Terrain.org@Terrainorg

Online journal of place, climate and justice, publishing award-winning prose, poetry, art, reviews, editorials, interviews + community case studies since 1998.

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Joined November 2009
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Check out the latest in Terrain.org in our Terrain.org This Week update on Substack: terrainorg.substack.com/p/ca…
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Today (August 26) is the last day to submit to Poetry & Polar Science! Review the guidelines and scientific papers and submit here: springcreekproject.submittab…
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Our newest Letter to America (with audio), by Linda Cooper, is simply "Dear America," a poem for the modern-day superhero. terrain.org/2026/poetry/lett… #poem #poet #poetry #dearamerica #lettertoamerica #politicalpoetry #women #wonderwoman

Letter to America by Linda Cooper

Dear America, Your news is chicken slaughter. Slash. Plop. Here comes another one. How do we control what goes into our bleeding eyes and ears? Headlines are running around headless. We are in the...

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"Fire Season" is a strange and gorgeous poem of people and place (with audio) by Natalie Padilla Young. terrain.org/2026/poetry/nata… #fire #wildfire #women #poetry #poet #poem #place

One Poem by Natalie Padilla Young

Fire Season Polygamists discuss their crush          sell fermented food              at the outdoor market.             The women must be hot in long dresses              long, buttoned sleeves....

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"Northland Shangri-la" is an excerpt of wilderness guide and author Michael Engelhard's No Place Like Nome: The Bering Strait Seen Through Its Most Storied City. terrain.org/2026/nonfiction/… #nonfiction #excerpt #alaska #beringstrait #hotsprings #beringlandbridge

Northland Shangri-la

   There are places that are destined to seem like gates. One can’t avoid the sensation of being sucked through a portal.  – Lawrence Osborne, The Forgiven    decade ago, I got the chance to enjoy a...

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William Wenthe's lovely poem "Kinglet" speaks to and beyond the news of the day as the small bird "crazes / about a scrawny pecan tree in the back alley." terrain.org/2026/poetry/will… #birds #kinglet #poetry #poem #poet #birdpoetry #ecopoetry #politicalpoetry

One Poem by William Wenthe

Kinglet For fifteen minutes now I’ve been studying the motions of a kinglet as it crazes about a scrawny pecan tree in the back alley. It starts and flits. It has no plan discernible to me. No...

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Charlie Kalogeros-Chattan reviews tic tic tic by Heidi Seaborn, a book of poems and photographs, memoir and protest. terrain.org/2026/reviews-rea… #review #poetry #poems #poet #book #books #bookreview

It’s Just a Matter of Time: Heidi Seaborn’s tic tic tic

   tic tic tic By Heidi Seaborn Cornerstone Press | 2025 | 101 pages    rom the dedication, “For my children and their children,” to the final one-poem section of her third full-length book, tic tic...

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"The Patriotic Shortener" is a flash fiction Letter to America and parable by Payton Dodd. terrain.org/2026/fiction/the… #fiction #flashfiction #parable #lettertoamerica #story #america

The Patriotic Shortener

   omewhere you have never heard of there is a guillotine and the pocket of your vintage bootcut blue jeans is the basket into which the cuttings fall. (Some people find this upsetting.) In the...

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In this episode of the Terrain.org podcast, acclaimed authors Kerri Schlottman and Caroline Tracey talk about salt lakes, ecological collapse, empathy, environmental justice, and storytelling. terrain.org/2026/currents/sa… #podcast #greatsaltlake #saltonsea
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Two beautiful new poems of family and place by Suzanne Matson, with audio: "The One in Philipsburg, Montana" and "The One in Garibaldi, Oregon." terrain.org/2026/poetry/suza… #poetry #poet #poems #montana #oregon #mountains #grasslands #children #sons #family #rural #work

Two Poems by Suzanne Matson

The One in Philipsburg, Montana After his brother goes west to Oregon, taking his half of their jokes and running routines, my youngest son is left with the apartment looking out over the Pintlers,...

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"In Praise of Humility" is an excerpt from Julian Hoffman's beautiful new memoir, Lifelines: Searching for Home in the Mountains of Greece. terrain.org/2026/nonfiction/… #nonfiction #essay #excerpt #book #greece #prespa #bears #wildness #home #humility

In Praise of Humility

   hen I was a boy, I was fascinated by outer space. It was an interest initiated by a coffee-table book about the universe that I pored over obsessively in our living room in a small town in...

