at the moment I am juggling hundreds of nonfiction titles as a 2026 National Book Award for Nonfiction judge. What's one more book? Picked up Lily Brooks-Dalton's RUINS today solely due to @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social's endorsement on the back: "a stunning mystery... beautiful...highly recommended"

ash on our tent from wildfires, ten days ago on the edge of the Boundary Waters, Ely, Minnesota

hey @adamweymouth.bsky.social - LONE WOLF on the shelves at the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota!

Cover drop! The paperback edition of TIGERS BETWEEN EMPIRES, out 03 Nov 2026 from @picadorbooks.bsky.social, with a gorgeous photo of three Amur tiger cubs and a great blurb from @danvergano.bsky.social : "a heart-in-your-mouth saga...riveting" Link: us.macmillan.com/books/978125... 💙📚

watch UHF last night, the 1989 @alyankovic.bsky.social flick. A friend made Twinkie Weiner Sandwiches. The combo of boiled hot dog, Twinkie, & cheese sprayed from a can is possibly grosser in the mouth than your imagination will allow (+ also seems like something @bencollins.bsky.social would enjoy)

downtown Minneapolis right now - smoke from the Camp Fire in northern Minnesota

Popocatépetl, near Mexico City, is Mexico's second-tallest peak (17,694 ft)

I flew over Azteca Stadium in Mexico City last night, in the middle of the World Cup Mexico-England game

dead bat in Minneapolis, Minnesota...can anyone ID?

looking forward to the "Trump and Children" era of US publishing

read more in Jennifer Niven's excellent "Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic," and Vilhjalmur Stefansson's "The Adventure of Wrangel Island" from 1925, the title of which seems to downplay all the death. 4/4

Ada and Vic, rescued in 1923. Ada lived until 1983. 3/4

in the middle here is Ada Blackjack - an Iñupiaq woman who also survived - eight months of them alone (with Vic, in the arms of Milton Galle at right) after the others died. 2/4

this is Allan Crawford, with Vic the Cat. Allan led an expedition to claim Wrangel Island (in the Russian Arctic) for Canada in 1921, during the Russian Civil War. Allan and his three explorer companions died - Vic survived. 1/4

a glowing early review of the Spanish edition of Tigers Between Empires (Oct. 2026) in Spain's @elpais.com: "Slaght's book, damn good writing with literary flair...is one of the best tiger books I know, on a par with Tigers in the Snow, by Peter Matthiessen” link: elpais.com/cultura/2026... 💙📚

one past morel harvesting foray before I head to the Fairbanks airport...this one is growing in moose poop

in front of the Shoup Glacier west of Valdez, Alaska on Thursday

back at my brother's place in Fairbanks...fly home to Minneapolis tonight

this is the road to McCarthy not The Road by Cormac McCarthy

salmon bike rack in Valdez, Alaska

absolutely exhausted after twelve hours in a kayak out of the last twenty six, but a beautiful paddle from Valdez, Alaska to Shoup Bay State Marine Park to overnight in a tent at the Shoup glacier

Alaska plan for today: kayak nine miles west from Valdez up to the end of Shoup Bay State Marine Park. We'll tent there overnight then kayak back to Valdez tomorrow

the abandoned copper mine in Kennicott, Alaska

wonderful experience speaking about Tigers Between Empires at the Wrangell Mountains Center in McCarthy, Alaska. Ten people showed up for my talk in the atmospheric Old Hardware Store - about 10% of the local population!

the Root Glacier near Kennicott, Alaska

just passed a car on fire on the Richardson Highway in Alaska

my brother's house in Fairbanks, which he built, and his veggie-oil-fueled truck

North Pole, Alaska: where the streetlamps are candy canes

mushrooming knife. Handle/sheath made by John Goodrich, one of the tiger biologists in my book Tigers Between Empires

my kid went out & harvested 12 pounds of morels near Fairbanks