“‘I might be wrong’ is a sentence brimming with love,” says Leslie Jamison to Sarah Sentilles in this interview. Together, the two discuss how to write love on the page, kinship, and craft. Read it to gather new ways to love in divided times.

What you’re looking at here is one of Monica Hairston O’Connell’s “grief cakes.” For her, during the many hardships of 2020 and in the wake of the loss of both her mother and her bakery, the kitchen was a place to process and grieve. orionmagazine.org/article/blm-...

Today! Join us at 2 p.m. ET to celebrate the launch of our Autumn issue, the Natural Rhythms of Hip-Hop. Hanif Abdurraqib and Clover Hope will be there to chat about the work inside, the landscapes of hip-hop, and more. Prime yourself for reading and register for free, right here.

“Ask the blossoms of the hibiscus or the poking carmine amaryllis why they stand so brightly against their green leaves. Ask the rose that newly blooms in spring. Ask the holly in the blessed ivy. Alarm, arrest, alert, adjust, admire, but in any event: Attend.”

"After the 'virgin' longleaf forest was clearcut, the land was transformed into timber plantations densely packed with loblolly & slash pine, planted so closely together that I can’t see any light between the trunks. Here, trees are a cash crop—sold for lumber or pulp or utility poles."

Jesmyn Ward’s first memory is suffused with Black art; namely, “Rock With You,” by Michael Jackson, playing through the speakers at the airport. In this piece from Orion’s Autumn issue, Ward recounts the “lattice of protection” that music gave (and still gives) to her throughout her life.

The carefully-tended longleaf pine forests of North America were plundered by European colonizers. They're still recovering.

Here's a lovely piece by Gregory Maguire on green men, green children, green folklore, green witches and more....

"This fight for political autonomy fostered a sense of local pride and a desire to express a distinct DC identity, one undeniably Black. The Blackbyrds’ music embodied that desire." Charlotte Taylor Fryar for @orionmagazine.bsky.social: orionmagazine.org/article/the-...

"The Rhythms of 'Rock Creek Park'---The Blackbyrds’ ode to DC inspired a new generation of artists" @orionmagazine.bsky.social orionmagazine.org/article/the-...

You might know Maria Pinto as a friend of Orion, but she’s also a writer, a mycophile, a forager, an educator, *and* she gave us a bullet-pointed list of her many talents in this latest version of the Orion Questionnaire.

As the colors of the season fade, here’s a celebration of one of nature’s favorite hues from the writer of ‘Wicked'. On the color green, verdant words, emerald skin, and leafy witches.

THIS WEDNESDAY! Join us to celebrate the launch of our Autumn issue with some of the biggest names in the game. Hanif Abdurraqib and Clover Hope join us at 2 p.m. ET on November 5 to chat about the sonic landscape we traverse this season: hip-hop.

To ease those Daylight Saving Time blues. 'Night' by Dorianne Laux in Orion magazine, 2019. orionmagazine.org/article/night/

That early sunset today hits a little different... but darkness isn't such a bad thing, argues Peter Friederici in this piece from Orion's archive.

In a lifetime of reading, it took decades for Jemma Rowan Deer to realize something about herself: she has aphantasia, or the total lack of the ability to produce mental imagery. She describes the condition in the bounds of a container she knows well: the literary review.

Essay from @orionmagazine.bsky.social by Priyanka Kumar - Eating Apples: Finding hidden happiness in nature’s variety. "I suggest finding beauty in the apple’s flesh." orionmagazine.org/article/eati...

Swimming with Crocodiles is one of my all-time favorite @orionmagazine.bsky.social stories!

Yep, these still hold up.

"And when I walk among ghost pipes, their little / spectral music in the dark wood quickens my heart: / song of a moment, the risky road yes taken / to desire, escape. The day that changed everything." — from "Ghost Pipes" by Barbara Kingsolver, in Orion magazine. orionmagazine.org/article/ghos...

On every way and reason to love the pumpkins you're seeing all over the place today.

"Once you imagine a body that might bring you happiness instead of loathing... I found myself having more days in which I wished for nothing more than to be present in my body. I realized that quitting would be, in essence, to value my own life and wish myself into the future."

Happy Halloween 🎃 Today's the day when the veil is thinnest. Beware! And if you see a mushroom ring today, steer clear. Don't say we didn't warn you.

