Katya Cengel
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katyacengel.bsky.social
Katya Cengel
@katyacengel.bsky.social
Author of "Straitjackets and Lunch Money", "From Chernobyl with Love" and others with University of Nebraska Press and Woodhall Press. Feature writer with bylines in Smithsonian Magazine, Atavist Magazine and others. Talented at getting lost.
The last surviving Woolworth's lunch counter is officially open again. If you missed my Smithsonian story in the spring you can now find it on MSN
www.msn.com/en-us/foodan...
MSN
www.msn.com
November 4, 2025 at 1:25 AM
From Chernobyl with Love is 6 today! @univnebpress.bsky.social
November 1, 2025 at 8:03 PM
One of the best feature stories I have read in a long time. @nytimes.com journalist Emily Baumgaertner Nunn weaves the story of a trafficked young woman trying to escape alongside that of girls get pulled in.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/m...
Can Anyone Rescue the Trafficked Girls of L.A.’s Figueroa Street?
www.nytimes.com
October 29, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Critics say Silicon Valley’s efforts to make A.I. chatbots integral to education amount to a mass experiment on young people.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/t...
Big Tech Makes Cal State Its A.I. Training Ground
www.nytimes.com
October 27, 2025 at 5:26 PM
I first learned about Big Foot scholar Jeffrey Meldrum while writing this story for @atavist.com Meldrum was a fascinating man who recently died.

Read about Meldrum here www.sltrib.com/news/nation-...

And the atavist story here magazine.atavist.com/2023/the-tru...
October 25, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Happy Friday from Echo the rescue dog
October 24, 2025 at 7:51 PM
The future of journalism looks good! College student input on why they got into journalism. @calpolyslo.bsky.social
October 22, 2025 at 6:38 PM
I finally found a way to tie minor league baseball and youth mental illness together. Oct. 25 at 2 p.m. I will be talking about how my time in a children's psychosomatic ward led to Ukraine and other stories. At Maravilla, 5486 Calle Real, Goleta CA @univnebpress.bsky.social
October 18, 2025 at 8:56 PM
I love the way this feature by Tom Lamont weaves in fascinating insights on stains and our attitude toward them, making this piece about so much more than a human stain remover. www.theguardian.com/news/2025/se...
The human stain remover: what Britain’s greatest extreme cleaner learned from 25 years on the job | Tom Lamont
From murder scenes to whale blubber, Ben Giles has seen it – and cleaned it – all. In their stickiest hours, people rely on him to restore order
www.theguardian.com
October 18, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Happy dog
October 17, 2025 at 3:54 AM
Fascinating feature by @AbbottKahler on a woman who wrote a book on how to kill and what happened when it worked. archive.vanityfair.com/article/2025...
THE FLORIDA DIVORCÉE'S GUIDE TO MURDER | Vanity Fair
archive.vanityfair.com
October 17, 2025 at 3:32 AM
Reposted by Katya Cengel
On Sunday, October 19, 1:35 pm, at the Berkeley Bird Festival, I will read poems featuring birds I have seen in Mexico, Costa Rica, and California. Chris Olander and Kirk Lumpkin will read with me. The festival will be at the David Brower Center in downtown Berkeley. FREE. berkeleybirdfestival.org
October 14, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Thanks everyone who came to listen to my book talk about Exiled: From the Killing Fields of Cambodia to California and Back, refugees and deportees Saturday. @univnebpress.bsky.social
October 12, 2025 at 8:23 PM
"Even if we could fully reanimate Holocaust survivors with AI, doing so would be to reject the natural and inevitable metabolism of memory and mortality that is required of us, no matter how painful."
Great essay by @bcgl.bsky.social for @longreads.com longreads.com/2025/09/25/a...
Uncanny Testimony - Longreads
As the last Holocaust survivors approach the end of their lives, an AI scholar grapples with technology that promises to freeze them in time.
longreads.com
October 10, 2025 at 9:29 PM
This dog has a shoe fetish, doesn’t chew them just keeps them close.
October 9, 2025 at 4:59 PM
AI book promotion spam gets better and better, now they don't even name my "book". "I recently came across your book and found its concept truly engaging. The way you explored I felt both original and resonant. It’s rare to see such clarity and depth woven into storytelling"
October 8, 2025 at 2:51 PM
I thought AI was replacing writers but when I left for coffee I found a far more cuddly challenger in my seat.
October 7, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Reposted by Katya Cengel
U.S. President Donald Trump was the dominant source and distributor of disinformation appearing in the ethnic and Indigenous press during the 2024 election, according to our latest study. Read more: www.icfj.org/news/us-ethn...
October 4, 2025 at 2:01 PM
A week from today I’ll be talking about a subject I have been covering my entire journalism career (I won’t say how long that’s been) - refugees and migrants. Please join if you can, it’s free and they’ll be snacks. @univnebpress.bsky.social
October 4, 2025 at 5:54 PM
One of many cross topped bundles awaiting bonfire lighting as part of mescal celebration in southern Ethiopia.
October 3, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by Katya Cengel
“When you’re alone, you can become part of nature and your humanity doesn’t get in the way. It’s almost like an out-of-body experience when suddenly you hear different sounds and you smell different smells and you’re actually part of this amazing tapestry of life.”

Jane Goodall, 2021.
October 2, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Great feature by Emily Wither about a hopeful happening in Syria where tech startups are making a go of it and women techies are in abundance. restofworld.org/2025/syria-t...
Syria’s quest to build its own Silicon Valley
Tech founders in Damascus are rebooting a war-torn country.
restofworld.org
October 2, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Reposted by Katya Cengel
We’re thrilled to partner with @lizkellynelson.com's Project C to map the news creators currently transforming the global media landscape! Learn more about this initiative, and let us know who your favorite news creators are: newsletter.projectc.biz/p/what-s-nex...
🌍 What’s Next: Global 'Creator-model Journalists to Watch' lists
Plus: Silencing dissent Is the strategy. Independent voices are the solution
newsletter.projectc.biz
September 24, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Instead of goats and soda it was goats and coffee in Ethiopia.
September 24, 2025 at 6:46 PM