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Elizabeth Preston

@inkfish

Science journalist, humor writer and aspiring cephalopod. Author of THE CREATURES' GUIDE TO CARING, coming 5/5/2026. elizabethgpreston.com elizabethgpreston.substack.com

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21.06.2023
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Latest posts by Elizabeth Preston @inkfish

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Reading & Conversation: "Grizzled" by Jason Bittel (w/ Brooke Barker) We are ecstatic to celebrate local author, Jason Bittel, and his new book: Grizzled!

Come hear me read from my new book tonight in #Pittsburgh! The event is free, and they are also going to livestream! πŸ§ͺπŸ¦‘πŸ¦ŠπŸ¦‰πŸπŸ‘

www.eventbrite.com/e/reading-co...

06.03.2026 17:51 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Like, I thought the red line was better now...?

06.03.2026 13:28 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Text message labeled "Today 8:19 AM" reading "Collective disemboweling" with a green nausea emoji

Text message labeled "Today 8:19 AM" reading "Collective disemboweling" with a green nausea emoji

My husband has been reading my book, and just reached the chapter about African wild dogsβ€”but until I remembered that, I was pretty alarmed by this text he sent me from the train πŸ§ͺ

06.03.2026 13:27 πŸ‘ 13 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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How authors can protect themselves from scams, according to a book publicist. Publishing scams are everywhere right nowβ€Šβ€”β€Šand they are getting slicker and harder to detect. As a book publicist who works every day with serious nonfiction authors, I’m seeing more and more writ…

@jessicapellien.bsky.social breaks down nine ways to identify a publishing scam.

03.03.2026 19:00 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Or if you have a high-deductible plan (the only ones available to my family!) then instead of a copay you pay 100% of your bills until you meet your deductible for the year. Taking a sick kid to the doctor is about $150-$250 each time.

03.03.2026 14:57 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Last night my 9-year-old argued with me when I described myself as a freelancer, and after some confusion we discovered she was thinking of "landscaper."

02.03.2026 14:06 πŸ‘ 13 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

"I'm 40 years old; I can't be dealing with this" is such a mood

15.02.2026 07:21 πŸ‘ 124 πŸ” 56 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Americans Are Uniquely Infatuated With Bald Eagles. Too Bad Most of Us Have No Idea What They’re Actually Like. For one thing, there's the sound they make.

Ready for a new kind of animal book? A wildlife wonder-guide, if you will?

GRIZZLED: Love Letters to 50 of North America's Least Understood Animals drops NEXT WEEK! Get a taste over at @slate.com, which has published my bald eagle chapter in full! πŸ§ͺπŸ¦…

πŸ¦‰πŸ¦‘πŸπŸ¦Š

slate.com/technology/2...

26.02.2026 18:17 πŸ‘ 16 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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How to Find a Rare Bird (or Be One) They're hiding in plain sight.

If scientists can find a secret new species hiding behind every known animal, surely any of us can find new friends where we don't expect them: elizabethgpreston.substack.com/p/how-to-fin... πŸ§ͺ

25.02.2026 15:04 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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How to Find a Rare Bird (or Be One) They're hiding in plain sight.

Is the world twice as diverse as we think? A recent study says that for every known vertebrate species, there might one more species hiding in plain sight: elizabethgpreston.substack.com/p/how-to-fin... πŸ§ͺ

24.02.2026 15:58 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I had a dream last night that I was preparing for one last high-school soccer practice. Let it go, brain! We suck at soccer and those girls aren't going to be friends with us!

24.02.2026 15:18 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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The Creatures' Guide to Caring by Elizabeth Preston: 9780593657102 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books A lively and revelatory journey through the evolution of caretaking on Earth, from animal parents to modern-day humans, making the case that caring for children and each other made us who we are Pois...

I do! www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/741329...

24.02.2026 01:27 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Picture of a page from Harriet the Spy, with the line "Writers don't care what they eat. They just care what you think of them" highlighted

Picture of a page from Harriet the Spy, with the line "Writers don't care what they eat. They just care what you think of them" highlighted

My daughter checked out Harriet the Spy from the library at my suggestion, but now I'm worried she's going to learn too much

20.02.2026 20:41 πŸ‘ 51 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1

In my area we have both, but they seem to have the neighborhood carved up block-by-block! The pigeons live right around the subway stations. I always wonder whether their territories are truly exclusive.

