New Maps readers,

The Summer 2023 issue is — at long last — available! …Mostly. In transit from the printers’ to me, one box of copies got damaged (and sent back before I could say “Hang on, maybe some of them are okay!”), leaving me with only enough copies for three-quarters of U.S. orders. Arbitrarily, I’ve sent out copies to all subscribers from the last three-quarters of the alphabet, starting at “He” — I figure we in the first few letters of the alphabet (I’m a Bonnell) get to be at the front of the line often enough. A new batch is expected to reach my “home warehouse” on September 4, and the rest of U.S. subscribers should see their copies soon after that. International orders should mostly arrive in the first week of September.

If you’re not a subscriber, you can get your copy of the Summer issue at the Order page.

In this summer’s issue: a weather forecaster struggles to get data when something as simple as helium has become inaccessible. A storyteller is captivated by the power of simple photographs. A private hyper-secured island for the wealthy, when the wealthy stop coming, becomes an attractive prize for the people it was built to keep out — but at what cost to them? An itinerant bookseller learns unwelcome truths about a former age’s artificial intelligences. And environmental conservation taken to a technological extreme must suddenly be reassessed against the changing world around it. With new letters and poetry and an article on the future of radio, it’s a great new issue — get your copy now!

Uphill Both Ways

A bit of an apology is in order for the delay in this issue. The whole story behind it would be rather long and blathery, but the short version is that it’s been one busy summer, and I’ve put this issue together against a lot of friction from the real world. (The missing box certainly added a nice crowning touch to the difficulty.) I plan to make up some lost time during the assembly of the Fall issue.

When an issue comes out late, it’s at higher odds of its Letters section going unread — but there’s much that’s interesting this time, so please do check it out and write letters back! I’ll send updates about timing as I get into the Fall issue, but for now, please plan to write letters by mid-October.

New Appearance from an Old Friend

Longtime solstitial cover artist Nate Peltier was at least as busy as I was this summer, and wasn’t able to make a new cover. But a cover showed up from an unexpected source: an OG of the deindustrial genre, James Howard Kunstler, author of the World Made by Hand series, who’s also an accomplished oil painter. This issue’s cover is drawn from the ruins of a marble mill on the Battenkill River in Rexleigh, New York.

Thanks as always for your support for New Maps and for reading and engaging with deindustrial stories. It’s a great privilege to get to put together a magazine so full of potent thoughts about the future, and I’m glad to be sharing the ride with all of you!

Happy reading,
Nathanael Bonnell