In 2025, wildfires again broke records. The year began with the Eaton and Palisades fires, and over the course of the year, ten thousand more wildfires burned than the ten-year average. We live in a world where megafires occur with regularity, alongside disasters like the Lahaina, Palisades, and Eaton fires. While we may become inured to political headlines, the again-ness winning out, the proliferation of destructive wildfires continues to increase both in the American psyche and in reality. And who better to write on these fires than those who fight them? In three memoirs released last summer, authors recount their […]
Contributor: Caio Driver
A Kafka Gaze: ‘Animal Stories’ by Kate Zambreno
by Caio Driver
Standing at the monkey house in Jardin des Plantes, Kate Zambreno and her two-year-old daughter encounter an older woman who, though not an employee, leads them to the enclosure. Crowded by tourists’ flash photography, a newborn orangutan named Java nurses from her mother, Theodora. Zambreno mimes to her daughter—“milky”—in their shared language, and as they take in this special moment of connection with the captive primates, she also feels Theodora’s weariness, and wishes her privacy. The dailiness of the monkey house, she writes, is punctuated by events like these. When do we see ourselves most in zoo animals? During sharp […]