Each of our contributors passionately specialize in environmental, social justice and sustainability, and have worked hard for years to build hope for the future.
Daniel Donaghy is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Somerset, which won the Paterson Poetry Prize. He was awarded the 2022 Auburn Witness Poetry Prize for his poem about the Tulsa Race Massacre, “Tulsa Triptych.” His creative non-fiction essay “Fire,” first published in The Sun, was named a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2024.
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An award-winning journalist, writer, and editor, Joe Donnelly is currently Editor-in-Chief of Red Canary Magazine and Visiting Assistant Professor of English and Journalism at Whittier College. He is the author of the acclaimed collections L.A. Man: Profiles from a Big City and a Small World and So Cal: Dispatches from the End of the World. His latest book, God of Sperm: Cappy Rothman's Life In Conception (Rare Bird Books), tells the story of how the son of a notorious mafiosa became one of the most consequential fertility doctors in history.
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Angélica Escobar is a junior in college and currently the assistant Opinions editor at The Quaker Campus, an online newsletter produced by Whittier College students since 1914 with article uploaded daily.
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Brianne Estrada is a graphic designer who finds fulfillment in creating designs that educate the public about environmental and social issues. In addition to design, she expresses this passion for these topics through other creative outlets. She works with small businesses, influencers and nonprofits. For more information about her work, check out her website bestraddesign.com
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Mary Fitzpatrick’s poems have been finalists for the Joy Harjo Poetry Prize and the Slapering Hol Chapbook Award; short-listed for the Fish Publishing Prize; featured in Mississippi Review, Atlanta Review and North American Review as contest finalists; and published in such journals as Agenda (UK), Briar Cliff Review, Cholla Needles, Hunger Mountain, International Literary Quarterly (InterLitQ), Miramar, The Paterson Review, Pratik, Terrain.org plus ten anthologies. A graduate of UC Santa Cruz with an MFA from UMass Amherst, she is a fourth-generation Angeleno who lives in Pasadena and feels at home in Ireland.
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Dina Gachman is a Pulitzer Center Grantee and a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Texas Monthly, Teen Vogue, Vox and more. She’s a New York Times bestselling ghostwriter, and her first book, BROKENOMICS, was a satiric exploration of the economic divide. Her second book, So Sorry For Your Loss: How I Learned To Live With Grief, and Other Grave Concerns, will be published by Union Square & Co. in April 2023. She lives near Austin with her husband and son.
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Sarah Catherine Gait is a professional musician and self-taught poet and writer from rural Cumbria, Northern England. Having been educated at home by a classicist mother and scientist father, she pursues creative writing during her own time, as well as analytical writing. After gaining a Master of Music degree from the Royal Academy of Music, in which her research project presented and reported on small-scale pop-up classical music concerts in deprived areas of rural Northern England, Sarah now pursues a career as a freelance musician and composer. Sarah’s varied writing portfolio includes an appointment as freelance programmer writer to the BBC Proms Publication Team, librettist for a musical, and author of over a hundred poems, inspired by her own experiences and roots in a poor yet academic rural background. Of particular importance to Sarah is the natural world and our human relationship with it. She is a fervent admirer of the mountains and lakes where she grew up, and an advocate of the need for respect and preservation of our natural home, as well as its other non-human inhabitants. In the musical sphere, Sarah’s creative work in tandem with, or inspired by, the natural world, has received awards from organizations such as the Royal Philharmonic Society (UK) and MDW ISA Digital Award Vienna (Austria).
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Aaron Gilbreath is an essayist, journalist, and previously a contributing editor at Longreads. His essays have appeared at Harper's, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Sierra and The Dublin Review. His third book, The Heart of California: Exploring the San Joaquin Valley, was a finalist for the 2022 Oregon Book Award. His work has been nominated for a James Beard Award and named a notable in Best American Essays, Best American Travel Writing, and Best American Sports Writing. Check out his serialized book about the overlooked cult classic album from the 1990s, Deconstruction and his Alive in the Nineties music Substack.
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David Gray trained and worked as a newspaper reporter in his native Scotland, then for media companies in Asia and North America before settling in NYC. His work has appeared in magazines including De Volksrant, Monocle, and Driver’s Journal, and the first edition of his monograph of NYC images was released and sold out in 2024.
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Piper is a native Texan and current Austin resident. She currently works as the health equity reporter for the Austin Free Press, covering the disproportionate health burden carried by the city’s most vulnerable. Previously, she studied and swam competitively at Whittier College, where she received a BA in political science and environmental justice.
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We publish deeply reported journalism focusing on environmental, sustainability and social justice issues. Our goal is to bring you difference-making work that provokes discussions, inspires reflection and speaks to the times with stories that prove timeless.
PUBLISHER
Tracy McCartney
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Joe Donnelly
MANAGING EDITOR
Phuong-Cac “PC” Nguyen
CONTENT CREATOR
Sam Slovick
ART DIRECTOR
Nancy Hope
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Erin Aubry Kaplan
Tony Barnstone
SOCIAL MEDIA INTERN
Paige Meyer-Draffen