We were so honored to have Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, Erin Siegal McIntyre and Aitana Vargas as our third cohort of the year. Looking forward to all of your forthcoming work!
Alex is the author of award winning The Fact of a Body, which received a Lambda Literary Award, Grand Prix des Lectrices Elle, Prix des Libraires du Quebec, and Prix France Inter-JDD. It was translated into 11 languages. They live and work in Vancouver, Canada, on the unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh people. Alex was a United States Artists Fellow and is now the Rogers Communications Chair in Creative Nonfiction at the University of British Columbia. At Mesa, they worked on their next book, a transgender and trans-genre researched memoir called Both and Neither.
Before joining faculty at UNC Chapel Hill, Erin was a cross-platform investigative journalist and author based in Tijuana, Mexico. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, Atlantic, New York Times, and more. Her book, Finding Fernanda, was the basis for a CBS special investigation that won an Emmy. She was a Senior Fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, staff investigative reporter/producer for Univision and a border reporter for Fronteras Desk, a public radio collaboration along the southwest border. At Mesa, Erin worked on a book that investigates the corrupt culture of the U.S. Border Patrol.
Aitana is an award-winning foreign correspondent and sports commentator. She began her career anchoring a Spanish-language TV show while obtaining her BS in Physics. Her stories have appeared in Economic Hardship Reporting Project, La Opinión, Hoy Los Ángeles, LA Times, and other outlets. She’s received LA Press Club awards and the McAllister Physics Award. She is a Carter Center Fellow, and founder of the Spanish-language media project La Cronista. At Mesa, she worked on a story examining the mental health and financial costs of school mass shootings for affected communities. Aitana is the Economic Equity, Data and Policy Change Fellow.
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2 days ago
This weekend!! Join Mesa alums Brooke Williams and Gavin Van Horn at the Dance Palace in Point Reyes Station as they discuss Brooke’s new book Encountering Dragonfly: Notes on the Practice of Re-Enchantment
When: April 19, 4-5:30
Where: The Dance Palace (503 B Street, Point Reyes Station)
This event is free and open to the public.
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Two decades ago, naturalist and environmental writer Brooke Williams had a powerful dream about a dragonfly, a dream that cracked open his world by giving rise to a steady stream of dragonfly encounters in his waking life. In the years since, he has delved deeply into the fascinating biology and natural history of dragonflies and made pilgrimages to see them (he now has 38 species on his life list) while also exploring their symbolic meaning and cross-cultural significance.
Encountering Dragonfly is his account–related in a series of encounters–of being drawn into a different kind of relationship with the natural world. By opening himself to the personal and mytho-poetic meanings of dragonfly, and patiently courting an understanding of these creatures that is built upon, but also transcends, a naturalist’s observation, Brooke has come to believe in the importance of ‘re-enchantment.’
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1 week ago
