Recently, the balance of this column has swung toward prodding you with questions and challenges, but triumphs and good news are a lot of fun to share, too, so I’d like to tell you about all the exciting happenings at HCN.
HCN Poetry Editor Paisley Rekdal begins her tenure this month as the new director of the University of Utah’s American West Center, which researches the history and culture of our region. In other news, her latest book, West: A Translation, a collection of poems and essays about the transcontinental railroad, was released in May by Copper Canyon Press.
Senior Editor Emily Benson and contributor Madhushree Ghosh have each had a story, both from September 2022, selected for the 2023 Best American Series anthologies. Ghosh’s “On the road, a taste of home” will be included in The Best American Food Writing and Benson’s “The Climate Underground” will be in The Best American Science and Nature Writing.
Staff writer B. “Toastie” Oaster was selected to partner with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network to work on an investigative project to be published later this year. Also, “Underwater Legends,” their 2022 feature about the relationship between the Pacific lamprey and Northwest tribes, was a finalist in the 2023 National Magazine Awards — up there with the industry’s highest honors!
Contributing Editor Melissa Chadburn’s novel, A Tiny Upward Shove, was longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel.
Susan Shain has joined HCN as a New York Times Headway fellow; she spent the first year of her fellowship at the Times but will spend the upcoming year as part of our newsroom.
Contributor Sarah Sax’s story “Unbearable Heat,” from June 2022, about the horrifying conditions inside Washington’s prisons, has racked up multiple awards — First Place for Investigative Reporting from the Newswomen’s Club of New York, a writing award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors in the category of Social Change and finalist for the 2023 Victor K. McElheny Award from the MIT Knight Science Journalism Program. And, best of all, it’s been cited by officials investigating the issue. Thank you to all the readers who told us how this story inspired them to take action on behalf of incarcerated people.
HCN’s production team — Cindy Wehling, Roberto “Bear” Guerra and Luna Anna Archey — notched up two notable achievements: Alex Boersma’s illustration for “Salmon in Troubled Waters” in the July 2022 issue was a Society of Publication Designers Merit Winner, and the October 2022 cover, featuring a photo from June T Sanders, was a finalist in the American Society of Magazine Editors’ Best Cover Contest for Best News and Politics Cover.
And that’s just what I can fit into this month’s column! Join me in giving them all a hand. We’re lucky to have such a talented crew, and to have readers like you: Your support through subscriptions and donations is what keeps this all going. Thank you from everyone at High Country News.
Question of the month
Thank you for all your responses to my question about bumper stickers in the May issue. You sent in some great sticker ideas about conservation, dam removal … and getting “high.” We have a few new designs off to the printer. Get in touch at dearfriends@hcn.org if you want one.
This month’s question is: What’s your watershed address? To find it, start with the stream or creek nearest to your home, trace it to your nearest river or wetland and keep finding the next bigger body of water until you reach the ocean. Send your watershed address to dearfriends@hcn.org.
It’s a question you might have seen before if you follow conservation or water groups, but I wanted to put it to HCN readers to see where we overlap … other than the Pacific, that is.
Michael Schrantz is the marketing communications manager for High Country News. Email him at michael.schrantz@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor. See our letters to the editor policy.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline News from us.
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