“Supernatural horror is a technique for restoring the right kind of emotion to the horrifying things that people do or that are done to people. You’re reestablishing that a terrifying thing is, in fact, terrifying.” - @kellylink.bsky.social

So many thanks to my friend @julianhoffman.bsky.social for taking time with talk with me for @orionmagazine.bsky.social about his incredible new book, Lifelines. Grateful, too, to Orion, a guiding light during these dark times. orionmagazine.org/article/hear...

Mark your calendars! Nov. 5 at 2 p.m. ET, join the Orion Autumn issue's guest editor, award-winning writer Hanif Abdurraqib, in conversation with acclaimed music journalist Clover Hope about the sonic landscape of hip-hop. Registration is free, and so is attendance. We can't wait to see you there.

(via Kelly Link @kellylink.bsky.social)

This is a wonderful conversation between two wonderful writers. (And thank you for the kind shout-out, @kellylink.bsky.social.)

“Our age is an age of blindness. Not of unseeing, but unlooking. We have more windows than ever, but we use them mostly as mirrors. To look at pictures of ourselves. And to unlook at loss and vanishment. To unlook at the future.”

For Jesmyn Ward ( @jesmimi.bsky.social ), throughout life, loss, and coming of age, there was always a familiar beat: hip-hop and R&B wove around her a cocoon of sound, keeping her grounded and safe. An ode to place, to music, to the holy spaces made by Black art.

look what arrived!!! so honored to have a short essay about Bolivian hip-hop in the fall issue of @orionmagazine.bsky.social

If stories are like magic tricks, then Carmen Maria Machado and Kelly Link are magicians. The two masters of fiction and horror talk shop in this conversation from our fairy-tale issue (a.k.a., perfect mood reading for this spooky week).

“Place fascinates me, and it always has. Why do some places resonate with us in often inexplicably profound ways while others don’t?” Julian Hoffman and Alexis Marie Adams talk about Hoffman’s latest book, ‘Lifelines,’ the magic of place, grief, hope, conservation and more.

In praise of fall’s favorite fruit 🍎 Priyanka Kumar travels through space and time to research vanishing historic orchards and apples as a cultural touchstone.

The ocean dwellers are very wise, indeed!

Deeply grateful to @orionmagazine.bsky.social for giving @alexismarieadams.bsky.social and myself the opportunity to have a conversation about borders, belonging, writing, rivers, grief and resistance, as well as our shared love for the more-than-human world. orionmagazine.org/article/hear...

Death, sleep, wintering and emergence—Mark Spragg weaves all in this piece of fiction about a questing bear.

When a jellyfish is stressed, it can age backwards to its polyp stage to start things over again. And again. And again. A little life advice: it’s okay to keep starting over. This and more pointers from sea creatures.

If Joy Harjo could eat pancakes with anyone, who would it be? Would she go to space? Can she make convincing bird calls? These and more hard-hitting questions in the Orion Questionnaire.

COVER REVEAL! Our Autumn issue, THE NATURAL RHYTHMS OF HIP-HOP, is almost at your doorstep. This issue is all about the role of hip-hop: in our imaginations, in our sense of place, in how it reflects the human/nonhuman rhythms of the world. orionmagazine.org/product/subs...

“Admittedly, there are times I feel overwhelmed and worn out, wanting to escape for a little while our colossal climate predicament. But I keep coming back, often with the help of friends, mustering yet again the will to walk back into any one of these endless rooms of loss.”

Orion is building a community of nature and literature lovers across print, digital, workshops, and virtual programs. Your gift today will support Orion and your fellow readers and writers who care deeply about the connections between people and the planet. Make a gift today.

"The grammar of animacy is an antidote to arrogance; it reminds us that we are not alone." Robin Wall Kimmerer recovers lost language in one of our readers' favorite pieces from the archive.

Read it, and weep.

Join us for this shop talk, happening TOMORROW! It’s virtual, it’s free, and it’s in partnership with our friends over at the Black Mountain Institute.

How do we feel joy in uncertain or outright absurd times? J. Drew Lanham and Nickole Brown give us some much-needed guideposts to endure.

Have you ever noticed that animal names disguised as verbs often connote something violent? Amie Souza Reilly compiles a collection.

This month, we’re reviving the spooky fiction we’ve got lurking in our archives. This Sunday read: the story of a miraculous clearing.

Mark your calendars! October 22, join Black Mountain Institute and Orion for a virtual discussion with publisher Neal Thompson and contributing editor Meera Subramanian about writing at the intersection of nature and culture. It’s going to be a good one.

Hunting deer, done right, is a practice in conservation. Phoebe McIlwain Bright tells the tale of her first encounter with hunting, what parts of her perspective it shifted, and what parts it didn’t.