Lauren Markham

“Trees have always migrated to survive. But now they need our help to avoid climate catastrophe.”

“What happens when we talk to animals?”

“To mail a letter is to send something out in the world with a faith that it will reach its destination. Writing is the same way. We write with hope that our work, like a letter, will find its way to where it needs to go.” Lauren Markham muses on the magic of the U.S. Postal Service.

On solitude, snow, and finding reasons to write.

What you see in the aftermath of California’s fires.

What happens when immigrant-rights advocates reach a breaking point?

A telekinetic teenager became a convicted killer. Can a group of strangers prove that Christina Boyer is really a victim of injustice?

What would you endure to find safety and security? Now that Europe has slammed its doors shut to migrants from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Nigeria, just to name a few countries, many are attempting to enter the United States via a long, arduous journey that includes crossing the Darién Gap — a treacherous forest without roads that connects Columbia and Panama.

San Salvador’s upstart mayor, Nayib Bukele, has promised a new way forward for a city besieged by decades of violence. His biggest obstacle, however, may not be the city’s gangs, but the city’s idea of itself.

What happens to children who enter the U.S. illegally and alone after they’re caught by the Border Patrol:

“If you’re caught, say you’re an adult so they don’t send you back.

“Say you’re a kid so they don’t send you back. If you say you’re a kid, they won’t take you to prison.

“Practice your Mexican accent. They’ll drop you off in Mexico. It’ll be easier to get back in.

“Jordi looked young, but he insisted he was nineteen. As a result, he was transferred to an adult detention facility in Corpus Christi. ‘I couldn’t walk for two months after the accident. I got a cast and a wheelchair for two weeks. I was only in the hospital for like five hours, then I went to the prison.’ At Corpus Christi, he was given an orange uniform and locked in solitary confinement. ‘I really don’t know why,’ Jordi said, laughing. ‘Maybe because I didn’t know anyone—​but I really don’t know.’ After ten days alone, he was moved into a crowded cell, then sent to a nurse to inspect the progress of his leg. She seemed suspicious of his age, studied his face. He insisted he was nineteen. But with each visit, she asked him again, until finally, after about three weeks, Jordi confessed he was actually fifteen.”