Alec Dent is a reporter and editor based in Washington D.C.
About
I am a journalist currently working for The Washington Post. My writing has also appeared in New York, Vanity Fair, GQ, Town & Country, The Boston Globe, Racquet, and elsewhere. I am a graduate of the UNC Chapel Hill Hussman School of Journalism and Media, where I was the opinion editor of The Daily Tar Heel, and currently attend Harvard University, where I am pursuing a Master of Religion and Public Life.
Selected Writing
The Right’s Quiet Uncanceling of a Dead White Supremacist
In 1995, conservatives cast off Sam Francis for being a virulent racist. Nearly 30 years later, Blake Masters has openly recommended Francis’s book, his name is cited in conservative conferences, and his thinking is hailed as a prescriptive path forward for Republicans’ post-Trump presidency.
(Photo credit: BY TRAVIS DOVE/THE NEW YORK TIMES/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES)
It’s time for tennis to recognize overlooked Black champions from the past
Major League Baseball has incorporated the Negro Leagues into its history books. Tennis should seize its own opportunity to right a wrong.
Björn Borg’s Memoir As Evasive as the Man Himself
“Great athletes usually turn out to be stunningly inarticulate about just those qualities and experiences that constitute their fascination,” David Foster Wallace wrote in 1992. Thirty-three years later and little has changed about the sports memoir genre, as evidenced by Heartbeats by Björn Borg.
‘Playworld,’ Adam Ross’s Novel of Painful Discovery
A coming-of-age tale that asks what freedom we can hope for if we lack the words to describe our lives.
Trump 2024 vs. Project 2025
His campaign denies anything to do with the blueprint for a second term, but Trump’s alumni are all over it.
Proposed: David Foster Wallace Should Be in the International Tennis Hall of Fame
One of his great subjects, Roger Federer, will be inducted this weekend. Wallace, whose tennis writing is some of the best sports journalism ever printed, should be next in line.
The Revived Cornell Watch Co. Puts a Spotlight on American Watchmaking
How a Chicago brand is working to bring luxury watchmaking back to the United States with the help of the nation’s leading watchmaker.
The New Pope of Prep
A preppy revival is sweeping fashion and culture. Thank Jack Carlson for that.
How the Far Right Uses Mystical Racism to Demonize Migrants
They’re fixating on corn (yes, corn) and pseudo-historical interpretations of Christianity that paint non-white immigrants as forces sent by Satan.
(Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty Images)