” he said. “Sometimes I worry about publishing too many Kenyon writers … but when Kenyon writers stop being better than everyone else, I’ll stop doing that.”