"In the aftermath of this magnitude of loss, you take a different shape in the world." - Rachel Louise Snyder, No Visible Bruises: What We Don't Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us. A precisely written, justifiably angry, but also hopeful book.
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"The literature of the apocalypse presents weeds in ambiguous, not to say contradictory roles. They may be one of the agents that bring down civilisation, but they may also be the living pioneers that begin to rebuild it." Richard Mabey, Weeds, a book that is making me want to learn the names of all urban weeds. This book also contains gorgeous plant descriptions. ↗
"I was a generic parent grieving a generic child lost to an inexplicable tragedy. Already there were three cliches. I could wage my personal war against each one of them." -Yiyun Li, Where Reasons End, the form of this novel is stunning.
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"I would rather write nothing at all than propagandize for the world as is." - The Undying by Anne Boyer. An amazing book.↗
Happy 2020! I left twitter! I really don't like the "like" system. Here's to staying super focused in the new year!
There are so many books I want to read. I am just stacking them up on my nightstand. In the meantime, I continue to reread Reservoir 13 & I am also diving into the very large The Gene: An Intimate History. Siddhartha Mukherjee is a compulsively readable writer.
I have a new story in the current issue of Conjunctions! And now I will not have any new stories out for a while because I am working on my novel.↗
I have a new story in the current issue of Gulf Coast!↗
There is a nice review of my F&SF story "How To Kiss A Hojacki" in Locus. ↗
Reading The Testaments (Margaret Atwood) was so pleasurable and so fun; it was like reading a political Treasure Island. Aunt Lydia becomes so complex, so frighteningly relatable. ↗
The audio from the NYU Rona Jaffe reading is online! I'm reading along with Selena Anderson, Sarah Passino, Nicolette Polek, and Elizabeth Schambelan.↗
I have a new story in the Summer/Fall 2019 issue of the Alaska Quarterly Review! It is a fabulous issue with an amazing photographic essay collaboration by Nancy Lord and Irene Owsley.↗
I'm giving a reading 9/13 7:30 p.m. at NYU's Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House with the 5 other Rona Jaffe Writer's Award women.↗
I feel like The Wallcreeper (Nell Zink) and Motherhood (Sheila Heti) are having a fascinating book conversation with each other about a woman's place in the contemporary world. Highly recommended to read them back to back!
I've been selected to receive a 2019 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award!!!↗
The top of Mt. Haystack in the Adirondacks is an excellent and windy place to read The Impostor (by Javier Cercas, translated by Frank Wynne). ↗