write on, vol. 4: death to the living, long live pasta
Dear friend,
Happy New Year's Eve! To begin, my apologies for the length of this update, which some may (rightfully!) find to be truly excessive. I considered splitting it into multiple emails, but then I just decided to embrace the maximalist vibes—feel free to dip in and out as your attention span permits. The tl;dr here is that I love and appreciate you all, and I hope you are heading into a beautiful 2023 filled with joys large and small.
If we hadn't sent a chaos zine as our holiday card this year (they're in the mail now!), this might have been our photo—from our October stint in Santa Barbara.
READING
I managed to read quite a few non-work related books this year, most either on audio or during snatches of vacation. My list of favorites & most-memorable reads:
AGENTING
This fall was a bonanza of new book releases, and it has been a great delight to hold in my hands physical books that, eighteen to thirty-six months ago, were a collection of emails, Google docs, and/or manuscript pages. I feel like I've already subjected the world to a lot of enthusiasm regarding all of these titles, and yet, I would be remiss if I didn't give this short recap:
First, two new novels:
Rita Zoey Chin's The Strange Inheritance of Leah Fern, a luminous and witchy book about a young woman who goes on a road trip hoping to discover what happened to her long-lost mother; and Carolyn Prusa's hilarious None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive, also a road trip book, this time with strong Little Miss Sunshine vibes, about a throughly over-it mom who has to evacuate with her kids as a hurricane bears down on Savannah, Georgia.
The award for supportive partner goes to the man who got Zoey this GIGANTIC book cake in specific flavors with significance in the novel.
Two graphic memoirs, both of which you could sit down and read in an afternoon:
Emma Ahlquist's My Body Created a Human is a collection of drawings about pregnancy and motherhood that I think makes a pretty darn perfect baby shower gift (as we are definitely in that "stage of life"!). In spite of the fact that the cover is pink, it's not too cute by any means—I appreciate the way Emma talks about the things she loves about having kids and also things like climate anxiety and what she calls "being a mother and an artist." There is also at least one full frontal drawing of her vagina, so just keep that in mind—whether that's a pro or a con to you!
Speaking of pros and cons... next up, we have Will Betke-Brunswick's graphic memoir A Pros and Cons List for Strong Feelings, a surprisingly funny book about death and good moms and gender identity. It takes place during the months when Will came home from college to spend time with their mom while she was dying, and involves lots of jigsaw puzzles, quirky craft projects, and vegan food. Perhaps best of all: all the characters are portrayed as PENGUINS! After we had been working together for approx. 2 years, Will and I discovered we have actually lived parallel-ish lives: they grew up in Massachusetts and now live in Colorado (I grew up in Colorado and now live in Massachusetts); they were a math teaching fellow at Phillips Exeter while I was an English teaching fellow at rival Phillips Andover; they taught at the Maine-based outdoor school where I brought my Fay students on terrifying camping trips ~2014-2015... The parallels end here, since Will is much better at making comics than me; if you're on social media, you should check out more of their work @transboycomics on the 'gram.
In which my 2022 client books make a beautiful palette!
And finally...
Rue Mapp's Nature Swagger, an anthology of essays and photography celebrating Black joy in the outdoors. Rue runs a nonprofit called Outdoor Afro, and if you (unlike me!) have been known to purchase outdoor equipment, you may see their products and this book in REI stores. Shortly after its November publication, Nature Swagger also fulfilled an agenting goal I didn't even know I had: having a book featured on the huge Amazon billboard outside Penn Station.
Fuck Amazon, but if they want to put more of my books on their billboards, I guess I'm not going to say no.
On the flip side, I've made barely any new book deals this year—partly as a result of various cyclical things having to do with when things are ready to send out (turns out it often takes a long time to write/edit a book/proposal!) & partly as a result of industry-wide challenges ("the market" etc.). I'm mostly trying to be chill and focus on the projects that I'm sending out in 2023—at least a few of which will hopefully find happy homes with wonderful publishers.
One snag on that front is that my colleagues at HarperCollins are currently on strike in the hope of getting leadership to acquiesce to some pretty modest demands—Ashley and I visited the picket line when we were in NYC a few weeks ago, and I sincerely hope that these smart and committed book people will not have to spend January standing outside their office rather than sitting at their desks bringing good books to readers. If you have some extra $$$ you're eager to spend before the end of the year (hahaha), you can donate to the strike fund or buy books (perhaps one or more of the great books listed above?!) through their Bookshop.
