📢 New Territory Founding Principle #4: Local contributors are our strongest asset. 

The people who fuel our magazine are people you probably want to get to know better. Thoughtful writers. Talented photographers. Joyful artists. Intrigued as they are intriguing, these individuals are enthusiastic about getting their pieces right, and they know it's right when it feels like a place they know in their bones. 

There's also just something affirming about collecting the region's creative powerhouses together in one book. You can look at a copy of The New Territory and know that in between those covers is a place-loving literary community of people who are, this very moment (!), living and creating meaningful work all across the Lower Midwest. That's two dozen or more potential friends, all within an easy day's drive.

We'd love to take a road trip with all of you to visit everyone who's a part of this magazine. But until that tour bus budget comes through, we'll just enjoy collecting smiles and snippets of life from each contributor and sharing them in our online project known as #TerritoryTalks. 

Earlier this year we asked our Issue 10 contributors these three questions:

• One of our features is about letters and photos the writer's mother says she will burn before she dies. What's one memento you'll be sure to burn before you pass? Why?
• Do you have a memory of something, of which someone else has a very different recollection? Describe that to us.
• 2020 was the year of:

You can read their tiny stories in these #TerritoryTalks cards. 

Then you can revisit Issue 10, and see the Lower Midwest like they see it. Don't have Issue 10? Purchase a copy here — or subscribe here by the end of September 2021 and get Issue 10 sent to you free.

#TerritoryTalks are for sharing on social media, sure. They're for signaling that New Territory people are your people, more importantly. They're for making local celebrities out of those local contributors. And who knows? Maybe you'll recognize a New Territory writer or artist on a trail or sidewalk one of these days. Make sure you say hello and ask them a question or two. 🤠