Notes & News: January 2020
Happy new year, people! Welcome to my first newsletter of the decade! Can you believe we live in the '20s now? My friend Laura Yamartino posted on Instagram about how now 1990 is as far away from the present as 2050 and I don't understand because wasn't 1990 only 10 years ago? What?
All jokes about the year aside, 2020 feels like it is already off to a scary start considering last night's news about the attack in Iran. With headlines like that, my newsletter feels pretty superficial and pointless. But in frightening times, books and art and stories can be our greatest comfort, and so I will continue on with this newsletter as usual. I hope you consider this email a break from the suffocating and heavy news cycle. It's relentless.
So, scroll down for the latest updates on what I am writing, reading, researching, and teaching, some of the awesome things my cool friends are doing, and, of course, news about everyone's favorite tortoise. Enjoy! -- E.B.
Tortoise illustration by Miranda Sofroniou.
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Writing Notes & News:
For my last Non-Fiction by Non-Men of 2019, I interviewed Cinelle Barnes, author of the memoir Monsoon Mansion and the collection Malaya: Essays on Freedom. I loved talking to Cinelle, and I hope you enjoy our conversation. Also, may I recommend this essay Cinelle wrote about how her dog supported her while she was writing her memoir. It's obviously right up my alley.
Several more essays and interviews are in the works, so get ready for those links in upcoming newsletters. Oh, also my website is currently under construction as the great Sarah Pruski redesigns it, so get ready for that big reveal in the near future too!
And the book? Well, as of today, I have 28 days to turn in the first complete draft of the manuscript to my editor and... that does not feel like a lot of days. But the next time I send out a newsletter, I should, in theory, have hit that deadline?!
Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash.
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Reading Notes & News:
If you want more frequent updates on what I am reading, find me on GoodReads!
In terms of books, this month I am going to send you over to my blog where you can see my 2019 Reading Round-Up post for the recap of everything I read this past year. Pictured above are my 19 favorite books that were published in 2019! And as you plan out what to read in the next twelve months, be sure to review R.O. Kwon's list of 56 Books By Women and Nonbinary Writers of Color to Read in 2020.
In terms of non-books, I have been reading a lot about Cats, both the musical and the movie: this incredible essay by Jia Tolentino, this oral history as told by the original cast, and this review by Scaachi Koul which sums up pretty much exactly how I felt about the movie. I also loved this news report about the most Boston thing to ever happen, this article about the most expensive Santa in Boston which actually made me cry at the end, and this piece about spending a day in Concord a.k.a. the land of Little Women. (Shout out to Elizabeth Good who brought all three of those links to my attention!) Also two more Little Women-related links, courtesy of Karen Bartels: a list of all of the filming locations in Massachusetts used in Little Women, plus this Little Women scavenger hunt that all takes place in and around the Boston Common. Also, I stand with the Nevins Street Subway Raccoon.
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Research Notes & News:
I really am going to need to stop doing research at some point, probably when Houghton Mifflin Harcourt pries my manuscript out of my hands, but for now, no one is stopping me!!! This past month I talked to the renowned veterinarian and my parents' old friend from their San Francisco days, Dr. Terri McGinnis. She is the author of The Well Dog Book and The Well Cat Book and has been a vet in the Bay Area at the same practice for almost fifty years. She's amazing and I am so excited to include her insights in Good Grief.
Also, Lil Bub died on December 1. Rest in power, Lil Bub.
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Teaching Notes & News:
If you're planning your winter schedule already, here are the classes I have coming up at GrubStreet:
- Young Adult Writing Program (YAWP): Writing from Found Objects: Finding Inspiration Around You! (Saturday 1/11, 12pm-4pm, FREE class for writers ages 13-18 years old.)
- Young Adult Writing Program (YAWP): Teen Writing Fellowship Info Session & Submit-a-thon (Saturday 1/11, 4pm-5:30pm, FREE session for writers ages 13-18 years old.)
- 6 Weeks, 6 Essays (Wednesdays, 1/15 - 2/19, 6pm-9pm.)
- Jumpstart Your Memoir (Thursdays, 1/16 - 2/20, 10:30am-1:30pm.)
- Memoir Builder: Online (six weeks, starting 2/12, no set times.)
Please note that these will be the last classes I will be teaching at the current GrubStreet location before we move to the new Narrative Arts Center in the Seaport, so if you have always wanted to take a class on the 5th floor of the old Steinway piano building, now is your chance!
Also, a very exciting announcement: I was recruited to teach a class for the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance! It is an online class (10am-3pm on Saturday 3/14) about the essentials of memoir-writing called Memoir Generator. I hope that some of you can take it!
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Friend Notes & News:
Not to brag, but I know many badass people writing amazing things and making incredible art. Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to see my regular enthusiastic posts about what they are up to, but here are a few people in particular I'd like to highlight this month:
- Podcast-listening queen Laura Jane Standley compiled her annual list for The Atlantic of the 50 best podcasts of 2019.
- Food-writing queen Elisabeth Sherman wrote an excellent piece about the words she is vowing now to use when writing about food in 2020.
- Memoir-writing queen Alysia Abbott was quoted in this Boston Globe piece about reading resolutions for 2020.
- Also, I'd like to highlight three art-making queens: Caroline Harrison who draws and illustrates (one of her album art designs is pictured above), Gabriela Herman who is a photographer, and Kimberly Nguyen who works with glass, among other mediums. One of the essays I am working on is all about these three artists, who also all happen to be Nobles grads, and I've so enjoyed immersing myself in their work as I write about the cool things they make and do. There will be a show of all of their work at the Foster Gallery at Nobles in February! More on that in next month's newsletter.
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Terrence Notes & News:
Terrence says happy 2020! He hated doing this photo shoot!
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