The HCN staff has been out connecting with readers and making new friends around the region as spring melts into summer.
Over Memorial Day weekend, we proudly sponsored the annual Mountain Words Festival in Crested Butte, Colorado, at a heavenly 9,000 feet above sea level. The festival was filled with workshops, readings, panel discussions and other programming that highlighted journalism, long-form storytelling, nature writing, climate reporting, nonfiction, fiction, poetry and more. Several HCN editors and writers took part, including contributing editors Leah Sottile and Nick Bowlin, correspondent Jonathan Thompson and former intern and correspondent Ben Goldfarb. Many other writers from HCN’s orbit also enjoyed the three-day celebration.
Also in mid-May, Heather Grenier, Montana’s Human Resource Development Council CEO, Bozeman Deputy Mayor Joey Morrison, Bozeman Tenants United Director Benjamin Finegan and HCN’s Contributing Editor Nick Bowlin gathered to discuss Bozeman’s widening affordability gap and what it means for the people who live there. (Nick wrote about the community’s housing crisis in our May feature story.) The panelists unpacked the many challenges involved in creating more affordable housing and discussed what citizens and officials could do to help the situation. You know those luxury apartments going up in Bozeman and elsewhere in the Mountain West? Spoiler: They may not be the enemy of affordability.
And in June, with the nonprofit American Rivers, we co-sponsored a screening of the documentary film These Sacred Hills. The film — a collaboration between filmmakers Jacob Bailey and Christopher Ward and members of the Rock Creek Band of the Yakama Nation — follows the band’s struggle to stop a renewable energy development outside Goldendale, Washington, in an area called Pushpum, or “mother of roots.” HCN Staff Writer B. Toastie Oaster, who wrote a story about the project in 2023, appears in the film. The area, they explained, is “a first foods seed bank.”
These Sacred Hills introduces viewers to the land protectors, including Yakama Nation Tribal Councilman Jeremy Takala, Elaine Harvey, a leader of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, and young band leader Chief Bronsco Jim Jr. We learn, in agonizing detail, how tribal members have been forced to share sensitive tribal knowledge to protect rights that are, in theory, already protected by a treaty with the U.S. government. All three took part in a panel discussion after the screening at Olympia, Washington’s Film Forum.
We’re grateful to all our community partners and everyone who has attended these events — and we appreciate your patience as we iron out the kinks in our planning process. If you’d like to get an invitation if HCN comes to your town, please make sure that your email address is included on your HCN account on our website. (Shoot an email to support@hcn.org to let us know you are new to our online resources, and we will get you all set up! ) And if you know of a great gathering place where we can connect with the local HCN community, please send us an email at dearfriends@hcn.org.
Things are looking up
If HCN looks somewhat different this month — you may have noticed a few fresh flourishes in the last issue — it’s probably because there’s a new mind (and eye) behind the magazine: Craig Edwards, our new design director. He is responsible for the overall look and feel of all HCN products, including the magazine and website, along with our fundraising and marketing materials.
Craig has been working in publication design for a long time. His first job out of college was as a features designer for The Detroit News. He went on to lead the creative teams at two of the world’s largest and most influential LGBTQ publications, Out and The Advocate, and helped launch the late and greatly lamented Pacific Standard in 2012. And he spent several years as a creative director at Condé Nast, where he worked on Architectural Digest and Bon Appétit. One of his most recent posts was at Deadline Hollywood, where he grew and managed the creative, marketing, events and social media teams. Along the way, he has received numerous accolades, including two prestigious Ellies, or National Magazine Awards.
Asked what excites him about joining HCN, Craig says he’s looking forward to doing work that makes a difference. He is passionate about social justice, environmental issues, equality and diversity — passions that also power his volunteer work for Tree People and the Angeles chapter of the Sierra Club. Craig and his husband, Renato, live in Los Angeles, where they enjoy hiking in Coldwater Canyon, discovering new craft breweries and eating at all the vegan restaurants. His current TV obsession is The Great Pottery Throwdown, which has convinced him that he, too, can learn how to make beautiful ceramic pots. Assuming he ever gets the time, of course; we’re keeping Craig very busy!
Welcome aboard, Craig!
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This article appeared in the July 2025 print edition of the magazine with the headline “Out and about in the West.”
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