Far Rider: Field Notes on Gender Identity, Facing Intergenerational Trauma, and Seeking Awe in the High Desert

In this special edition of Wayfarer Magazine our Founder L.M. Browning (they/them) sit down with Editor-at-Large, Frank Inzan Owen (he/him) to discuss some big shifts happening in Browning's life and indeed in our larger society.

In late autumn of 2022, Browning hit the road and disappeared into the backcountry of Northern New Mexico. It was here they began sitting with some larger changes they felt brewing-changes around their pronouns, their gender identity, and their creative pursuits moving forward. "Far Rider" is the product of that time spent in the wild.

This interview will act as the final words our Founder publish under the pen name "L.M. Browning" as they move forward into a new time with a new name: Connor L. Wolfe (they/them).

L.M. Browning (they/them) is a bestselling poet whose hybrid of introspective travel writing and visual art focuses on the alchemizing of trauma through active awe-seeking and a re-wilding of one's life and self.Over the last fifteen years, Les' twenty-something intention to help "ensure the mainstream isn't the only stream," has taken shape in the form of the enduring indie platforms: Homebound Publications, Wayfarer Books, The Wayfarer Magazine & Navigator Graphics. Their own published works have received five Pushcart Prize nominations, two Foreword Review Book Awards, and the Nautilus Gold Medal for Poetry.Recently Browning accepted a position on the State of Connecticut's/NAMI's Lived Experience Committee and received national certification as a Survivor of Suicide Attempt (SOSA), Group Peer Facilitator through the Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services Foundation in Los Angeles. They are a graduate of the University of London and Harvard University. Les and their coydog, Kiva, divide their time between New Mexico and Wayfarer Farm in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts.

Connor L. Wolfe (they/them), TEDx Speaker and founder of Wayfarer Magazine, author of Drive Through the Night and numerous other works under the pen name, L.M. Browning. Connor's hybrid of introspective travel writing and visual art focuses on the alchemizing of trauma through active awe-seeking and a re-wilding of one's life and self. Wolfe serves on the State of Connecticut's/NAMI's Lived Experience Committee and received national certification as a Peer Facilitator for Survivor of Suicide Attempt Groups through the Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services Foundation in Los Angeles. Connor is a vocal advocate for the CPTSD community and new Psilocybin therapies for treatment of severe cases. They are a graduate of Harvard University and a longtime student of vipassana meditation and koryu bujutsu. Living primarily on the road, in their overlanding-rigged obsidian-black Subaru Forester, (affectionally called, Pearl) Connor and their coydog, Kiva, divide their time between Northern New Mexico and Wayfarer Farm in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts.