PREVIEW: The Westrn’s Summer 2025 Print Edition
Subscribe now for 20% off our annual print + digital subscription before we ship later this week!
We’re excited to share The Westrn’s second print edition and contributors with you!
More on that in a minute, but if you’re already a dedicated reader and want to learn how to get your hands on 32 pages of genuine paper-and-ink filled with outdoor writing that makes you feel something, read on.
TODAY ONLY: Get 20% Off Print Subscriptions + $5 Off Individual Copies of the Summer 2025 Issue
Our Substack subscription includes four print issues per year — plus full online access to our work through Substack. Don’t forget to send us your address via this form to get on the mailing list!
Individual newspaper copies are $15 per copy — including shipping — at The Westrn Store.
But — TODAY you can get 20% off both. Why? We send final files to print tomorrow. This means you’ll be on the list for first available copies.
For Subscribers: Get 20% off our annual Substack + Print Subscription
For Individual Copies: Last Call for $10 Individual Print Pre-Orders via our Online Store
Meet our Summer 2025 Issue — A 32-Page Newsprint Magazine
Below, you’ll find some of the incredible contributors and pieces in the Summer 2025 issue. While the spring issue tended toward a theme of subversion, our summer edition hews closer to land and wildlife, with a theme of celebrating complex relationships with nature and the outdoors.
A funny and transformative feature essay about facing up to predators, from outdoor writer and guide Kubie Brown
Brown also profiles Livingston’s Hatch Finders Fly Shop as a local standout —dedicated to building rods, river-specific flies, and tight community
Trace the melancholic steps of the Lower 48’s last mountain caribou herd in the Selkirk Mountains of Idaho with Jack Kredell
Sit in the passenger seat with a deer biologist answering burning questions about white-tailed deer, while carving out a space for herself in rural Idaho, courtesy of journalist Kathleen Shannon
Struggle and succeed alongside writer Sylvia Dekker as she takes on extreme Zone 3 gardening
Kestrel Keller’s beloved story Trail Magic is our digital-to-print feature this quarter
Attend a Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Donkey Adoption Event alongside our own Nicole Qualtieri — who has every intention of leaving without a new critter
A grilled perch recipe from long-time wild food expert Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley
Climbing guide and fellow Substacker Teddy Dondanville writes a profile of New York’s famed Gunks for the Eastrn
Angler Brian Worthington makes his case for the back seat of the drift boat
Photojournalist Aaron Agosto takes us behind the scenes at a family-run rodeo open to all
Original illustrations by graphic artist and comics podcaster Sally Madden
Kestrel interviews former Montana gubernatorial candidate and long-time public lands advocate Ryan Busse
Our resident dirtbag Rachelle Schrute offers her sage advice regarding flatulence in the field.
Nicole’s much-loved “Reining Horses” sketch becomes our back page gift wrap
The ‘Crosswrd’ returns, with a “Summer Favorites” theme
Get the Issue at Its Most Affordable TODAY Only
Our Substack subscription includes four print issues per year — plus full online access to our work through Substack. Don’t forget to send us your address via this form to get on the mailing list!
Individual newspaper copies are $15 per copy — including shipping — at The Westrn Store.
Why We Hope You’ll Subscribe
Our Summer Issue, to me, reflects that sense of becoming on public lands that we’re all so desperate to hold onto. Writers pitched along an unintended theme of transformation and connection to the lands beneath their feet — whether it’s attempting to garden in Canada’s Zone 3 or facing down the alpha males of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem with tongue firmly in cheek.
I know everyone asks for money money money these days. (Ugh.) Instead, I hope you’ll think about what outdoor stories mean to you and what they’re worth — especially as public and Tribal lands and waters continue to be under attack. While we started this project as an antidote to the divisive news grind, we also believe stories that touch on the essence of nature and humanity serve as a form of advocacy.
In a world where content is mostly free, but your attention is the product — supporting family-run, independent outdoor media seems like a fair trade to read yourself into new places, adventures, and hopefully community.
Thank you to everyone who has taken a chance on this project in the last year. We’re so grateful for your support and encouragement during the challenging early days of building an audience for something new.
Wishing you many storied adventures this summer —
Nicole (EIC) & Kestrel (Executive Editor)
So stoked for this issue!
Can't wait!