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Life devours you – I wrote at the top of an essay I was editing, but now I can’t find where that quote originated. June in a nutshell. Read on for quotes from my reading (with sources!), an exciting development in my writing life, and alllll the details of the many celebration meals of June. Thanks for being here and I hope you’re well. xx Devin

Reading

I returned to Bitter Southerner’s Food Stories, and it’s such a good collection. Alice Driver’s story about dry counties in Arkansas and Chelsea May Johnson’s about steamed hoagies are two of my favorites. Sorting through piles of books, I stumbled on Tribes by Seth Godin. Published in 2008 and about leadership, it’s a time capsule rife with tech- and entrepreneur-optimism. That said, Godin still has his moments and I was reminded why I read his blog near-religiously as a baby freelancer: 

“Personally, I can't imagine the technology mattering much. Blogs and Twitter and all manner of other tools will come and go, possibly by the time you read this. The tactics are irrelevant, and the technology will always be changing. The essential lesson is that every day it gets easier to tighten the relationship you have with the people who choose to follow you.” 

If Godin had his newsletter on Substack, he would NOT call it a Substack.

I also started The Solutions are Already Here: Strategies for Ecological Revolution from Below by Peter Gelderloos and am underlining like cray-zee.

“Recognizing that other living beings have their own voices helps us perceive the ways everything is connected, which in turn shows that we cannot take a piecemeal approach to the ecological crisis.”

Writing

This month from The Good Enough Weekly:

I was tempted to say I didn’t write a lot in June, but considering all the personal celebrations and the extra weight of the news cycle I think I did just fine. For Alicia Kennedy’s essay workshop, I returned to an essay I started in January 2023 and wrote 3k new words. At first I was really excited that I’d cracked the code, but then realized it was still an unwieldy heap of words. The feedback from the workshop was very clarifying, though, and I have a plan to turn it into two different pieces. I also published two newsletters for Wasted Ink Zine Distro (June 11 and June 25), and might have another newsletter client in the works. 

My biggest writing update, though, is that I got accepted to the Rocking S Art Ranch’s summer residency program! I got the email on my birthday and cried. A studio to write in (rent-free) until the end of September is a huge gift, and it’s 12 minutes from my house. When I picked up my keys, I talked with Patricia Sannit, an artist and one of the owners of the place. She’s probably in her 60s, wore big glasses with neon pink frames, and makes video, ceramic, and performance art. Part of the mission of the ranch, she told me, is to keep artists in Phoenix. “So many leave after their MFA or BFA finishes.” I always pay extra attention to women artists of a certain age and how they make it work. Patricia’s studio was bursting with towering ceramic and wood sculptures and she was about to travel for a few months. She mentioned doing her MFA in San Francisco and originally feeling stranded when she moved to Phoenix. I also always wonder where the money is coming from, but the ranch and the people strike me as a fairly scrappy/DIY group. It’s not fancy – in the best way. The property is wedged between a trailer park and a strip mall with taco shops and wig stores. If they dumped a ton of money into renovating the place they would quickly become gentrifiers, but it seems that their focus is the art. My room is small, doesn’t have any windows, and it’s one way people access the bathroom in the building. Storeroom or art closet vibes. But, as Annie Dillard said, “Appealing workplaces are to be avoided. One wants a room with no view, so imagination can meet memory in the dark.” A room of my own, with no view – it’s just what I needed.

Eating

June 2nd is my birthday and let me tell you I always eat well on my birthday. This year was no exception. I can’t remember breakfast, so that means I ate oatmeal (probably with a spoonful of yogurt, tablespoon of ground flaxseed, and whatever fruit we had ripening on the counter.) For lunch before my kids’ tutoring appointments, I took us to Barrio Bagel & Slice where I got a slice of their Margarita focaccia pizza, a side salad, and a cold brew. The slice is heavy with Bianco tomatoes, mozzarella, and a pesto drizzle. Almost over the top for a margarita slice, but it was exactly what I wanted. My kids ordered their Sonoran Wheat sourdough bagels with cream cheese and Mexican Cokes. For a post-appointment, late-afternoon snack, I sliced a sourdough loaf I bought at lunch and ate it with smoked oysters with red chili. 

