nelson mondale

↑ title and subtitle typography by dio cramer

↑ the front and back covers of the book!

[08/04/2026] Over the past year and a half, I have been working with John Kim, Dio Cramer, Rebecca Snedecker, and Jacob Lindgren (alongside countless other collaborators), as a publication assistant and designer for the writing and art anthology Mississippi River Open School for Kinship and Social Exchange: Modes of Teaching and Learning for the Planetary Emergency. I am so so excited to say that the book has completed its cosmic transformation from pixels, zoom meetings, and deliberations and into a real life bound stack of pages that you or I can hold! Here is an official description of the book from Mississippi River Open School:

Revealing the Mississippi River as an interconnected ecological corridor that structures our collective past, present, and future in the Anthropocene.

The Mississippi River Open School for Kinship and Social Exchange (2022–2025) is a structurally radical, community-engaged educational project that turns the university inside out to make it a home for public pedagogy, reconceiving the relationship between universities and frontline communities. This book collects, curates, and represents much of the work produced by, through, and in collaboration with the Open School. It foregrounds the central methodology of collaboratively imagining and practicing experimental modes of teaching and learning for the planetary climate emergency by drawing from a growing archive of creative writing, art, film, interviews, and activist toolkits, and it engages pressing issues of race, environment, and extraction as it connects crises experienced along the Mississippi River, from its headwaters to the gulf.

Contributors: Morgan Adamson, Jamie Allen, Kayla Anderson, Ida Aronson, Sara Black, Bruce Braun, Imani Jacqueline Brown, Nicholas Brown, Andrea Carlson, Aron Chang, Jennifer Colten, Morgan Piper Cordova, Dio Cramer, Jihad Doucette, Joanna Farley, Katie Fronek, Amber Ginsburg, Tammy Greer, Shana M. griffin, Ryan Griffis, Brian Holmes, Nick Holmes, Sarah Kanouse, Quanita Kendrick, John Kim, Amy Lesen, Sarah Lewison, Jacob Lindgren, Stephanie Lindquist, Jason Ludwig, Jenna Mae, Shanai Matteson, Nelson Mondale, Tahani Nadim, Ozone 504, Sara Pajunen, Lynn Peemoeller, Claire Pentecost, Roopali Phadke, Zane Piontek, Catherine Russell, Kirisitina Sailiata, Meira Smit, Rebecca Snedeker, Joe Underhill, Monique Verdin, Jesse Vogler, Colin Waters, Mark Williams, and Jan Zalasiewicz.

click to see more photos of inside the book

Working on this project, especially as my first large-scale publication project, has been a deeply rewarding experience. I am eternally grateful for John, Dio, and Jacob who welcomed me into this project right after my graduation from college, brand new to design freelance, and trusted me with design and editorial tasks that were challenging and incredibly valuable. From new technical design skills to walking through the processes of printing and publication, I have learned so many things that I will carry with me throughout my career. Thank you thank you! The river has been such a deeply influential and important part of my story, and I am so happy that I was able to spend this time with it, and I can't wait to see where it can take me next. It has been so wonderful getting to spend time with the printed book, flipping through Dio's beautiful illustrations, touching the paper grain, feeling the grand sense of community and river across space and time collapse into an afternoon on my sunny porch, seeing it all come together. I hope you will get the chance to do the same! If you do, tell the book I say hi.

↑ john's hand and dio's animation

If you are interested in getting a yourself a copy, you can pre-order now, with orders shipping August 11 either from University of Minnesota Press, or Inga (recommended! independent bookshop in Chicago). The book is also available through your local bookstore starting August 11! So please keep an eye out. Also, there will be an in-person event celebrating the book release! I will be there, and if you are in Minneapolis, I hope you will come as well.

WHEN: Tuesday, August 18, 6:30–8:30 p.m.

WHERE: Transmission, 2521 27th Ave. S., Minneapolis

A number of contributors and editors will be present to introduce and talk about the book. Lots of love to you and talk soon sooon!

river drawings 👁️👁️, click to see more