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.
I’ve written for many wonderful publications and editors, but I’ve never loved writing for any place as much as I loved writing for The Awl. If you, like me, miss going there every day to read their latest, you might be dismayed to know that their archives are no longer on the site (thus the lack of a link) but . . .
My latest Art & Kinship installment is on Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s second novel, The Tree Doctor, and her work more broadly. Also, death, ghosts, sex, and a cherry tree named Einstein. Here’s how it begins: I first encountered Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s work in her engaging, quietly profound, and beautifully and wryly observed Letter From a Japanese Crematorium, written soon after her grandmother’s funeral. . . .