I was tickled to be cited favorably in Texas Monthly for my letter of recommendation for “y’all,” the most inclusive pronoun. But Dan Solomon’s article on “y’all” as a perfect word is worth a read for more reasons than that. As a fifth-generation Texan who’s not really a Texan because I grew up in Miami and have lived in New York City for 25 years, I’m feeling as though I hit some “I’ve really made it now” metric I wasn’t aware I had.
In a recent newsletter, I wrote about (what I see as) the necessity of moving away from the idea of cities as “not nature” or “the opposite of nature.” I connect this binary, for many of us at least, to the far-ranging effects of fundamentalist conceptions of the Earth as a waiting room for heaven. Here’s part of what I . . .
In my latest newsletter: my mom and stepdad finally have their power back in Asheville after a scary couple of weeks, and in celebration I shared this photo of the two of them from 1983. Also: writing election postcards; some tried-and-true soup recipes; audiobook recommendations; gathering in (remote) community on Sunday nights for Sebene Selassie’s Making Sacred Space; cultivating attuned . . .
There is truly nothing more fulfilling to a writer than knowing your book found a reader who connects with it as something longed-for. And this week I learned that it’s even more exhilarating if the reader pulls out a quote from the book that describes the motivation for writing it. On Instagram, the writer Leah De Forest did just that! . . .