“Rapture Basement,” the first short story I’ve written in well over a decade, is out from Narrative Magazine today. It arrived in a great rush this summer, and I think of it as a kind of fictional fraternal twin to my Baffler essay, “Taking T for Jesus.”
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 . . .
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 . . .
I’ll be appearing remotely this Friday, October 18, as part of Narrative Healing’s in-person “Listen to Your Ancestors” weekend retreat at the beloved Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, led by Lisa Weinert, with Jamia Wilson, Lewis Mehl-Madrona, and Kim Thai. I’ll be teaching on writing about ancestors as a transformative and even sacred practice.