Cranes

CRANE SQUADRON: Winsor Newton gouache on Crescent cold press board. 30” X 40” Paul Turnbaugh I haven’t seen sandhills here for some time but a few were noted online this year.

HAS THE DEI BACKLASH COME FOR PUBLISHING?

 Industry consensus recognized white women from the ages of 35 to 60 as publishing’s primary market, which offered an alibi—often tacit, coded in professional pablum—for rejecting work by nonwhite writers. When Roberts successfully sold books by authors of color, she focused on “editorial strengths” and, crucially, deployed comparative titles, or comps, by successful white writers. …

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Horse Lineage

Around 4,200 years ago, one particular lineage of horse quickly became dominant across Eurasia, suggesting that’s when humans started to spread domesticated horses around the world. There was something special about this horse: It had a genetic mutation that changed the shape of its back, likely making it easier to ride. Archaeologists have previously found …

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Sci-Fi with Cred

Exhalation, by Ted Chiang In Ted Chiang’s science fiction, advanced technologies and alternate realities are the backdrop for deeply human stories. He catapulted to fame with his first collection, Stories of Your Life and Others—and that book’s title story was adapted into the film Arrival, directed by Denis Villeneuve. In his second collection, Exhalation, Chiang writes thoughtful, searching …

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Escargot Underdog

  Far from Parisian bistros serving up Burgundy snails, one Japanese man has figured out how to farm the slimy species—a feat that has long eluded the French. Toshihide Takase, 76, says he is “the only person in the world” breeding this specific delicacy after four decades of trial and error to find the right …

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