This is an interruption of your regularly scheduled bee posting to prove that I am not sitting around on my rear end. Mercenary penning doesn’t rest.
Commonweal Magazine
I’ve been really pleased to be featured in two articles in Commonweal, a Catholic magazine run by lay people, which features stories religious and non-. This is kind of a bucket-list publication I didn’t know I had on the bucket list. Contributors to Commonweal include everyone from Upton Sinclair to Hannah Arendt, so hopefully some of their talent raises me up.
The first article was about “managed retreat,” which is the practice of government buyout of land threatened by climate change, sea level rise, or other natural disaster. The second is about school closures in higher education, and more specifically among Catholic colleges. I try to find where faith-based institutions slot into a sickly higher education system. They also featured my history book in their Books in Brief section.
Backcountry Journal
Last fall I was featured in the quarterly magazine of one of my favorite interest groups, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. They try to create access opportunities for sportsmen, all of which benefits anyone using public or private lands for outdoor recreation.
The piece, which I tried to keep lighthearted (starting on page 59), dealt with my zany adventure trying to create a Benjamin Franklin-style raccoon hat for my brother in law. Here’s a partial screenshot.
Tinicum & Eastwick update
My local history book, Tinicum & Eastwick: Environmental Justice and Racial Injustice in Southwest Philadelphia, has been getting some attention, and more importantly, bringing attention to the challenges faced in that part of the city.
Temple University’s Geography, Environment and Urban Studies invited me to talk my book to students on campus. It was a blast, and fun to present to an audience that is as much into maps as I am.
I appeared on the Labor Jawn podcast, a podcast that covers the working class history of Philly: think Howard Zinn, but a little less staid. They were super forgiving of my technical issues and it ended up being a great podcast. If you don’t have Spotify you can find it on their website by scrolling down in their episodes.
My giant head was featured in the Southwest Globe Times, a local newspaper, where they gave an excellent summary of the main themes of the book.
And while it didn’t last, my book did briefly breach the top 100 in Urban Planning & Development, which is obviously one of their best-selling categories (that was a joke). Pretty good for someone who just dipped into the subject.
Thank you to everyone for your support, and you can find links to my work outside this blog at www.willcaverly.com.
