Meet the Pack: Summer 2024 Contributors
Get to know some of the talented contributors behind the Summer 2024 issue of National Wildlife magazine
- By Laura Tangley and Jennifer Wehunt
- NWF News
- Jun 27, 2024
Clockwise from top left: Graham Meyer (photo by Tacy Flint), Mindy Pennybacker (photo by Don Wallace), Nani Welch Keliʻihoʻomalu (photo by Alina Katase), Laura Tangley (photo by Roger DiSilvestro)
We are honored to introduce a handful of the contributors who helped make our Summer 2024 issue of National Wildlife® magazine an insightful, inspiring read.
GRAHAM MEYER, a freelance writer covering the arts, was always doing puzzles as a kid (“Crossword: ’Drilling Down”). “I had a book with a pencil tucked in it that I toted everywhere,” he says. In high school, he started constructing his own crosswords. One favorite: a grid riddled with puns he created as a silent auction item for the Apollo Chorus of Chicago, with the clue “Handel with Care” for the composer’s “Messiah.”
MINDY PENNYBACKER, a Honolulu native and resident whose writing résumé includes Glamour, The New York Times, Trust for Public Land and the 2023 book Surfing Sisterhood Hawai‘i, sees commonalities between surfing and hula (“How Hula Is Shifting Alongside Hawai‘i’s Endangered Species”). “There’s the low center of gravity, feet apart, knees bent,” she says. “And they’re both preparations for a way of life: disciplines with responsibilities and expectations.”
LAURA TANGLEY, the magazine’s senior editor (“Can the Kelp Forest Keep Up?”), began her lifelong love affair with nature as a child, known in the neighborhood as a rescuer of wildlife, “particularly turtles and insects.” After four decades writing and editing about science and the environment, the Washington, D.C., resident says her favorite topics include insects, birds and the tropics, “especially insects and birds in the tropics.”
NANI WELCH KELI‘IHO‘OMALU, a native Hawaiian photographer and creative from Waimea (“How Hula Is Shifting Alongside Hawai‘i’s Endangered Species”), seeks out assignments where she is “able to portray our culture and our people in a way that is modern,” she says. “We’re often seen as archaic, historical figures. I love being able to show that we are still upholding our culture. We’re still here.” See more of her work.
