Emma Ayers is a roving journalist and writer whose work focuses on people and places at the edges of public attention — coal towns, isolated desert communities, religious enclaves, and cultural undercurrents that rarely make headlines.

She looks for moments of exposure, exploring revealed nexus of belief in stories that shape humanity, whether behind closed doors or in open air.

Emma has received multiple Associated Press awards for feature and enterprise reporting, was honored with the Best in Print award by the National Journalism Center, and is a graduate of the Media Journalism Fellowship in partnership with the Poynter Institute.

In the decade she’s spent as a reporter, Emma has covered everything from the papacy, religious turmoil in Bangladesh, assisted suicide debates in New York and the UK, energy transitions in Appalachian coal country, trade with Chinese fashion markets, etc.

Her work can be found within the pages of USA Today, The Washington Times, The American Mind, and multiple outlets besides.

In 2024, Emma was selected as a Roger Scruton Foundation Fellow at the University of Cambridge, where she studied art and aesthetics as part of research for her forthcoming novel O Sun, to Tell Thee, an Appalachian myth.