Issue No. 02 explores the ways life changes us — sometimes suddenly through fire, loss, or upheaval, and sometimes so slowly we only recognize it in hindsight. Across essays, poetry, photo essays, and interviews, this issue looks for signs of renewal in both people and landscapes: in recovering coral reefs, in dormant deserts returning to bloom, in the decisions that pull us toward new versions of ourselves, and in the meaning we make from endings.

For the first time, this issue brings together essays, photo essays, poetry, and interviews in a single volume. Each piece approaches the natural world from a different angle, creating space for observation, reflection, and storytelling to exist side by side.

This issue marks another step in the ongoing making of Cypress. Alongside returning collaborators, we’ve invited poets, photographers, essayists, and editors whose work broadens the ways these stories can be told. Each brings a distinct craft and perspective, but together they share a common practice: paying close attention to the natural world and to the lives shaped within it.

Connor Cimowsky

Mac Cormier

Jaypee Diaz

ET English

Moselle Fredericks

Catherine Giese

Anna Goodman

Mario Gomez-Hall

Melvin Taiji Igawa

Jesse Kirkcaldy-Lash

Meghan McNeil

Jake Webski