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Christopher Brown @christopherbrown.bsky.social · 2h

Good mail day. Thanks @lifewinning.com! What a beautiful new edition of a very special book ⚡️🩶🛜 www.seeingnetworks.in/product/netw...

Cover of NETWORKS OF NEW YORK by Ingrid Burrington, 2026 edition

Interior pages from NETWORKS OF NEW YORK by Ingrid Burrington, 2026 edition

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Christopher Brown @christopherbrown.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Roll over, Erysichthon—nice to wake up and find the NYT featuring this smart (and beautifully written) @robertmoor.com reconsideration of the animist powers of nature through a 21st century prism: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | Our Forests Are Demanding a Sacrifice

Wildfire converted me from a tree-hugger to a tree-worshiper.

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Dave Pentecost @davepentecost.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Wonderful account (as all of Christopher Brown’s tales are) of a packraft visit to the former Freshkills landfill in Staten Island, NYC, now rewilded. fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/in-the-bur...

fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com

In the Burial Mounds of Eghquhous

No. 201

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Christopher Brown @christopherbrown.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Got my first “can I send you my work?” pitch from a bot

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Richard Butner @richardbutner.com · 20/09/2026

An especially enjoyable Field Notes this week; I really liked trying to follow along on a satellite map as I read.

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BOO Bolander @bbolander.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

i saw some footage of a school of cownosed rays in newtown the other day though; life as always keeps on keepin' on

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Great piece. Spent a pleasant half hour locating the landmarks and tracing the route on my phone’s map app. Staten Island is now a (cool) place where before it was just a name. And the ending sneaks up on you.

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

A lovely read about an unexpectedly lovely place (Freshkills, aka Robert Moses' Staten Island solution to NYC's 20th century garbage problem. Now a new kind of nature. And a buried memorial. (h/t @jwomack.bsky.social) fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/in-the-bur...

fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com

In the Burial Mounds of Eghquhous

No. 201

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Christopher Brown @christopherbrown.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Field Notes from a trip to NYC’s rewilded landfill, with urban prairies, industrial estuaries, harriers & herons, abandoned shopping centers, 9/11 memories, and packrafting for the psychogeographer: fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/in-the-bur...

fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com

In the Burial Mounds of Eghquhous

No. 201

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Christine D. Baker @klaxoncomms.com · 19/09/2026

@christopherbrown.bsky.social I’d guess that Our Wild Familiars by Dan Werb is on your radar, but if it’s not, it seems like something you’d like.

goodreads.com

Our Wild Familiars: How Animals Are Adapting to Cities …

Synanthropes have always been an immutable part of the …

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Joanna Pocock @joannapocock.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

There are still some places left on my Online Nature & Environmental course at @unioftheartslondon.bsky.social - we will read work by a variety of authors, workshop pieces of writing, discuss technical issues as well as approaches to writing about place. Open to all! www.arts.ac.uk/subjects/jou...

arts.ac.uk

Introduction to Nature and Environmental Writing Online Short Course

Learn how writing connects us to nature. Develop nature writing skills through practical exercises and discussions. Explore the genre and refine your process.

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Endless Bookshelf @endlessbookshelf.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

operated by machine minds Chris Brown (aka @christopherbrown.bsky.social ) reading "Wild Cats and Predatory Robots” / at Armadillocon

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Christopher Brown @christopherbrown.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Reading today's newspaper while grabbing a late lunch and reckoning with the 21st century we got, versus the ones we imagined back in the 20th

Movie title: "NEW YORK CITY 2012 A.D" over an apocalyptic background vignette of wrecked railcars, tall grass, and the intact World Trade Center + other abandoned & ruined Manhattan skyscrapers in the background

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vivekgani.bsky.social @vivekgani.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Whether you're an Austin urbanist and/or environmentalist, there's been a lot about Dog's Head over the past month at city council meetings and in the news. Some folks I know are organizing a paddling event next Sunday to help folks learn about the Lower Colorado, alluvial floodplains, and more...

Flyer image for Dog Paddle 101 happening Sunday August 30th at 8am - The First in a series of paddle trips aimed at educating people about the riparian landscape surrounding the wide, river bend that shapes and protects the natural beauty of dog's head.

RSVP by August 28th by emailing dogpaddle101@mail.com with your name and whether you're bringing a kayak/canoe or need to rent/borrow one, and you'll get more info in a reply on the event, entrance fees, liability waivers, etc.

