This Thursday, February 12 at 12 p.m. ET, join Ross Gay and Aimee Nezhukumatathil in a conversation with Mary Evelyn Tucker all about love 💚 and other crucial themes for our times. Register for this free online event right here. orionmagazine.org/event-worksh... @religion-ecology.bsky.social

Love the journalism at @orionmagazine.bsky.social ; it's always deep, thoughtful, provocative, and intriguing. Case in point with this piece from @tkdano.bsky.social on cattle mutilation conspiracy theories (cn, graphic descriptions).

Some Trees: A Generative Multi-Genre Writing Workshop with Rob Schlegel (online), Mar 26–May 14, 2026; 5-7pm ET. $600. From Orion Magazine @orionmagazine.bsky.social. Apply by Feb 15, 2026 orionmagazine.org/event-worksh...

The Jersey Devil—a grotesque chimerical creature said to haunt the Pine Barrens of New Jersey—is… wait for it… Adam Leeds Latham’s uncle. Or, seventh great-granduncle, anyway. But Latham finds he’s less interested in the legend. Rather, this is the tale of the creature’s (real) mother: Dorothy.

"What is a gentle way / to imagine this reckoning?" from 'Probably Something About the Grass' by El Williams III, in Orion's Spring 2024 issue. Read the full poem here. orionmagazine.org/article/prob...

Everyone’s seen those renderings of cows getting beamed up into UFOs. But the darker side of the events that sparked those popular images—cattle mutilations—points to a more terrestrial cause. @tkdano.bsky.social investigates.

Now accepting members for the Creeped-Out-By-Deep-Water-Club 🙋🏿 🙋🏼 🙋🏽 🙋 🙋🏾 🙋🏻 Leath Tonino on depths—and their monsters. From our Winter issue, CRYPTIDS.

It's February—how's that New Year's reading list coming along? Did those BookTok recommendations disappoint yet again? Fear not. Our team pulled together some new(ish) recs to get you back on your reading rhythm. orionmagazine.org/article/10-n...

Magnificent article in the recent Winter Issue of Orion. "Watching birds won’t be enough to save them."

Looking forward to this! Earthly Love: A Conversation with Ross Gay and @nezhukumatathil.bsky.social on February 12, 12-1pm. Register here: yff.yale.edu/events/earth... with the Forest School at the Yale School of the Environment, @religion-ecology.bsky.social & @orionmagazine.bsky.social 💚

The time has come! We're opening up applications to join us at Orion's annual Environmental Writers' Workshop at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY. All the info, including where to apply, can be found right here—and make sure to save these dates while you're at it! orionmagazine.org/omega/

Does anyone really *consider* the namesake of Groundhog Day? Well, it's about time someone appreciated these "humdrum 'whistle-pigs,'" says writer Nick Neely. For the love of woodchucks 💚

Lauren Marx's illustrations have it all—nature, the cycle of life, mythology. These pieces are featured in Orion's Winter issue, CRYPTIDS. We recommend zooming in and observing them in all their glory. More here: orionmagazine.org/article/sacr...

There's a monster in Lake Champlain. Or maybe there isn't. Either way, swimming above its secret lair (?) is enough to make Leath Tonino squirm.

We like a little retrospection in January—about you, our readers. How are you guys? Because based on what you read most last year, we're thinking you could use a breather. Last year, you thought a lot about wonder, love, and empathy. Reread your favorites, right here.

Excellent essay by @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social on how a faith-based focus on non-existent creatures detracts from our awareness & appreciation of the real (& marvelous) animals living around us. 🧪🐻🐾

Amid the human horrors of these days, and to use a word from the article, this piece was restorative. Thank you @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social for this.

"I convince myself one day that yes, the Lord God Bird exists and then, the next day, I squash all hope with an obliterative hammer. But there are other acts of conjuring." —J. Drew Lanham for @orionmagazine.bsky.social orionmagazine.org/article/lord...

I love the idea of poetry and science teaming up this way

Come for the curiosity and stay for the story. 👍

it maybe seems strange to write about aphantasia via a book review, but visual imagination (or lack thereof) deeply shapes the reading experience. and this vastly different experience of reading books provides a glimpse of the vastly different ways we read the world

Does the ivory-billed woodpecker still exist? "That’s the brass-tacks, where-the-rubber-meets-the-road question," writes naturalist J. Drew Lanham. "There’s possibility and there’s probability. Science proffers the latter and poetry the former. I tend both sides of the coin."

From our Winter issue CRYPTIDS, @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social's takedown of Bigfoot and love letter to bears, birds, and other (real) wonders of the natural world. orionmagazine.org/article/bigf...

“Uunartoq Qeqertaq,” he said, a catch in his voice now, “translates to Warming Island in the Greenlandic language.” At that we fell silent, thinking of the Greenlanders, the skinny polar bears, the still beautiful Earth, and stayed quiet a long time, until we reached the open sea.

“Bear cubs, after being weaned by their mother,” writes @trinamoyles.bsky.social, “would often stick together and face the forest as two… The sibling relationship in any species—solitary or social—is one of the most formative for learning how to be and survive in the world.”

