“I might add that portraiture is also a tender art. It tries to hold onto what can’t be contained, which is life itself and a clear view of it.”
Every Portrait Tells a Lie
Through Graciela Iturbide’s Eyes: Ritual, Identity, and the Poetry of Mexico
“When I stepped out onto El Prado after viewing the exhibition, I suddenly saw Balboa Park with different eyes, Iturbide’s eyes.”
The Sculptor
A poem from Alice Courtright
May Issue, 2026
A collection of all the articles we’ve published over the past month, for those who like to savor their Magpies’ tidings as an issue.
Letter From the Editor May: The Sticky Little Leaves, the Blue Sky
Springtime ramblings.
Magpies Mix Tape: Troubled Sleep
A playlist of songs about sleep, not sleeping, and dreams for these troubled times.
How to Love an Owl
I felt like the owl mother to the whole family. I wanted to spread my wings and cover the whole nest, and the father in the neighboring tree as well. To keep them safe and protected, from predators and bad weather and falls, and from us.
History into Fear: The Ghosts of Edo
“Spirits return because something in the social fabric was left unfinished—an unacknowledged injustice, a normalized cruelty, a promise broken within a rigid order that leaves little room for repair.”
Mare McClellan: The Form is Revealed in the Process
An interview with Mare McClellan
Zeinabu irene Davis
“Surrounded by people who were almost entirely unrepresented in film, Davis found her calling. She returned to the US galvanised — she would dedicate her career to telling their stories.”
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