Megan Kate Nelson 📚
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mkn.bsky.social
Megan Kate Nelson 📚
@mkn.bsky.social
19K followers 2K following 3.3K posts
I am a Colorado-born and raised, Boston-based writer, historian, and Pulitzer Prize Finalist. I am the author of "The Westerners" (2026), “Saving Yellowstone” (2022) and “The Three-Cornered War” (2020). More details at https://megankatenelson.com
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mkn.bsky.social
This book will be as repellent as she is.

Also, I am not above smirking about the fact that her name is misspelled.
October 29, 2025 at 1:53 PM
mkn.bsky.social
For my Colorado Blueskis
IYKYK
A glorious pink stucco tower rises into a blue sky, proclaiming “Casa BOOnita” in yellow font. It is the gateway to nostalgic wonders.
October 24, 2025 at 4:46 PM
mkn.bsky.social
Everything is terrible but BIG NEWS:

My new author website is live! megankatenelson.com

Read more about me, my books, upcoming events, and
pre-order "The Westerners"!
October 23, 2025 at 6:01 PM
mkn.bsky.social
Amidst today’s photos, videos, and rhetoric of destruction —

— this mural on a storefront in Denver made me smile.
A mural in vivid blues and pink/reds declares (in white cursive and capital fonts: Create MORE.”
October 22, 2025 at 6:58 PM
mkn.bsky.social
The #NoKings protest in Albuquerque today was packed with people chanting, chatting, and dancing down #ourstreets

This is what democracy looks like.
Brown and white sign with Smokey the Bear holding a sign: “Only YOU can prevent Fascist Liars” A man dressed as Elvis wearing a sign that declared, “No Kings, just The King” A woman in a yellow taco hat holds a sign that reads:: “Nobel Piece of 💩 Prize Winner!” With a yellow 🏆 that reads “FDT”
October 18, 2025 at 8:38 PM
mkn.bsky.social
#nokings #Albuquerque
October 18, 2025 at 5:48 PM
mkn.bsky.social
I have some questions.
A white signs says in black font (all caps): “Western History Association * Enchantment Rooms * 2nd floor”
October 17, 2025 at 4:55 AM
mkn.bsky.social
When you force your neighbors to look at this sign all the time, the neighbors are going to respond. #guerrillaprotest

*why these asshats chose to besmirch the poor cows on their farm, I do not know.
A black sign in the shape of a cow with "Trump" written in white, against a green field. A white sign posted in front of it that says in black " ... is a pedophile." A black sign in the shape of a cow with "Rump" in white paint - the T was been painted over.
October 11, 2025 at 8:19 PM
mkn.bsky.social
The benefits of having a college roommate who is a kickass crossword constructor!
A crossword in black and white squares, with one answer - "Sacajawea" highlighted, along with its clue: "Indigenous explorer featured in historian Megan Kate Nelson's "The Westerners""
October 2, 2025 at 4:41 PM
mkn.bsky.social
This is what's up.
A screenshot of a notification, bearing the Disney + logo, that "Your Disney+ Subscription Has Been Canceled."
September 18, 2025 at 3:00 PM
mkn.bsky.social
Everything is terrible, so here is something beautiful:
this morning's sunrise, over the fog in Boston Harbor.
Pink-orange clouds in a dawn sky, over a dark fog bank with city lights and buildings in the foreground.
September 16, 2025 at 12:01 PM
mkn.bsky.social
I really wish I could punch AI in the face.
A screenshot of a pdf program, with a book title "The Westerners" and an AI message - "This appears to be a long document. Save time, by reading a summary" outlined in red.
September 9, 2025 at 1:32 PM
mkn.bsky.social
First pass pages (a.k.a. page proofs). LFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I print the whole thing out. Yes, I go line-by-line using a wooden ruler I have had since college. #oldschool
A pile of white paper with a book title (The Westerners: Mythmaking and Belonging on the American Frontier) sits on a walnut desktop, with a wooden ruler and a blue pen on top of it. A sage green Arts & Crafts vase sits in the upper right.
August 30, 2025 at 6:17 PM
mkn.bsky.social
I have learned that this is called an ostentation of peacocks.
Five peacocks - three white, one multi-colored blue and green, and one with spots of blue and green - approach a sliding door. Patio in the foreground, forest in the background.
August 28, 2025 at 6:02 PM
mkn.bsky.social
Happiest of Happy Birthdays to the National Park Service!

