All articles from The Marginalian
How to Bioluminesce: Artist Ash Eliza Williams’s Reveries of Wonder
“Our origins are of the earth. And so there is in us a deeply seated response to the natural universe, which is part of our humanity,” wrote Rachel Carson. “Our world, and the worlds around and within
When Friends Become Lovers: H.G. Wells on Navigating Blurring Boundaries
Relationships are the great creative work of our lives. They are, like every creative endeavor, a process demanding both systematic intentionality and surrender. If we show up for that process with co
How to Live Fully: Ursula K. Le Guin’s Remedy for Our Resistance to Change
The most assuring thing about life is that we can change, that things can change, that they are always changing. The most maddening is that despite living in a universe that is one constant transmutat
If Birds Ran the World
Soaring hollow-boned and prehistoric over our infant species, birds live their lives indifferent to ours. They are not giving us signs, but we make of them omens and draw from them divinations. They f
The Leaf that Wouldn’t Fall: A Tender Illustrated Parable about the Measure and Meaning of Love
Two of the most dangerous myths we live with are the idea, handed down to us by the Romantics, that in true love two people meet each other’s every need and desire, and the idea, sold to us by the mer
The Woman Who Mapped Labrador and Revolutionized the Literature of Exploration
Nothing changes the history of the world more profoundly than changing the landscape of permission and possibility for people — what is possible and permissible for whom in a given culture. And no one
A Decalogue for the Dignity of Growing Old: Eva Perón’s Revolutionary Rights of the Elderly
In modern society, Simone de Beauvoir observed in her later years, “it is old age, rather than death, that is to be contrasted with life” — it is something upon which the vast majority of humanity loo
Favorite Books of 2025
Because I read for the same reason I write — to fathom my life and deepen my living — looking back on a year of life has always been looking back on a year of reading. Here are the books I read this y