Table of contents
Introduction 0 Why Write for the Public? 1 What to Expect, from Pitch to Publication 2 How to Write a Pitch 3 How To Tell a Great Story, Part 1: Structure 4 How To Tell a Great Story, Part 2: Style 5 Navigating Ethics and Reducing Harms 6 Habits of Thriving Public Anthropologists 7 Cultivating the Craft of Writing 8
Table of contents
Introduction 0 Why Write for the Public? 1 What to Expect, from Pitch to Publication 2 How to Write a Pitch 3 How To Tell a Great Story, Part 1: Structure 4 How To Tell a Great Story, Part 2: Style 5 Navigating Ethics and Reducing Harms 6 Habits of Thriving Public Anthropologists 7 Cultivating the Craft of Writing 8

All stories

A gray-haired man sitting in a chair outside hits a chunk of flint stone with a hammer. The black and white photo is from 1923.
poem / Reflections

Debitage

jade lomas-trejo
Using an original poetic form, a poet chips away at a difficult history—becoming an agent of her own remaking and more than just an estranged daughter.
A black-and-white photograph depicts three people ascending the steps of a brick building. At the foot of the stairs, a small crowd mills about.
interview / Reflections

David Graeber’s Lasting Influence on Anthropology and Activism

Josh Reno and Holly High
When activist and anthropologist Graeber died unexpectedly in 2020, scholars gathered to mourn him. Contributors to a resulting volume, As If Already Free, reflect on his legacy.
An image focuses on two hands of a statue in shadow coming together holding a white flower.
poem / Reflections

Survival Notes

Alma Simba
Black African women in former colonial centers such as London gesture to subversive ways of communicating with those imprisoned in archives across generations.
An old bucket coated in multicolored limestone sits in front of a limestone-covered wall out of which protrudes a faucet dripping water that falls into the bucket.
poem / Reflections

Her Dirge

Alma Simba
A poet-historian reflects on women’s labor carrying memories and the past.
On a body of water surrounded by large trees, a person stands in and rows a canoe with a wooden paddle. Large white bags are piled near the front of the canoe.
essay / Reflections

Cultivating Modern Farms Using Ancient Lessons

Chelsea Fisher
An anthropologist examines what past farmers can teach us about adapting to climate change amid—and sometimes against—powerful political influences.
In a dusty, sepia-toned scene, a person wearing a headdress and long dress stands in the middle of a dirt road while a person operating a rickshaw passes them. A building, car, trees, and a distant mountain range fill the background.
poem / Reflections

Imphal as a Pond

Mesak Takhelmayum
As civil war continues to rip apart and threaten communities and families in Manipur in Northeast India, a poet reflects on those who leave and those who stay in the capital city of Imphal.
Taken from under the frond of a leafy overhang, waters near the shore of a beach gently ripple under the bright orange glow of the setting sun.
poem / Reflections

Bila Mwili

Alma Simba
A poet-historian in Tanzania remembers those who have passed but who are still nearby.
At sunset, a large, gently rippling body of water reflects yellow, orange, and pink light. Small lights scatter along dark silhouetted mountains on the horizon.
poem / Reflections

Fishing for Dust

Mesak Takhelmayum
A poet-historian from Manipur, India, shapes tensions between violence and beauty into an allegory, calling residents and readers alike to stay awake.
A person wearing a long-sleeved black maxi dress and a red headscarf holding a green umbrella walks on a public street with a silver truck and several people in black hats, helmets, and khaki uniforms in the background.
poem / Reflections

08.03.2019

Sanjna Girish Yechareddy
A poet-anthropologist from India recalls a checkpoint encounter in Sri Lanka, just months after the Easter Sunday bombings.
On a wood-paneled floor, four barefoot people wearing different outfits in shades of red, yellow, and blue dance in front of a gray wall. Captured in motion, and therefore blurry, each has several of their dance moves overlapping and visible at once.
poem / Reflections

Making Anthropological Poetry Reel

Esteban M. Gómez
In featuring three SAPIENS poems, students in a digital anthropology seminar infused video reels for Instagram with vivid history and powerful emotions.
Between tall wooden walls, a child peers over a short wooden door. A pitch-black background is behind her.
poem / Reflections

A Mausoleum of Our Everydays/Nai nsang negu herouki

Haidamteu Zeme Newme
A humanities and social science doctoral student from Manipur, India, takes readers on a journey through ordinary moments interwoven with violence.
In sepia tones, a slightly blurry image features two people wearing head coverings and tunics seated against a blank wall. The one on the left holds up a piece of paper with a person’s face printed on it.
poem / Reflections

Earlier I Had Nightmares, Now I Have Insomnia

Toiba Naseema
A Kashmiri poet-anthropologist records the restless despair many feel under Indian occupation.
Photographed from behind, two children wearing flip-flops hold hands and walk on a dirt trail between rows of tall trees. The taller child wears a skirt, and the other wears capris and a polo shirt.
poem / Reflections

A Long Road Ahead

Toiba Naseema
SAPIENS’ 2023 poet-in-residence questions where peace of mind can come from for Indian-occupied Kashmir.
Several pink stemless flowers surrounded by white dust and yellow particles float in mid-air against a black background.
poem / Reflections

To Wear the Wind

Beni Sumer Yanthan
A tribal scholar from the state of Nagaland in India engages with the loss of traditional cultural practices and locates the creation of a new world order where the “natural” is increasingly isolated from the “human.”
In a sepia-and-white color palette, two hands cup a pile of sand, much of which is falling between the fingers.
poem / Reflections

Cold Hubris and Fundo

Alma Simba
A poet-historian reflects on the legacy of colonial-era collecting practices in Tanzania that tore Black Indigenous ancestors from their communities and history.
A photograph features a landscape lush with green grass with a body of water in the center and a large mountain range in the background. The mountain range is cut in half by a valley and topped with a sky full of white clouds.
poem / Reflections

A Love Letter to the Munay-Ki

Azuka Nzegwu
A poet exuberantly gives thanks for the Munay-Ki rites enlivened across the ages and shared by the Q’ero people in the Peruvian Andes.