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Reactor Magazine @reactorsff.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Christopher Brown's Tropic of Kansas was published in 2017, but its vision of American history is filled with disturbing parallels to our current political moment–what can we learn from the novel and its prequels, when it comes to our future?

reactormag.com

Christopher Brown's Tropic of Kansas Was Eerily Prescient — And Is More Important Than Ever - Reactor

A 2017 novel predicted so much about the present moment — what can we learn from it?

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Anya Johanna DeNiro @adeniro.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

all right, this is now live at @reactorsff.bsky.social , 2,200 words on Christopher Brown's Tropic of Kansas and alternate history colliding with our current history. reactormag.com/christopher-...

reactormag.com

Christopher Brown's Tropic of Kansas Was Eerily Prescient — And Is More Important Than Ever - Reactor

A 2017 novel predicted so much about the present moment — what can we learn from it?

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🦉 Owl 🌲 @owlinamerica.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

It’s the 200th issue of one of my favorite publications. I save each one up to read at just the right time, maybe a reward after a tough week, a salve for the environmental writer’s battered soul. Field Notes has got that magic.

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Jessica Reisman @jesswynne.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Nice one from @christopherbrown.bsky.social this morning. No. 200 in the Field Notes wanders. fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/how-to-pad...

fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com

How to paddle the Metaverse

No. 200

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Dominic 🇪🇺 🏳️‍🌈 🇺🇦 @theriotnrrd.eurosky.social · 23/08/2026

This piece by @christopherbrown.bsky.social is wonderful. I have long fantasised about exploring the Bay like this (and its East Coast cousin, the NJ Meadowlands), but there’s also the delicious fact that Mark Zuckerberg didn’t even invent the *name* for Facebook! www.newsblur.com/newsletters/...

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Michael Frasca @frasca.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Take me to the river. Drop me in the water - this week's Field Notes: How to paddle the Metaverse by Christopher Brown. @christopherbrown.bsky.social

open.substack.com

How to paddle the Metaverse

No. 200

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

South Bay is ringed by many thousands of acres of public open space. The southern boundary is hills and valleys swarming with mountain bikers and hikers, the north side is vast and flat and wet and empty of people. Kudos for a cool report from the reach of Silicon Valley edgeland that nobody visits.

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Christopher Brown @christopherbrown.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Looking for signs of life in Silicon Valley, in this dispatch from a packrafting trip around its edges, with playful cryptids, a curious sea lion, and dreams of a less dystopian cyberspace (& the 200th issue of Field Notes, to its author’s surprise) fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/how-to-pad...

fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com

How to paddle the Metaverse

No. 200

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Steve Clarke 🇺🇦 🇺🇸 @citizen-steve.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

There's an excellent and haunting long read about Starbase here:

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Christopher Brown @christopherbrown.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Best illustration (and quote!) so far in the vintage Lassie book my daughter and I picked up at the used bookstore the other day:

Children’s book illustration of man in Western hat telling older man also in Western hat and holding a young boy “That Wasn’t a Sasquatch!”

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Truly awesome reporting. Would like see it get picked up by a major outlet, *everybody* should read it. People well-read in speculative fiction, as well as people versed in ecological nonfiction, will get how Brown’s expertise in both of those genres allows him to perfectly capture this landscape.

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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

an essential long read

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Joel Pinckney @jpinckney.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

A beautiful, bleak piece of writing.

A screenshot of text that reads:

“Driving back, we traded notes on how likely it felt that the entire zone down there will soon be inaccessible to the public, completely overtaken by the company and its people, or both. The power and capital on display, concentrated in one young company and its stakeholders, boggled the mind. Reading the IPO prospectus later, I saw how they had just given the founder-CEO a huge new equity award that would only vest “upon the Company’s establishment of a permanent human colony on Mars with at least one million inhabitants,” indicating how serious they take themselves on that idea, and how secondary must be any concern about the life on Earth they will disrupt on their way there.”

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Nick Holdstock @nickholdstock.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Great dispatch from one of the oddest Zones on the planet

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Christopher Brown @christopherbrown.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Field Notes from a July visit to SpaceX’s South Texas Starbase, where the launch gantries tower over one of our wildest coastal wildernesses, and the alligators bellow back when the rockets fire: fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/rocket-sum...

fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com

Rocket Summer

No. 199

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Christopher Brown @christopherbrown.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Delighted to get two reports this morning that A Natural History of Empty Lots is among the books on display at the Obama Presidential Center’s public library branch—thanks to Paloma G. for the proof! 🫡🙏

Copy of A Natural History of Empty Lots hardcover book on museum library shelf

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Andrea Grimes @andreagrimes.com · 09/07/2026

ATTN: AUSTIN Anyone missing this dog? Found in Highland this morning. Unsure if boy or girl, because such floof. Seems young, has clean teeth, is friendly and was very hungry.

