Blog

Essayettes and announcements

From the Forest Service to the Coast Guard

Public Land Cuts and Shutdowns Show the Plan is to Starve Americans into Compliance On the morning of January 30th, 2026, my social media feed fills with news of the general strike protesting ICE violence in Minnesota. I support the strike. I have family in the upper midwest, protesting. I worked alongside Colorado’s vibrant immigrant…
Boat Drink for Boats

Though all of us were broke, we started pooling our ones for a nice tip when the waitress approached the table of twenty three, dissociating, holding a fishbowl filled with something orange. “I have a piña colada for Boats,” she said, and the bosun jumped out of a wooden chair carved and painted with a…
Remembering Esteban Vicente — innovative educator, daring explorer, and tall ship pioneer

With the Spanish sail training schooner Atyla up for sale, this is a repost of a 2023 article I wrote for Western Colorado University’s student paper about the man who built the ship: Esteban Vicente. This is a repost of a Top o’ the World article from 2023. The Spanish sail training ship Atyla continues balancing tradition and innovation,…
Some Things Never Change

Three hundred years after pirates Ann Bonny and Mary Read boarded ships with their shirts open to intimidate their enemies, we’re still scared of boobs. Today, I watched a documentary about the 18th century pirates Ann Bonny and Mary Read and renewed my CPR certification, during which I couldn’t help but notice that, three centuries…
We Need to Name the Victims of the Cuauhtémoc Collision

When the ARM Cuauhtémoc hit the Brooklyn Bridge on May 17th, the news coverage made sure to mention the bridge was fine. They should have named the two sailors who died instead. USCGC Eagle When the Mexican Naval tall ship ARM Cuauhtémoc hit the Brooklyn Bridge on May 17th, snapping off all three of her topmasts, it…
Working on a Boat Like the Bounty

How a conversation with journalist Dr. Kathryn Miles about covering the sinking of the Bounty reminded me of an unsafe tall ship I’ve worked on In one of our Nature Writing classes this week, my Western Colorado University MFA cohort had the privilege of talking with Kathryn Miles about her book Trailed: One Woman’s Quest…

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