I love this photo. I especially love it because just a few weeks after it was taken, I visited Yellowstone in January 2004 and saw this very wolf. I was also introduced to her natal pack, the Druids (named for Druid Peak, in the Lamar Valley). Half-Black was one of the then-famous Druid Daughters who was restive during the breeding season, always sneaking away from her birth-family as she tried to establish her own. Her father was none too happy about the strange males she and her sisters kept flirting with. It didn’t stop their rendezvous. Here she is crossing that same road that I, along with the group I was travelling with, were taken up and down to try and keep track of the wolves. The whole trip was one of the most inspiring and compelling experiences of my life.

All this is by way of preamble to say that an excerpt from my unpublished novel “A Wolf’s Breath” has been accepted for publication. It is forthcoming in Cyphers Magazine. Cyphers 99 will be launched at the Strokestown International Poetry Festival on the 4th May. I am very grateful to all on the publishing team, but especially to editor, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin.