“Science and the mysteries, the measurables and the ineffables, the learned and the felt are pulled together and arranged (the author’s own wise assessment of her methods there, in those verbs!) in this gorgeous piece, a musculature built of personal bravery and a sense of oneness with the natural world. A lyrical sensibility married to the precisions of scientific exploration — a profound combination of ways-of-being, thinking/feeling, and forging kinship with the wider world.”

-Lia Purpura

Judge for the Bill Waller Award in Nonfiction, 2018

“”Rete Mirabile” moves fluidly between taxonomy and personal vignette, stitching together a beautifully crafted piece that asks us who we are, who we’ve been, and how we are, ultimately, always plural animal selves. It’s a work that teaches and reaches for relation, asking readers–especially young women–to consider the pitfalls and possibilities of our gendered bodies.”

-Julietta Singh

Judge for the Carve Magazine 2021 Prose and Poetry Contest

“As for the work that does stand out, Hannah Hindley’s essay “Remembering That Life” begins slowly, with the story of the death of a pet fish. As she bluntly puts it: “I guess we’ve all seen dead fish.” But then, slowly, in a manner not unlike that of a tide, her purview widens to encompass visits to Harvard’s Ichthyology Collection, before expanding further to relate the story of a much greater loss. Throughout, her language, whether in descriptions of tiny fish “busily searching the underbelly of the surface for something I couldn’t provide…” or of an anglerfish’s lure: “I could almost see the flashes of bioluminescence scattering as it prowled through the lightless abyss… as careless, hungry little things wandered too close to that tempting filament and lost themselves in the fish’s cage of teeth…” points to something both more personal and more oceanic: “beneath our own thoughts, distant stars spun slowly in the wide currents of the night.” At its best, Hindley’s essay reaches a level which essays too infrequently attempt, let alone achieve: it becomes a meditation.”

-Laurence Levey

“Prestigious University Lit Mag Makes for a Serious Read,” 2015