News & Notes

The Highs and Lows of Getting High

Selections from the Archive

In The Sun’s archives there are dozens of selections about the ways people find meaning in nature. We’ve gathered a few favorites below that we hope you’ll enjoy.

Fresh Sights

Poetry in Our March Issue

For many of us March is a time when the world outside is full of surprises and every day brings new sights—bulbs emerging, trees budding, the first bare ground after months of snow. The poems in our March issue offer fresh images of their own: A dog running the bases in Laura Didyk’s “Like Love Is a Heart.” In Jeff Tigchelaar’s “Regards,” a squirrel shocked to find the author playing hooky on his deck. And, just in time for spring, an early patch of flowers in “Snowdrops,” by Andrea L. Fry.

The Great Outdoors

Selections from the Archive

In The Sun’s archives there are dozens of selections about the ways people find meaning in nature. We’ve gathered a few favorites below that we hope you’ll enjoy.

Animal Nature

Poetry in Our February Issue

Didi Jackson’s poem “Wild,” in our February issue, opens with a cat crawling up the chimney of its new house; Chera Hammons’s “Classroom Hatch” begins with a batch of chicks her husband has brought home from his fifth-grade class. From there these poems explore themes of wildness, safety, and the search for one’s place in the world—both for the animals and for the humans who interact with them. The poems make for beautifully complementary reading.

The Great Beyond

Selections from the Archive

The Sun has a long history of publishing work about the mystery of what might await us after our lives on earth have ended. December’s selections from our archive—some spooky, some serious, and some on the lighter side—delve into visions of the afterlife. Whatever your personal beliefs, we hope you’ll find a piece or two to enjoy.

Family Inheritances

Poetry in Our December Issue

What we inherit from our families can take many forms—intangible, difficult, or surprising—as you’ll find in our December poems. Frederick Joseph remembers an enduring lesson learned from his grandmother, his “maker of miracles,” in “Making Luxury Out of Flat Soda.” The narrator in Mickie Kennedy’s “Guarding the Coop” battles a tendency for violence passed down from his mother. And in Joseph Bathanti’s “Right Guard,” the author conjures his father’s spirit from a can of deodorant his dad left behind.

Sun Dial: Pieces About Phones

Selections from the Archive

Phone evangelist, Becky Mandelbaum, describes the hours at a time—hours!—spent with her ear to the receiver, and all the pleasure she’s derived from it, in her essay in our November issue, “The Telephone Mode.” Phones have come up in The Sun about as frequently as you’d expect. Here are some selections from our archives where a phone plays a pivotal role.

Conversations with Family and Strangers

Poetry in Our November Issue

In C.L. O’Dell’s poem “Driving Upstate with My Father,” we’re taken inside the cab of a pickup, where the narrator wishes for his dad to tell him “the good stuff” from his past. Erik Tschekunow also envisions a conversation in “This Call Is from an Inmate at a Federal Prison”: with hesitancy and hope, the narrator imagines the voice he’ll hear on the other end of the line when he calls a woman who’s volunteered to talk to incarcerated men.

Tree Season

Evergreen Selections from the Archive

Every October I find myself paying a lot of attention to trees. Fall is my favorite season (bring on the crisp air and hot tea!), and the best part, as far as I’m concerned, is watching the leaves change. It was with pleasure that I read Sparrow’s essay “Thoreau and Me” in our October issue, in which he describes his autumn excursions, and Todd Davis’s memoir “The Next Peak” that takes a more poignant view of trees, as the author hikes the woods accompanied by the spirit of his departed father. This month’s selections from our archive are pieces that explore the beauty, consolation, and meaning humans find in these sheltering plants. We hope you’ll enjoy spending time with trees in these pieces and out in the world this month.

November Preview

Dash Lewis’s conversation with billy woods

“Past Futures” will be published in the November issue of The Sun, but we’re inviting you to read it a bit early because we think Dash Lewis’s conversation with billy woods is important to mull over in the coming weeks, regardless of what happens on Nov. 5 (or beyond).

Woods is not a politician or a political theorist or a pundit. He is a rapper whose work over the past two decades has undoubtedly been shaped and influenced by the decisions and attendant consequences that come from the offices of power around the world. In his conversation with Lewis woods talks about the cycles that have defined much of human history while also acknowledging how unpredictable they can be. While not necessarily comforting, woods’s view of the world is at once tangled and clear minded.