18.02.2026 20:28 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

some of you are looksmaxxing when you need to be booksmaxxing

18.02.2026 19:41 πŸ‘ 14703 πŸ” 2450 πŸ’¬ 211 πŸ“Œ 194
Video thumbnail

Elana Meyers Taylor signs to her son: "Mommy won." πŸ₯‡

#WinterOlympics

16.02.2026 23:16 πŸ‘ 774 πŸ” 176 πŸ’¬ 29 πŸ“Œ 41
Handwritten card that says "Happy Valentine's Day! G+G" with an acrostic poem below:
"Variation of cards
Appetite of chocolate
Love
Excellent people
Nice gifts
Treasures
Irresistable kindness
No one being notty
Egg salad"

Handwritten card that says "Happy Valentine's Day! G+G" with an acrostic poem below: "Variation of cards Appetite of chocolate Love Excellent people Nice gifts Treasures Irresistable kindness No one being notty Egg salad"

"I couldn't think of anything for E." -my 9-year-old, after making this acrostic Valentine's card for her grandparents (she's not a perfectionist and I honestly love that for her)

17.02.2026 19:53 πŸ‘ 24 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
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The Creatures’ Guide to Caring by Elizabeth Preston | Waterstones Buy The Creatures’ Guide to Caring by Elizabeth Preston from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over Β£25.

Now's your chance to snag the adorable UK edition of my book THE CREATURES' GUIDE TO CARING for 25% off! Preorder this week from @waterstones.bsky.social: www.waterstones.com/book/the-cre... πŸ§ͺ

17.02.2026 16:11 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

@joshgondelman.bsky.social and his wife can be a rhino and bird if they want! but they can also be a monogamous pair of titi monkeys, or geese, or porcupines, or storks, or termites...

17.02.2026 15:57 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Much more of that to come in my book this spring!

17.02.2026 14:41 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

But I'll put on my pedant pants and point out that monogamy is all over the place in nature. There are heaps of animalsβ€”birds, mammals, creepy crawliesβ€”in long-term committed partnerships. (Not always vanilla, though, like the cockroach lovers who chew each other's wings off.) πŸ§ͺ

17.02.2026 14:40 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0
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Love Can Look Like Anything, Even Marriage Comedian and writer Josh Gondelman on choosing a "structurally vanilla" life.

Really enjoyed this @joshgondelman.bsky.social essay, no surprise! playboy.substack.com/p/love-can-l...

17.02.2026 14:37 πŸ‘ 26 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1
four stick figures on sleds, one is sliding face first, face down, marked "skeleton", diagonally opposite to it is one sliding feet first, face up, marked "luge". The other two combinations are drawn and labeled with question marks

four stick figures on sleds, one is sliding face first, face down, marked "skeleton", diagonally opposite to it is one sliding feet first, face up, marked "luge". The other two combinations are drawn and labeled with question marks

given the existence of skeleton and luge, i postulate the existence of two other, yet to be discovered, winter olympic sports

16.02.2026 19:08 πŸ‘ 1105 πŸ” 251 πŸ’¬ 48 πŸ“Œ 22

Interesting pointβ€”on the mainland the tortoises hatch in a balanced sex ratio (or female biased), so they know it’s not a climate change issue currently, but maybe a temperature anomaly a long time ago when the population was small could have made the difference.

16.02.2026 13:08 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

omg

15.02.2026 15:15 πŸ‘ 12 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Constant Sexual Aggression Drives Female Tortoises to Walk Off Cliffs

North Macedonia's "Snake Island" is home to vipers, birds, several ancient churches, and some tortoises so horny that they're literally driving themselves to extinction: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/s... by me!πŸ§ͺ

14.02.2026 19:22 πŸ‘ 31 πŸ” 8 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 2
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Constant Sexual Aggression Drives Female Tortoises to Walk Off Cliffs

I swear it wasn't on purpose that my latest story ran on Valentine's Day: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/s... πŸ§ͺ

14.02.2026 14:57 πŸ‘ 174 πŸ” 49 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 8

Just because we're born with the capacity for something doesn't mean we act on it.

14.02.2026 12:35 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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The Creatures’ Guide to Caring: How Animal Parents Teach Us That Humans Were Born to Care by Elizabeth Preston Science journalist Preston debuts with an engrossing and accessible account of the evolution of caretaking, in which she demonst...

Guess who got her first trade review?? www.publishersweekly.com/9780593657102 πŸ§ͺ

13.02.2026 19:44 πŸ‘ 12 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Your regular reminder that widespread reliance on AI, as currently configured, is fundamentally incompatible with a liberal democracy.

To be constantly urged to outsource our thinking to robots is to give away everything that makes us citizens:

Our morality.
Our cognition.
Our creativity.

12.02.2026 17:59 πŸ‘ 37 πŸ” 11 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0