In 2008, the US elected its first black president. In 2009, as a late-blooming college student, I spent a semester in Chicago and saw firsthand the affective powers of hope. Now, the Barack Obama honeymoon has ended, and yet people still say, “Well, he’s better than McCain.”

Most New Mexicans have never spotted a wild river otter. In the 19th century, the animals were trapped out of existence in much of their historic range. The last one known to have lived—or at least died—in New Mexico was caught in a beaver trap set in the Gila River near the town of Cliff in 1953.

I hit my I-hate-Valentine’s Day wall a few years back, having grown tired of giving my power away to a random winter’s day and all the propaganda that went along with it. Railing against Valentine’s Day took just as much effort as playing into Valentine’s Day, while proving equally stupid.

A childhood friend of mine runs one of those online newspapery things that serves as a watchdog for the rural community in which we both grew up.

Climate change affects everyone, even if it doesn’t feel like it.

Over the past 15 years, I’ve driven through a handful of dust storms that made me feel, even just momentarily, that I wouldn’t find a safe way out of the darkness and stinging grit. Even inside the vehicle, it was hard not to hold my breath.

Mama Nena is in the kitchen, reheating a pot of fried beans from several days before. Papa Mon sits in the living room, his frail, ancient body occupying barely any space on the wide couch. He is asking me about my life.

It’s Christmas Eve, and I’m playing cat’s cradle with an unruly tangle of thoughts telling me I should feel happy, I should act merry, I should engage in festive revelry. But I’m not feeling it and haven’t felt it yet, not since that first digital snowflake fell across an innocent Google search, or a glittery felt version affixed itself to a retail shop window, and certainly not now. Christmas—what does it even mean anymore?

Three years ago, residents of Pavillion, Wyo. asked the US Environmental Protection Agency to figure out what had happened to their drinking water, which had begun to taste and smell bad.

It was snowing, and I was on foot, determined to find no less than every piece of art hidden around the city, as part of Caldera Gallery’s Hide and Seek treasure hunt for all.

When it comes to public education, New Mexico’s current reform efforts are dangerously misguided. The optimistic tagline of the New Mexico Public Education Department’s new reform initiative—“Kids First, New Mexico Wins”—is disingenuous on several levels.