Thank you to park rangers and staff across the country, who work hard to keep people safe, awe-inspired, and educated.

#istandwithNPS #istandwithparkrangers
The logo of the National Park Service: a mountain, tree, and buffalo in brown and green, in the shape of an arrowhead
August 25, 2025 at 7:19 PM
mkn.bsky.social
Backyard visitor. #timelinecleanse
A mostly white peacock with a teal neck and a smoky eye stands among green ferns and other plants in a Maine forest.
August 20, 2025 at 6:09 PM
mkn.bsky.social
Whoops! Sorry about that, Mal.

Here are my sweet babies, who followed their favorite blanket (usually on the bed) to the floor on laundry day.
Two brown and white cats sleep facing one another on a teal blanket bunched up on a grey and white carpet, like a pair of chonky commas.
August 8, 2025 at 8:31 PM
mkn.bsky.social
Family Photo
Three of my book covers: The Three-Cornered War, Saving Yellowstone, and The Westerners - all with white font and vivid paintings (orange/red, purple/yellow, and green) as backgrounds.
August 5, 2025 at 5:27 PM
mkn.bsky.social
And ... voila!

Thanks again to my sharp-eyed copyeditor, and to @joshuajfriedman.com and @bcdreyer.social!

Just more evidence that social media can be a force for good (grammar) ...
The cover of "The Westerners: Mythmaking and Belonging on the American Frontier," with the font in white over a green-tinted landscape painting of three Indigenous women on a raft, moving across a lake with mountains in the background. Partial images of four different people - Jim Beckwourth, Sacajawea, Ovando Hollister, and Polly Bemis- fold over the left side of the cover from the spine.
July 31, 2025 at 8:02 PM
mkn.bsky.social
What perfect album came out when you were sixteen?
Album cover for R.E.M.’s 1988 albums “Green” with large black font over a light brown-green cenoptye of fern leaves
July 30, 2025 at 3:18 PM
mkn.bsky.social
Copyedits! Wheeeeeee!
A laptop computer with the title page for “The Westerners” sits on a coffee shop table next to an iced tea with a straw.
July 28, 2025 at 7:40 PM
mkn.bsky.social
This Trump Cow has been up since November (in a relatively conservative part of Maine) and I flip it off every time I drive by.

The other sign showed up sometime in the last day or two. I didn't put it there. But I wish I did.
A black sign in the shape of a cow with "Trump" written on it in white letters is nailed to a fence with green fields and trees in the foreground and background. A white sign in front of it says, "... is a pedophile."
July 25, 2025 at 5:43 PM
mkn.bsky.social
"THE WESTERNERS" COVER REVEAL, including the spine!

Both show how my new history of the 19th-c American West puts readers on the ground in this vast region with several fascinating individuals (four of them pictured here), all of whom put the lie to the frontier myth.

Pub date: April 21, 2026!
The spine and cover of a book. The spine (left) has four images of people: Jim Beckwourth, Sacajawea, Ovando Hollister, and Polly Bemis, separated by colored lines. With the title and author in white. The cover includes the title in white (The Westerners: Myth-Making and Belonging on the American Frontier) above and the author name (Megan Kate Nelson) below. The image is in mossy greens, with mountains in the background and a river or lake in the foreground, with a group of women navigating it on a raft.
July 17, 2025 at 3:08 PM
mkn.bsky.social
I am a total map geek, so I had a great time making maps for "The Westerners."

One of my arguments in the book is that westerners did not just move east to west. They traveled in all directions.

Here is the map that tracks their life journeys over course of the 19th century.
A map of the United States with a spider web of seven lines (yellow, purple, blue, red, green, black, and pink) tracking the movements of seven individuals through the country (but mostly the American West) over the nineteenth century.
July 14, 2025 at 4:59 PM
mkn.bsky.social
Happy 10th Gotchaversary to these nuggets.

They look very different from way back then, but they are still the same sweet-natured, loving, loud-talking babies.
Two white kittens with brown ears, tails and faces, snuggle on a slate gray rug Two mostly brown cats with white chests and blue eyes star fixedly at something out of the shot, on a hardwood floor with white and grey carpet in front of them and a large window behind.
July 12, 2025 at 2:34 PM