A floofy brown and black chow-mix looking dog sits in a green grassy yard

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Simon and Gargamel @kellylink.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

attn @christopherbrown.bsky.social—in case you know people who know dog people

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Christopher Brown @christopherbrown.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Lawyer billboard of the day (Los Fresnos, Texas):

Billboard ad: “SpaceX Property Damage? Free Claim Review” with number and name of law firm

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Endless Bookshelf @endlessbookshelf.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

‘you might get a different idea who the real swarm is’ Field Notes by Chris Brown @christopherbrown.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/edgeland...

open.substack.com

Boat cloaks, dirty rivers, dead revolutionaries, and ghost swarms

No. 198 (Semiquincentennial edition)

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Christopher Brown @christopherbrown.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Some Semiquincentennial field notes from packrafting through the backwaters of my hometown, leafing through the papers of Sons of the American Revolution, and learning about the Midwestern locust plagues of the 1870s: fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/boat-cloak...

fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com

Boat cloaks, dirty rivers, dead revolutionaries, and ghost swarms

No. 198 (Semiquincentennial edition)

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Aaron Stewart-Ahn @badideas.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

The only sci-fi writer who got everything right was JG Ballard

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Scott Semegran @scottsemegran.com · 29/06/2026

I had a great weekend at the Writers' League of Texas Agents & Editors Conference where I moderated a panel on Saturday and was on panel Sunday. So thankful to share the stage with these great writers and I bought all of their books! Can't wait to dive into these great books!

The New Internationals by David Wright Falade

A Natural History of Empty Lots by Christopher Brown

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The Infinitely Prolonged @wowbaggert.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Pitbulls, killdeers and clankers, oh my!

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Christopher Brown @christopherbrown.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

"...he knows the difference between offering something that is vague and something that is incomplete." Was pleased to see this fresh consideration of Mike's work, including the newest, in the June 12 TLS, my subscriber copy of which just made it to Texas:

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Christopher Brown @christopherbrown.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

The solstice lands harder in Texas. Some notes from its long wind-up this year, a pair of vignettes from research trips to Silicon Valley and industrial Houston, and some great new summer reading in this week's Field Notes: fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/lacewings-...

fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com

Lacewings, Pit Bulls, Killdeers & Clankers

No. 197

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

My first professional biology job was as a bio tech at Don Edwards NWR doing radiotelemetry & nest searches for clapper rails. We got all over those salt ponds & the remnants of salt marsh that fringe them. Still counts as one of the trippiest places I’ve ever explored (& that’s saying something)

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Christopher Brown @christopherbrown.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Headed out to paddle the Houston Ship Channel tomorrow; thinking about my recent excursion into these salt flats opposite the Meta corporate hq

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David Bowles @davidbowles.us · 03/06/2026

I am humbled & honored to be this year's recipient of the Texas Writer Award, presented "to an esteemed writer in recognition of outstanding contributions to Texas literature." Teenage me, living in housing & seeking refuge in libraries, never dreamed he'd be a conduit for his community's voice.

A photo of light-coplexioned Chicano author David Bowles, with a mesquite tree blurred in the background. Caption reads: DAVID BOWLES, 2026 Texas Writer Awardee

Orange quote slide. Header reads: Texas Book Festival. "I grew up in a Mexican American family shaped by both sides of the border, with relatives, stories, foodways, language, and memory flowing back and forth across the Río Grande. That transnational experience formed my sense of the world long before I had the vocabulary to describe it." David Bowles, 2026 Texas Writer Awardee

Orange quote slide. Header reads: Texas Book Festival. "My students have pushed me to create work that opens doors, not just for readers but for future storytellers. And I will stand at that gate, my foot jammed in to stop it from closing, until I am dragged forcibly away." David Bowles, 2026 Texas Writer Awardee

Orange quote slide. Header reads: Texas Book Festival. "Our state is so large and so varied that no single literary tradition can contain it. The festival makes room for that multiplicity." David Bowles, 2026 Texas Writer Awardee

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