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"Whitewater," a new poem of danger, beauty, life, and love on the river, by Montana poet Scott Davidson. terrain.org/2026/poetry/scot… #poem #poetry #poet #river #rivers #rafting #whitewater #danger #beauty #risk #adventure #love

One Poem by Scott Davidson

   Whitewater We begin on the slow upper curve of the river, feeling our way in current and wind, the sudden tug of power beneath us. Just ahead water rolls darkly over stones that break the surface....

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"To Archibald Thorburn Kneeling in the Snow near Inverness" by Matthew Thorburn is a lovely poem of birds, art, and heritage--with audio. terrain.org/2026/poetry/matt… #poem #poetry #poet #birds #ptarmigan #family #heritage #artist #art #history

One Poem by Matthew Thorburn

To Archibald Thorburn Kneeling in the Snow near Inverness In memoriam, A.T. (1860-1935)    Against the blue-shadowed snow these winter-white ptarmigan—six, ten, twelve of them now—nearly disappear as...

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Rob Carney presents 13 kick-ass song (plus his own psalm), finding music is a natural environment, and we’re lucky that we get to live in it. terrain.org/2026/currents/mu… #poetry #music #livemusic #concerts #instruments #rocknroll #altrock #modestmouse

Music is a Natural Environment

Old Roads, New Stories: A Literary Series    pril was “National Poetry Month,” which was nice. I mean, I wish we didn’t need a special carve out—wish poets were read and remembered the whole year...

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GKS Waller reviews Nightshining: A Memoir in Four Floods by Jennifer Kabat, who invites readers "to live outside ourselves..." terrain.org/2026/reviews-rea… #naturewriting #review #book

Finding a Father in Climate Change: Jennifer Kabat’s Nightshining

  Nightshining: A Memoir in Four Floods By Jennifer Kabat Milkweed Editions | 2025 | 360 pages    rying to find my father I have been likewise outside myself,” writes Jennifer Kabat toward the end of...

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"Letters in the Attic" is an excerpt (first full chapter) of the Sowell Emerging Writers Prize-winning novel Cupido Cupido, by Emily Grandy. terrain.org/2026/fiction/let… #fiction #novel #excerpt #kentucky #family #relationships #youth #chatper1 #farm #rural

Letters in the Attic

He puzzled over the old man’s odd behavior. Tossing the letters in the bin had, naturally enough, only served to pique his curiosity.      t Pearson International, passports in hand, Egg and his...

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In this fascinating interview, Congress for New Urbanism Fellow Galina Tachieva chats with Benjamin Schneider, author of The Unfinished Metropolis: Igniting the City-Building Revolution. terrain.org/2026/interviews/… #interview #urban #urbandesign #urbanpolicy #infrastructure

Gathering Spaces: An Interview with Benjamin Schneider

Truly public spaces, where protests and celebrations can take place. Subversive works of art. Neighborliness and in-person interaction. We can’t take these things for granted.   Introduction enjamin...

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Two strange and gorgeous new poems by Jennifer K. Sweeney, with audio: "Fairy Ring" and "Formation." terrain.org/2026/poetry/jenn… #poetry #poems #poet #fairyring #fairyrings #paths #trees #woods #magic #growth #forest #forests #trails

Two Poems by Jennifer K. Sweeney

Fairy Ring Imagine your mother died and as she died she fed you and you grew up as she grew down and she was not even a she but a skytunnel deepdown plosive accordion of darkness and light but she so...

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In her lovely lyric essay "Tendrils," Nancy Bell weaves science and memory, wonder and strangeness, dreams and possibilities. terrain.org/2026/nonfiction/… #essay #nonfiction #creativenonfiction #plants #wonder #motherhood #strangeness #theatre #theater #memory #children #stars

Tendrils

Just think: the world is full of this plant chatter, this invisible glow.    few weeks ago, I heard a podcast about how plants can feel things. They literally have a physical sense of touch like...

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Congratulations to Annie Wenstrup, Chris Watkins, and Esmé Kaplan-Kinsey for winning the 2026 Terrain.org Editor’s Prizes in Poetry, Nonfiction, and Fiction! terrain.org/2026/news/2026-e… #prize #award #poetry #nonfiction #fiction #editorsprize
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