LOS ANGELES TIMES It had been a long day and Daniela Molnar’s mind was wandering when she saw the shape. The shape of what was already lost; the shape of something new that had just come into being. Little did she know, it was a shape that would expose a profound feeling of grief within … More An artist set out to paint climate change. She ended up on a journey through grief
THE ATLANTIC ***Anthologized in the Best American Science and Nature Writing 2021*** ***Honorable mention for the Society of Environmental Journalists’ 2020 Outstanding Feature Story Award*** The “crazy worms” remaking forests aren’t your friendly neighborhood garden worms. Then again, those aren’t so great either. On a sweltering July day, I follow Annise Dobson down an overgrown … More Cancel Earthworms
ADVENTURE JOURNAL ***Listed as notable in the Best American Science and Nature Writing 2020*** In the new world of unreliable snowfall, ice skates offer a swift and sublime form of backcountry travel. The sky was the color of charcoal when Luc Mehl stepped onto the frozen ribbon of the Selawik River. The smoldering ember of … More The revolution will be hard, fast, and frozen
HAKAI ***Winner of the 2019 Best of the Northwest Science Writing Award from the Northwest Science Writers Association.*** Inuit in Canada and Greenland want to protect an ecological wonder—a massive Arctic polynya—at the center of their world. The little auks are hard to spot among the rocky rubble that lines the shore of northwest Greenland. … More An Oasis of Open Water
HIGH COUNTRY NEWS A genetically modified grass is loose in Oregon. It could have been much worse. In the failing light of an unusually warm January day, Jerry Erstrom and I race along a dirt track behind Rod Frahm’s white pickup. Here, near Ontario, Oregon, a stone’s throw from the Idaho border, Frahm grows onions, … More Little Weed, Big Problem
BIOGRAPHIC In trying to untangle a mysterious herring collapse from the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, scientists in Prince William Sound are revealing just how resilient—and unpredictable—marine ecosystems can be. On a cold day in June, Scott Pegau leans toward the passenger window of a Cessna floatplane and peers out at the teal … More Boom and Busted
Great narrative stories read so smoothly, you hardly ever notice their structure. But that doesn’t help writers trying to master the art of long-form writing. So we asked accomplished writers to draw out the structures of their favorite stories. Check out the wonderful results over at the Open Notebook.
Julia Rosen 