I tell stories at the intersection of culture, consciousness, and underrepresented communities.
Subscribe to my Substack newsletter and read my blog on Good Beer Hunting to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.
My work focuses on all that defies the binary.
Hi, I’m Holly, a.k.a. Ferdinand (they/them). I’m a queer, poly, and gender-expansive writer, editor, artist, and wandering bard. Educated as an anthropologist, trained as a journalist, and born a seeker under a Sagittarius sun, I share stories at the intersection of underrepresented identity and the universal experience of consciousness-altering—whether that’s through food, drink, plant medicine, psychedelics, or simply the trip that is being alive. I’m endlessly fascinated by people and the systems, substances, ceremonies, stories, and art we create to make meaning and connect with one another and the greater web of life, and possess a keen ability to observe, analyze, and synthesize seemingly disparate patterns, practices, and ideas.
My writing has appeared in Good Beer Hunting, Whetstone Magazine, Eater Seattle, Unearth Women, October, The Washington Beer Blog, and Seattle Met; I also co-authored for The New York Times. I write a monthly column, Altered States, for Good Beer Hunting, which explores our relationship with consciousness-altering substances, and publish a monthly newsletter, The Both-Between, sharing stories from my personal and professional experience that bridge the sensory, scientific, and spiritual realms. I also work as a collaborative writer, editor, and ghostwriter for manuscripts as part of my freelance writing and editing business, Bard Creative Content Services.
I am now returning to my original medium, the theater, writing a play and calling in a co-created, immersive theater experience; I am also looking to resume co-creating food and beverage education events. If you have a background or feel called to participate, please drop me a line!
I am a native of Seattle, Washington, but currently live everywhere in the world. I have volunteered on farms in Crete and food businesses in Belfast; co-hosted cheese-pairing pop-ups with my best pal; worked as a barista and at bicycle shops; and spent seven years in Austin, Texas. When I’m not writing, I’m reading, cooking, running, biking, ecstatic dancing, kundalini yoga-ing, doing barre, listening to podcasts, or talking with friends over a plate, plant, or pint.
Winner of the 2022 Curve Award for Emerging Journalists
Financial support and professional development cohort from the NLGJA: Association for LGBTQ Journalists and The Curve Foundation, given to writers whose work fosters fair and accurate coverage and elevates the voices of LGBTQIA+ women and nonbinary people
Winner of Best Travel Writing, 2021 North American Guild of Beer Writers Awards in Beer Journalism
Recipient of the 2021 North American Guild of Beer Writers Diversity in Beer Writing Grant
We learn who we are through the ways in which we nourish ourselves.
The things we eat and drink, and the ways we cultivate, create, and consume them, are powerful markers of identity. Not only do they teach us about ourselves, they also provide a portal to other places, people, and times.
Ask anyone involved with food and beverage anywhere in the world why they do it, and they all say the same thing: because it brings people together. I find fascinating stories of innovative producers and creators wherever I go, building instant bonds over bottles and cans, plates and plants.
The stories I share are enveloped in sight, sound, smell and flavor, enlivened by the experiences of the people behind them. I serve deep historical, personal, and sociological insights with an approach as warm and inviting as a steaming bowl of handmade pasta.
The Pacific Northwest is where I’m from, and always in my heart: naturally abundant and breathtakingly beautiful, food and beverage here is forest-to-fork, sea-to-saucer, a bounty of biodiversity in every bite. It’s both a deeply spiritual place and a cipher for broader socioeconomic issues, illustrative of both global problems and solutions.
It’s all consciousness-altering.
I seek to unite the mind-altering substance communities and invite in the consciousness-curious. The worlds of food and beverage and psychedelics and plant medicine, respectively, are often siloed, with misunderstandings common on both sides. Yet they are more similar than many know. I believe that there are no bad substances: Anything can be a sacrament, just as anything can be abused; the keys are intention, awareness, and integration.
Through my work, I challenge consensus reality and explore that most ancient and universal human drive: to return to oneness with each other, the Earth, and what’s beyond through states of softened ego. Whether we get there through plants, prayer, or pints, it’s all consciousness-altering, and it’s all part of why we’re here.
Our relationships with these substances and practices inform and reflect individual and collective identities, inherently defying binary conceptions of nature and culture. Especially for underrepresented populations, these can provide pathways for awakening, helping us explore our true selves and heal from trauma—as long as they’re used intentionally and stewarded carefully, always defined by cultural and environmental reciprocity.
The future is one that celebrates difference.
Those who inhabit the in-between are the backbone of civilization. The age of the patriarchy is drawing to a close, and the way forward involves not only acknowledging underrepresented people, but celebrating them: dismantling systems, eliminating binary classifications, and rebuilding our structures to expand beyond the dualistic, Anglo-dominated, patriarchal hereto-norm.
That means uplifting the queers, women, and people of color; the artists, activists, seekers, and psychonauts; the chefs, brewers, makers, mystics, and paradigm-shifters in every space. Reporting from the front lines of the liminal, I investigate every alternative.
