There’s a certain paradox in a green-car company located in Basalt, Colo., observes Polly Schneider Traylor, who writes about HyperCar Inc. The area’s natural beauty is an appropriate backdrop, but the nearby resort town of Aspen exudes “mass materialism running wild” and attracts hordes of expensive gas-guzzlers. “On second thought,” muses Traylor, “it’s a realistic sample marketplace for what the company is trying to sell: a fun, sporty car that’s also good for the environment.” Traylor, 33, grew up in Colorado and holds a BA in English literature from UC-Santa Barbara and an MA in journalism and public affairs from American University. She recently moved back to Boulder after working in senior editorial roles at CIO and The Industry Standard magazines in San Francisco. “Since I work out of my home now, I feel good about my clean commute to the office,” she says.
Nature writer and photographer Jim Foley came up with the idea of writing about Eastend, Wallace Stegner’s hometown in Saskatchewan, while staying in the house Stegner’s father built. Foley was the first photographer-in-residence in the restored Stegner House, reopened in 1990 as a refuge for writers and artists. “While browsing through the Stegner House library,” he says, “I came across a 1985 issue of Stanford featuring a story on Stegner and realized that the town and its surroundings would be of particular interest to your readers.” Foley, who spent 25 years with Canada’s park service before striking out on his own as a freelance conservationist, lives in Calgary, Alberta.
Marisa Milanese had never written for Stanford before, but she figured she had a good story in Julian Castro, ’96, the youngest person ever elected to San Antonio’s city council. Just after she sent an e-mail proposing the article, she noticed a message from a Stanford editor who’d seen her work in the San Jose Mercury News—asking if she’d be willing to follow a group of freshmen through the University’s labyrinthine housing draw. The coincidence was “crazy,” says Milanese, ’93. “That has never happened to me before.” The San Francisco-based writer, who has also contributed to Condé Nast Traveler, Elle and Smart Money, found her way to a group of six guys in Rinconada. Even though “everyone has a cell phone and they dress more nicely now, it was so much like my freshman dorm,” she says. “It was great to see.” One other difference she noticed: students understand the Draw better. And maybe that’s a good thing. Sophomore year, Milanese and her Draw group ended up in the old, “temporary” Manzanita trailers that graced campus for 26 years. “We didn’t do it properly,” she says of her group’s approach to the Draw. “The best place I’ve lived on campus is Wilbur Hall.”
