Best-written Federal Resignations, 2025

In 2026, Bicycle Comics will publish a new anthology: a collection of federal resignation letters. We seek input from all executive branch departments and agencies, from the Department of Agriculture to the National Zoo.

May 2026 Update: We are full!

We are delighted and stunned to have received almost 80 submissions to this project. As of May 1, 2026, we have closed the general submissions window. If you have already been in contact with us, we still wish to hear from you. We do ask that you get your document(s) to us promptly. Please reach out to us at resignations at bicycle hyphen comics dot com .

Our team will be reaching out to all who submitted letters.

Writers wanted.

We're looking for subject-matter experts who can write short commissioned essays on the following topics:

1. Civil society and social resilience: How can NGOs, local governments, and community groups respond when the national government ends programs or shifts priorities? (Update: hired!)
2. Federal jobs and middle class opportunity: What role(s) have federal jobs historically played in supporting a growing and diverse middle class? We're particularly interested in the demographics of the metropolitan DC area (DMV).
3. American science and federal research funding: How has the federal government funded science historically, and what have been the mechanisms for that funding? How should one assess the return on investment? This is an enormous subject, so we would be open to essay proposals that take a narrow(er) slice such as space exploration or vaccine research. (Update: hired!)

Whom are we looking for?

Good writers, first and foremost. The term “policy wonk” is one you wear comfortably. You likely have a master's degree or higher in public administration, economics, or political science. You may be a former government official or a policy analyst at a think tank. For #3, you might be a research scientist or a university administrator. Or none of the above—expertise comes in all shapes and sizes. But you must be able to write with style and authority on one of the above topics.

As a publisher, Bicycle Comics knows that words have value. We can pay you several hundred dollars for an essay of between 600–900 words. A larger honorarium might be possible for a subject-matter expert of considerable stature in the field. You will receive free paperback copies of the book and will appear in print alongside 23 eloquent former federal workers.

Our strong preference is for original writing, but we may consider adaptations of existing articles or essays only if we can secure reprint rights.

Interested? Get in touch.

Please reach out by sending an email to projects at bicycle hyphen comics dot com . Send us a cover letter. Link to some of your writing on similar topics. Please don't send us entire essays on spec; that's so not our style!

This is a story worth telling.

Over 140,000 people resigned from the federal government last year. Nothing like that has happened in the history of the United States.

The majority of those 140,000 workers opted for the DRP—the Deferred Resignation Program. Elon Musk ran a similar initiative when he took over at Twitter/X. On January 28, 2025, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) followed his lead. OPM’s “Fork in the Road” memo encouraged virtually all non-military federal employees to resign. They could do so via a one-word email:

Upon review of the below deferred resignation letter, if you wish to resign:

1. Select “Reply” to this email. You must reply from your government account. A reply from an account other than your .gov or .mil account will not be accepted.
2. Type the word “Resign” into the body of this reply email. Hit “Send”.

Many federal employees had more than one word to say about their departure. We are interested in what they had to say.

Want to be part of this project? Please tell us your story.

Resignations penned by agency leaders and senior military officers get plenty of media attention, and we’ll publish some of those, of course. But those people tend to land on their feet. We also want to read and publish the letters of everyday employees. We want to hear from park rangers and museum curators, poultry inspectors and bank auditors. Everyone from GS-1 to GS-15.

Your resignation was a moment. Let’s preserve it as part of a historical record.

We are closed for general submissions.