In defense of el Chupacabra. @feliciazamorapoet.bsky.social in Orion's Winter 2025/2026 issue, CRYPTIDS. orionmagazine.org/article/chup...

Filmmaker Jessica Plumb spent 10 days aboard a steel-hulled schooner in June of 2022. From the deck, she and her family explored Western Greenland, witnessing the effects of climate change from land, sea, and ice. These are her journal entries.

Jeff VanderMeer doesn't believe in Bigfoot :( but he does believe in bears :) Reality is just as sweet as myth, @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social writes. Sorry to the Bigfoot truthers; the real world is just as cool. A takedown of mythology, and an argument for reality, here.

Artist Nicole Dextras collaborates with winter 🌲 orionmagazine.org/article/ice-...

A short and sweet essay on a winter willow dreaming, from THE Rick Bass. orionmagazine.org/article/what...

Altitude sickness, snow leopards, yetis, and the unknowable mysticism of the mountains surrounding Shey Gompa in Nepal. Lance Richardson journeys miles into thinning air to follow the footsteps of famed nature writer Peter Matthiessen. orionmagazine.org/article/pete...

Robert Macfarlane and Terry Tempest Williams, as always, help us see. Considerations of hope in dark times, here. orionmagazine.org/article/drea...

'Sing, Nightingale' by Paula Bohince, in Orion's Winter 2025/2026 issue orionmagazine.org/article/sing...

If you look long enough, you can see yourself—and your relationships—in the natural world around you. It just requires a different kind of looking. @trinamoyles.bsky.social on leaning into paradoxes, in her own family and beyond.

This is the Bigfoot read I didn't know I needed from @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social

Recommended weekend read: @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social in @orionmagazine.bsky.social on Bigfoot. Who needs cryptids when you have the wonder of real bears? orionmagazine.org/article/bigf...

During the winter at Orion, we think a lot about cycles and seasons. And who better to help us contemplate that than a shepherd? (Art by Wren Fortunoff) orionmagazine.org/article/shep...

What's the first bird you saw this year? Take it as a sign. From @tkdano.bsky.social: "People have been using birds to divine the future for centuries... The origin of the word auspicious [—auspicium—] means to 'look at birds.'" orionmagazine.org/article/firs...

Lance Richardson wanted to understand nature writer Peter Matthiessen's motivation and journey to the Shey Gompa monastery in Nepal, later made into the famous 20th-century book "The Snow Leopard." So he followed his footsteps—and felt, perhaps, more than just the mountains' watchful eyes in return.

there were a lot of photos taken for the bigfoot/bears shoot for my orion article. will share more tomorrow. by alicia j. rose.

Great photos by Alicia J. Rose for the bear/bigfoot shoot for this pirce. Nathan Carson kindly put it together, that's him in the hat. And Solar Bolte, a biologist, wore the bear suit. 2/?

Here is my take for @orionmagazine.bsky.social on the non-existent bigfoot. A lot of time, effort, and research went into this. Thanks to @annvandermeer.bsky.social for lots of interview assistance and @sarahlovesbirds.bsky.social. Extra photos in thread. 1/? orionmagazine.org/article/bigf...

adrienne maree brown on liberatory #game nights and the healing power of playing together: "I know others are struggling as much as I am, in the existential swirl of it all, so it feels good to say, you know what we need to do? Laugh together. Letting ourselves play feels really important."

"How do we build the future on a deep yes, a deep longing for what we want?" @adriennemareebrown.bsky.social and Grist's @torystephens.bsky.social point us in the right direction in this conversation about imagination, trust, and conflict. orionmagazine.org/article/writ...

I love the new issue of Orion. Not only is it just the most beautiful magazine, but this issue has big(foot) stuff by @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social, @lancerichardson.bsky.social, and others. And Jeff's & my pal Eric Schaller makes a cameo appearance, which always makes me happy.

"What other processes around us—ankle-deep, knee-deep, and deeper—are no longer functioning, and in need of repair and restoration?" Rick Bass on the slow, restorative powers of those wintering Montana willows.

Introducing our Winter issue: CRYPTIDS: ON THE TRAIL OF BIGFOOT AND OTHER IMPROBABLE BEASTS. It’s creepy. It’s crawly. It’s steeped in myth and mystery. Curl up, dive in, and, if you’re one of the sorry souls that doesn’t have a copy, subscribe right here. orionmagazine.org/product/subs...

Pleased to have been quoted by author @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social in this new article on cryptozoology for @orionmagazine.bsky.social. Check it out!

"Its reputation as a poisonous place eventually gave way to a surreal, dream-like quality of legend, as though if you fell in, you’d emerge with some dark superpower." @k-e-c.bsky.social for @orionmagazine.bsky.social: orionmagazine.org/article/trou...

I love this meditation on winter by Rick Bass in the latest issue of @OrionMagazine.bsky.social "The willows’ only job now is to simply survive: to hold their code, their green fire, safe beneath the snow, and wait for the change that always, always, returns." orionmagazine.org/article/what...