A few close friends came over for dinner, bringing pizza, wine, and gelato – what more can a girl ask for? Dinner pizza was from Venezia’s, a New York style place that’s also locally owned and is my go-to for reliably good pizza. We ordered our usual cheese and vegetarian, but my friend noticed they have a pickle pizza and we tried that for the hell of it, which felt festive. The Dilly is a white pie with “Creamy garlic cucumber sauce, Mozzarella, Crisp kosher pickles, Fresh dill on top.” Surprisingly good! It rode the line of food that tries too hard (to be trendy, viral, whatever) but it also tasted good – if you like dill pickles (which I do!) We drank two bottles over the night, a blend of Carignan and Zinfandel from Unturned Stone, and then a Riesling from Bergkloster, both from Monsoon Market in Phoenix. A friend brought two flavors of gelato from Allora, salted pistachio and lavender honey, that we ate with a strawberry cake Michael picked up from Fry’s. My daughter pronounced that the lavender gelato tasted like soap to which her brother asked why she knew what soap tasted like. I loved both flavors, but the salted pistachio I will be eating in my dreams for years to come – and it wasn’t that weird green “pistachio” color. It was one of those meals that comes together and you realize you’ll be remembering it for quite a while.

June 8 is my wedding anniversary and this year Michael and I celebrated 12 years, although I kept saying our marriage was a teenager (almost!) We went out for breakfast at Harlow’s Cafe, a Tempe institution since 1980 that I’ve somehow never visited. It’s good diner food, and I mean that as a very high compliment. Sometimes diners are just bad. Homey vibes do not equate to good food. I ordered a plate of eggs and potatoes, with a biscuit, and Michael got the eggs benedict (that came with olives on top, a detail I find charming.) The coffee was hot and strong and never-ending and the food was well seasoned, textures all hit me right, and there was no bitter, deep-fried greasiness. We sat at a long table in between another couple and a group of friends. In the booths behind Michael, a group of baby-faced college guys talked about Sun Devil football and a pair of maybe grad students played Uno while eating. On the way out we walked by a white-haired lady at a booth by herself, reading the newspaper and drinking coffee. Later I learned from a friend that if you order a muffin, they split it and warm it up on the cook top before serving. I will be returning.

On Father’s Day we ate donuts.

June 18th is my daughter Sylvia’s birthday, and she turned 8. She requested frozen waffles for breakfast, box mac and cheese for lunch, and fast food chicken nuggets for dinner. A menu of all the things we don’t eat often. I remember being around her age and requesting a store bought birthday cake – with the thick icing. I passed on the homemade strawberry shortcake my mother usually made for my birthday for a few years, until I came back to my senses. June 21st is my daughter Evalyn’s birthday, and she turned 2. Still too young to make menu requests, we ordered out subs and ate bundt cake at my parents’ place. Between different grandparents and friends, we celebrated a lot and it was wonderful and exhausting.

In a month punctuated with so many special days and cake, we ate pretty plain and repetitive meals to balance it all out. Rice with tofu or potstickers and kimchi, eggs and squash on toast, pasta and sauce with chickpeas, my last few cans of sardines on salad, and smoothies for breakfast because, yep, it’s really hot here. I made one good salad: Thinly sliced fennel and halved shishito peppers in a lemon and dijon vinaigrette.

Going Out

I went to Barflies with friends a few nights ago, and drinks and listening to live storytelling is an elite pairing. It was the reading series’ 10th birthday and its co-founders Amy Silverman and Deborah Sussman lead us in singing before the stories began. My friend Charissa led off and told a story titled In Plain Sight about their experiences growing up in PA and coming out in Phoenix. I had the easy job of cheering loudly and bringing them wine at intermission.

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