Hello!
Today would have been the 74th issue of Place (can you believe it?) but due to some poor planning on the part of your co-editor Karis, this week’s dispatch is still a work in progress.
It’s been a real joy working on these pieces, however this was a newsletter started under very different circumstances. It was in a rare moment we were forced to pause, to stay home, to be inward. While the circumstances were - and have been - something that we all desperately wish could have been avoided, at the same time, it did offer a chance to recalibrate and tap into a creative side that hadn’t been given much space in the previous world. Now as life picks up again, it comes with a tension. How do we keep this space for reflection? How do we grow this community? What would an ideal way to balance this project with the return to busier days? Given both of us have gone through some big life changes over the last few months, there’s been new external pressures to contend with. We appreciate your patience as we work through these questions (and if you have ideas, let us know!)
That isn’t to say Place is going anywhere - the writing, editing and creative process have been a joy to share with you each week and we will continue on. However, we’re in the process of figuring out how to continue to write, find new voices and build out this mission while balancing with our changing lives as well.
In the meantime, the theme of place is strong as ever in this world. People continue to write and create beautiful pieces of work that tap into the feelings that we’ve been exploring all along. Here’s what you should read this week:
The Places We Lost by Kathy MacLeod in The Believer
From Bangkok to Berlin, an illustrated reflection on the places we leave behind and whether we can really hold onto them as they change.
Atascosa Borderlands by Jack Dash and Luke Swenson in Emergence Magazine
Split between the border of US and Mexico, the biodiversity of the Sonoran Desert is uncertain as told through this botanical survey and essay.
Deep in the Arctic, a town fights for zero emissions by Laura Paddison for Wired
How one of the world’s coldest towns is both on the front lines of the climate crisis, and trying to set an example of how to fight it.
Thanks once again. See you next week for a trip to a vortex.
-Karis