Brett Ortler

Author, Writer, Editor, and Nature Nerd

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My Work

Popular Science Writing

What’s Going on with the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker?, Slate, 05.27.23, https://slate.com/technology/2023/05/ivory-billed-woodpecker-debate-extinct-evidence-lawns.html

S’more (a history of the three components of the S’more, which were all incidentally health foods at one point), The Inquisitive Eater, New School Food, 07.05.23, https://inquisitiveeater.com/2024/07/05/smore-by-brett-ortler/

Commentary

It’s Happening Here: When Book Bans Hit Home, Minnesota Reformer, 04.21.25, https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/04/21/its-happening-here-when-book-bans-hit-home/

Narrative Essays

1-UP, The Fanzine, 09.11.18, http://thefanzine.com/1-up/

A Simple Stretch of Highway, The Fanzine, 09.07.17 http://thefanzine.com/a-simple-stretch-of-highway/

(Not) Cutting It, The Fanzine, 02.06.17, http://thefanzine.com/not-cutting-it/

The Problem with Cuckoo Clock Country: Germany, Dachau and Genocide, The Nervous Breakdown, 12.15.13, http://thenervousbreakdown.com/bortler/2013/12/the-problem-with-cuckoo-clock-country-germany-dachau-and-genocide/

Surviving My Wife’s Miscarriage, Salon, 02.05.13, https://www.salon.com/2013/02/05/surviving_my_wifes_miscarriage/

Poetry

Explaining Extinction to My Son, North Dakota Quarterly 88.1/2.

What the Dead Tell Us About Mycology, The Toadstool Review, Vol. 49, No. 3.

What the Dead Tell Us About the Road Back to the Living, The Lake.

What the Dead Tell Us About a Chicken with Its Head Cut Off, Atticus Review

Disappearance in Flight, The Fanzine

The Museum of the Lost, Revolver

What the Dead Tell Us About the Other World, Revolver

At Orientation, Revolver

What the Dead Tell Us About Bookies, Gambling, and Betting in the Afterlife, Redactions, Issue 15

Cupid in Old Age, Red Weather

Lake Effect, Ascent

Prescribed Burn, Nimrod International Literary Journal

The Cave of Swallows and What The Abandoned Houses of North Dakota Can Tell Us About Adultery, The South Dakota Review

What the Dead Tell Us About Heaven and Hell, Lake Effect, Spring 2010

Adam and Eve and the First Tornado, Permafrost, Summer 2009

What the Dead Tell Us About Charon, Ferryman of the Dead, Rattle, December 14, 2009

Photographs

BBC Earth. “The ten sexiest male birds.” Dark-eyed Junco. Website updated; original article here.

Times of Israel. “As Hard As It May Seem, A Hat Made Out of Mushrooms.” Shelf Mushroom.

Ontario Nature Magazine. Butterfly and Moth Guide. Eastern tent caterpillar moth.

Abbott’s Sphinx, Know Your Insects, www.knowyourinsects.org/Lepidoptera1_Moths.html#Sphecodina%20abbottii

One-Eyed Sphinx, Know Your Insects, www.knowyourinsects.org/Lepidoptera1_Moths.html#Smerinthus%20cerisyi

Modest Sphinx, Know Your Insects, www.knowyourinsects.org/Lepidoptera1_Moths.html#Pachysphinx%20modesta

Nessus Sphinx, Know Your Insects, www.knowyourinsects.org/Lepidoptera1_Moths.html#Amphion%20floridensis

White-Lined Sphinx, Know Your Insects, www.knowyourinsects.org/Lepidoptera1_Moths.html#Hyles%20lineata
 
Thick-headed Fly, Know Your Insects, www.knowyourinsects.org/Diptera1.html#Conopidae

Birds of Pennsylvania, Student Writing Project at Penn State New Kensington. American Goldfinch.

City Pages. “Star Tribune columnist Jim Souhan and the art of phoning it in.” Target Field.

Nevins, M., J. Duncan, A. Kosiba, J. Truong, R. Stern and J. Pontius (Eds.) 2018. The Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative Long-Term Monitoring Update  http://doi.org/10.18125/vt2018. Paper Birch.

Parenting, Humor and Commentary

My parenting writing on Fatherly.

My parenting writing on Scary Mommy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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