The Hollow Journal

Jumping spider on a weathered garden rail near a person’s hand, illustrated in a black-and-ivory natural-history engraving style.
Do Jumping Spiders Bite? A Calm Field Note
Jumping spiders can bite, but they are shy visual hunters that usually retreat from people. Documented bites are uncommon and generally cause short-lived local symptoms. The spider would prefer to... Read more...
A distant unidentified figure standing at the edge of an Appalachian field beyond a barbed-wire fence, with a utility pole against the dark sky.
Appalachian Cryptids: A Field Guide to the Mountains' Stranger Residents
A field guide to Mothman, the Flatwoods Monster, Grassman, and Squonk, the strange folklore residents of Appalachia's forests and hollows. Read more...
A Virginia opossum lying motionless in woodland leaf litter while canine tracks recede toward the trees.
Opossum Playing Dead: Why It Isn't Actually Faking
Why opossums playing dead isn't a performance, what thanatosis really is, and where the phrase playing possum came from. Read more...
A moth with feathery antennae rests beneath a weathered fence rail while a butterfly with clubbed antennae holds its wings upright above it.
Moth vs Butterfly: The Full Field Marks
Five real field marks for telling moths and butterflies apart, from antennae shape to cocoon versus chrysalis, expanded from the short version in Why Moths Fly to the Light. Read more...
Black-and-ivory linocut illustration of an opossum leaving a boarded wooden shelter and walking across patchy snow.
Do Opossums Hibernate? What the Winter Record Shows
Virginia opossums do not hibernate. They shelter during severe weather, reduce their activity, and emerge when conditions allow. The arrangement is less a winter sleep than a series of strongly... Read more...
Black-and-ivory linocut illustration of a toad beside mushrooms, a snail, a moth, and fallen leaves on the forest floor.
What Is Goblincore? A Field Guide to Frogs, Fungi, and Feral Good Taste
What goblincore actually means, where the aesthetic came from, how it differs from cottagecore, and the toads, mushrooms, and opossums that define it. Read more...
Black-and-ivory linocut illustration of an opossum peering through a gap between weathered fence rails.
Do Not Perceive Me: A Field Guide to Creatures That Would Rather You Didn't
What "do not perceive me" actually means, where the phrase came from, and why its official mascot is always an opossum. Read more...
Black-and-ivory linocut illustration of a raven and a crow flying side by side, showing their different sizes and tail shapes.
Raven vs Crow: How to Tell Them Apart
Size, tail, voice, flight — the four honest differences between ravens and crows, plus the folklore each bird carries. Read more...
Black-and-ivory linocut illustration of moths circling a small glowing window in looping flight paths at night.
Moths Are Just Goth Butterflies: Why Moths Fly to the Light
Moth versus butterfly, why moths circle your porch light, and the old beliefs that made moths messengers of the dead. Read more...
Black-and-ivory linocut illustration of three crows perched on bare branches above a small found object.
Why Is a Group of Crows Called a Murder?
The real history of “a murder of crows”: a medieval glossary entry, a source routinely misidentified, and what crows actually do around their dead. Read more...
Black-and-ivory linocut illustration of folded T-shirts, a measuring tape, and sewing tools on a wooden table.
What Is Comfort Colors 1717? The Shirt Under the Ink
What Comfort Colors 1717 is, how its relaxed heavyweight fit compares from S–4XL, how to measure a shirt, and how to care for garment-dyed cotton. Read more...