Featured Publications
For a few brief nature essays, see “A Riffle in Time” in City Creatures, “Young Moons,” a flash nonfiction piece in River Teeth, and “The Price of Cherries” in Orion. Two longform journalism stories include “The Thirsty Tree” in Terrain.org (now a chapter in Mythical River) and “The Wild Ones” in Atavist Magazine (now expanded into a book, Brave the Wild River by W.W. Norton). I’ve interviewed Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Terry Tempest Williams for Terrain.org. I also publish the occasional poem, such as “Canyon Treefrog,” anthologized in The Sonoran Desert: A Literary Field Guide. Scroll down for more.
Essays & Articles
“When the portal to space opened, ‘The Six’ stepped through,” New York Times, September 12, 2023.
“How Women and Girls Struggle to Pursue Their Interests in Science,” Literary Hub, May 23, 2023.
“Tenacious specimens of the Grand Canyon,” excerpt from Brave the Wild River in High County News, May 2023.
“The Price of Cherries,” Orion, Fall 2020.
“The Wild Ones,” The Atavist Magazine, October 2019.
“Young Moons,” River Teeth‘s Beautiful Things blog, February 2019.
“A Gathering of Elk,” City Creatures blog, January 2019.
“A Riffle in Time,” City Creatures blog, July 2018.
“A Worm Runs Through It,” Edible Baja Arizona, Sept/Oct 2017. [download this story]
“In Need of Rescue,” City Creatures blog, August 2017.
“Witnessing Galactic Construction,” Desert Leaf, March 2017.
“Recommended Reads on Water,” Terrain.org: A Journal of Built and Natural Environments, 2016.
“A River’s Return” and “A Changing CAP,” Edible Baja Arizona, 2015.
“We need to quit ignoring our water demand problem,” Arizona Republic, 2015
“Poppies and Saguaro Fruit: A Visit to the Bowen Homestead,” Desert Leaf, 2015.
“Shallow Roots,” Fourth Genre, 2015.
“The Bighorn’s Dilemma,” Terrain.org, 2014.
“The Blackbird Problem,” VISIONS Magazine, 2014.
“On the Trail of Mountain Lions,” Terrain.org, 2012.
“Western states seed clouds in search of new water,” Southwest Climate Change Network and Southwest Climate Outlook, 2012
“Climate change offers opportunities for ‘transformative’ restoration,” Southwest Climate Change Network, 2012
“Climate, forest management linked to Southwest fires,” Southwest Climate Change Network, 2011
“Energy-water interdependencies and the Central Arizona Project,” technical book chapter written with S. Eden, C.A. Scott, S.B. Megdal and R.G. Varady, in The Water-Energy Nexus in the American West, 2011. Order from Edward Elgar Publishing.
“A New Paradigm in a Time of Uncertainty,” Restoring Connections, 2010
“Tracing the Creek Home,” Flyway, 2010.
“The Thirsty Tree: Confronting Invasive Salt Cedar in the American Southwest,” Terrain.org, 2010.
“Southwest faces diminished stream flows, new water policies,” Southwest Climate Outlook, 2009
“Bundles of Sticks,” Restoring Connections, 2008
Interviews
Haunted by the Wilderness: An Interview with DJ Lee, in Terrain.org, March 2021
How to Be in Awe: An Interview with Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Terrain.org, 2020
A Place of Solace: An Interview with Pam Houston, Terrain.org, 2020
A Reservoir for our Spirits: An Interview with Terry Tempest Williams, Terrain.org, 2019
A Wildness in the Design: An Interview with Nicole Walker, Terrain.org, 2019
Interview with Sholeh Wolpe: Poetry is Impervious to Bullets, Terrain.org, 2015.
Interview with Terrain.org Editor-in-Chief Simmons Buntin. Terrain.org Blog, 2010.
No Longer Points of Light, excerpts from interviews with planetary scientists at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.
Poems
“Still Life with Pine & Wire,” Gathering Points anthology, April 2024.
“Sunday in Galway,” About Place Journal, June 2023.
“We Camped in Oak and Pinon Pine,” Sierra Magazine, March 29, 2023.
“Canyon Treefrog,” in The Sonoran Desert: A Literary Field Guide, ed. Paul Mirocha and Eric Magrane, 2016. Order from the University of Arizona Press.
“Garage Sales” and “Trillium” in Prairie Gold: An Anthology of the American Heartland. Eds. L. Sacknoff, X. Cavazos and S.B. Trout, 2014. Order from Ice Cub Press.
“Canyon Treefrog,” in Spiral Orb, 2014.
“Red Rock Lake,” in Platte Valley Review, 2012.
“Iraqi Musician,” RATTLE, 2006.
“Broken Egg Sunset,” RATTLE, 2003, reprinted in “The Best of RATTLE,” 2006.
“Mexico Rolled Up,” RATTLE, 2002.
Melissa L. Sevigny 
