June 9, 2026 — Desire Lines Collective launches as a new journal and organization dedicated to supporting women, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming writers of mountain literature, offering a home for underrepresented storytellers who seek to push the creative boundaries of the genre. As a sponsored project of Mockingbird Incubator, a nonprofit organization in California, Desire Lines will publish a monthly newsletter and annual print journal—alongside workshops, events and mentorship—to help writers hone their craft, get published, and find community.
Founders Rosie Bates, Natalie Berry, Holly Chen, Juliet Kennedy, and Katie Ives bring combined decades of experience as mountain adventurers, writers, editors, designers, publishers, and advocates. Berry and Ives are award-winning former editors-in-chief of UKClimbing.com and Alpinist magazine, respectively, where they published a wide range of international authors and developed a strong commitment to diversity, artistic innovation, and journalistic integrity.
At a time of increasing censorship of stories from underrepresented groups, Desire Lines members will amplify histories at risk of being erased and voices at risk of being silenced. They will celebrate the unique imagination and ingenuity of writers from the margins of dominant mountain literature: the ability to see beyond assumptions, to take creative risks, and to transform the genre into something more inclusive, innovative, and ecologically responsible—showcasing alternative visions of human encounters with wild places, not of conquest or exploitation, but of connection and stewardship.
The founders chose the name Desire Lines from the term for natural pathways that humans and other living beings create as they leave behind established routes to follow their longings, seeking the edges of a glacial lake, a skyline of sharp pinnacles, or the glow of hidden dreams. By applying this concept to mountain literature, they will support writers who are charting visions beyond the guidelines and assumptions of a dominant canon. As fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin once declared, “If you’re underneath, if you’re kept down, you break out, you subvert. We are volcanoes…. All the maps change. There are new mountains.”
The idea for Desire Lines emerged in February 2024, as Bates, Chen, and Ives co-taught a workshop for women, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming storytellers at the Women Up Climbing Festival in Los Angeles. They felt inspired by the intense creativity that arises in the safe spaces of affinity groups and longed to find ways to continue to support underrepresented writers. Since then, they have worked on gathering ideas from members of diverse mountain communities about what kinds of services and publications might be most useful for emerging authors and what kinds of stories they most desire to read.
A monthly Desire Lines newsletter will showcase essays, short stories, creative nonfiction, poetry, book reviews, art, cartoons, and photography on mountain-related themes from a diverse range of contributors. A future print journal will include works in all of the above categories, plus longform features.
Submissions are welcome from women, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming writers. Resources for emerging writers will also be hosted on the Desire Lines website and open to all. Workshops and events will take place throughout the year, with topics including elements of craft, the business of freelancing, emerging movements in mountain literature, timely issues within mountain communities, and more.
“Desire Lines has been almost three years in the making,” says Executive Director Rosie Bates, “and it feels surreal to finally be launching this project. We already have an amazing lineup of writers, artists, and photographers, and as someone who loves to read mountain stories that explore meaning and experiences beyond the summit, I can’t wait to share this project with the rest of the world.”
“I believe deeply that the opportunity to become a mountain writer should be available to people from groups who have been largely missing from the genre’s dominant canon,” joint Editorial Director, Ives adds. “I’m excited to continue the work I did at Alpinist to help break down barriers for emerging storytellers and to provide them with support and coaching as they seek to find their own voices and refine their personal literary visions and styles.”
Desire Lines Board member Nandini Purandare, editor-in-chief of The Himalayan Journal, underscores the importance of being at once intersectional and international: “I strongly feel the need for inclusive literature from mountain communities that have their own languages and dialects, their grammar and traditions…particularly when referring to myths, rituals, and relationships with the mountains.”
“Everyone deserves to have the opportunity to write about their passions for the mountains,” renowned climber Lynn Hill says. “I’m happy to know that Desire Lines Collective is there to help encourage cutting-edge athletes, scientists, and underrepresented storytellers who can bring a new perspective about the people and places we love.”
On June 9, the Desire Lines Collective website went live, featuring a first Desire Lines Journal newsletter, announcements of upcoming workshops and events, calls for submissions and writer resources. Readers will be able to sign-up as members on the Ghost platform.
Under the fiscal sponsorship of Mockingbird Incubator, Desire Lines will rely on community support, sustaining memberships, grants, and donations to keep the online content free, to produce the annual print journal, and to pay contributors.
Those who wish to become a free or sustaining member can join on the Desire Lines website HERE.
Those who wish to make individual, tax-deductible donations, can do so via Givebutter HERE.
For more information, the attached pitch deck and media kit assets: 2026DesireLinesPitchDeckV6.5 (2)
For inquiries, please contact: Hello@DesireLinesCollective.org
Rosie Bates, Executive Director
Natalie Berry, Editorial Director
Katie Ives, Editorial Director
Holly Chen, Art Director
Juliet Kennedy, Marketing Director
Website: www.DesireLinesCollective.org
Social Media: Instagram – Facebook
Desire Lines Collective is a sponsored project of Mockingbird Incubator with EIN: 83-1987515, a nonprofit organization in the state of California.
CBJ press releases are written by the sponsor and do not represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal editorial team.
