The thalweg is the deepest part of a canyon, the primary navigable channel of a waterway, a boundary between two formations where the current is the strongest.
In rural, agricultural, outdoor, and wilderness-based communities, we hope to offer a space for sharing creative work. A space where the voices of guides, fisherman, hunters, sailors, rangers, firefighters, educators, land stewards, farmers, ecologists, environmental scientists, etc. can share the strange and beautiful ways they metabolize wild landscapes.
Each issue features a collection of written and visual work from multiple contributors. Our current issue is always available as a limited print run. Once we run out of print copies, past issues can be browsed in our online archive.
We are committed to pay all of our artists and writers for their work. We offer the print publication on a sliding scale, donation basis. Pay what you can, anything helps support our contributions.
We hope this publication is shared in whatever landscapes inspire. Maybe your copy has coffee stains in it? Perhaps the pages are bent marking someone’s favorite poem, and the book is bloated with sand blown across a beach. Ideally, a gin and tonic was spilled on it and the pages stick together a bit. Hopefully, it is read aloud among people who love each other.
Above all else, our mission is to offer creative opportunities, community, and exposure to creative writers and visual artists who live and work in rural or wild landscapes.
Behind The Thalweg
Seneca Kristjonsdottir
Founding Editor, Administrative Manager
Favorite things: Dogs. Waves. Snacks. Steven Universe. Holding her breath underwater. Bugs. Jim Henson puppet characters. A good pair of overalls. Boats. Being close enough to a bike there. Film photography.
Seneca (she/they) works seasonally as many things. Most often she is a guide on the Salmon and Snake rivers in Idaho, and in Arizona’s Grand Canyon. Other times she works as a seamstress, soft goods designer, beekeeper, bartender, or lab manager. In between, she is the founding editor of this small creative publication called The Thalweg (wink wink). Seneca studied ecology and bee husbandry at Goddard College, which led her to pursue work and a life that is forever seeking to understand the balance between human and natural systems. She measures her life in quality of time spent and has found fresh air to be the cure for most hard times. On her best days, Seneca is with loved ones on a river, by the ocean, in a canyon, or attempting to climb rocks. She hopes that The Thalweg can be a space to share strange and beautiful things, where marginalized voices can be heard, and where our ideals of nature can be contemplated.
Seneca edits, organizes contributors, dreams of possibilities, and balances the administrative needs of The Thalweg
Dory Athey
Managing Editor, Layout and Design
Favorite things: Space. Boats. Rocks. Dogs with jobs. Science Fiction. Deserts. Mentorship. Wellerisms. Mountain biking. Bagels. Workers’ rights. Crossword puzzles. Sports montages. Hawks. Juniper trees. Rivers.
Dory (she/her) is a river guide and publishing consultant. Hailing from a family of river guides, she grew up in the whitewater of the American West. She received her M.A. in Publishing from Portland State University and spent several years shepherding books into the world working for the independent presses Catapult, Counterpoint Press, and Soft Skull Press.
In 2020, she co-founded The Thalweg with Seneca Kristjonsdottir. She has a driving interest in pursuing social equity and environmental vitality through mentorship and business models designed to support workers. She’s been lucky to call Utah, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Minnesota home. In the summer, she guides on the Snake and Salmon Rivers in Idaho’s Frank Church Wilderness. In the off-season, she is a substitute librarian and a communications consultant working mostly with nonprofits (via her firm, Geode Communications).
Dory edits, designs, sets the visual direction, and coordinates printing and distribution for The Thalweg.
Allowing us to receive tax deductible donations, and apply for grant funding under their 501c3 non profit status
* fiscal sponsorship: Fiscal sponsorship is a mechanism that allows a tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization (the sponsor) to support and protect another group (the sponsored partner)