A bonus work-related thing I got to do this year was go to the Frankfurt Book Fair—here I am in a German elevator!
EATING
I know you all know me as a PASTRY MAVEN, and in 2022, I went hard on all things laminated, caramelized, and otherwise GBD (golden brown and delicious!). While I have plenty more bakeries on my list for next year, I'm also feeling ready to mix things up, and recently, I told Ashley that I am entering my PASTA ERA. Partially to blame for this, I think, are a few excellent restaurant pastas we've enjoyed in the last few months, including the cannelloni at Leeward in Portland, Maine and the famed Via Carota cacio e pepe in New York—but perhaps most prominently, the discovery of true fresh pasta greatness courtesy of Massachusetts' own Seven Hills, my new obsession. After many years of feeling like pasta was delicious but kind of basic, I am feeling the pasta love—and although I don't think it will ever rise to the height of pastry in my heart, I am embracing change, if only temporarily. I think one important factor here is that fact that our return to (some?) in-person dining putting me in a place to savor cozy restaurant vibes—while pastries were a perfect focal point for the takeout-only era, pasta is best enjoyed on a real plate.
Real plate & the perfect date at Leeward in Portland, Maine, in August. Please also note the family at the table behind Ashley, which included one sophisticated gourmand of approx. 10 years in age.
I didn't think I was prepared to make a list of my favorite tastes of the year, but going through my camera roll as I wrote this, I am feeling newly inspired. While I think it's certainly worth questioning the tyranny of the top ten list, it's also just FUN to reminisce about...
11 baked goods from the world: honey toast at Arome in London; brioche cinnamon roll and double chocolate croissant from Lakon Patisserie in Newton; millet mochi donut from Brooklyn's Win Son Bakery; multigrain croissant from La Saison and sunchoke pie with snickerdoodle crust at Dear Annie, both in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Zoë Kanan's honey graham donut ribbon in New York; classic scone with cream and jam from Gail's in the UK; chestnut croissant at Brunells in Barcelona; sourdough bagel from Eeva in Philly; and two biscuits: the Tandem biscuit in Portland and another exemplar of biscuitry from the King Arthur mothership in Vermont
This was a seasonal special from Brunells, which I hit on my 24 hour layover in Barcelona: a croissant filled with chestnut and chantilly (a.k.a. whipped) cream with meringue bars (!!) as garnish.
5 memorable savory dishes: panzanella salad with steak at Sycamore in Newton; "summerville" heirloom tomato, egg, cheese, and herb butter on an English muffin from Vinal Bakery; Clover vegan bolognese over the above-mentioned fresh Seven Hills Pasta; and two morning tacos: a lamb taco from South Philly Barbacoa that I ate at 9:44 am to dodge the legendary lines and the breakfast taco from Juliet in Somerville
5 beverages that brought me great delight: New England breakfast tea from Harney & Sons (both hot and iced!); Leeward seasonal spritz no. 5 (I think?); an ad-hoc non-alcoholic pineapple cocktail devised by the kind and creative bartenders at Portland's Cocktail Mary; and two Brooklyn horchatas: the horchata tea latte at Ursula and the iced horchata at For All Things Good
two life-changing ice creams: Rori's vegan passionfruit in Montecito, California, and the kookaberry blend at the New Zealand-style Far Out in Brookline, Massachusetts
a few favorite home bakes: Jesse Szeckwyck's brown butter brownie cookies and fluffy grapefruit sugar cookies from his cookbook Cookies: The New Classics, Samantha Seneviratne's banana bread scones from the Food52, homemade bagels using the flawless instructions from this book, and The Kitchn's summer tomato cobbler (which I believe also showed up in a previous newsletter, with a hat tip to the o.g. tomato cobbler queen Jessie Van Rheenan)
two things that I still don't like: martinis & cantaloupe
Visiting the King Arthur flour HQ: obviously another fall highlight.
ALSO
Perhaps you answered the survey in my last newsletter regarding another go at 2013's "We Think Alone"—if so, the verdict is that we will share PHOTOS from our camera rolls/libraries/archives on a series of ten themes. I will also send an email with more details to anyone who filled out the survey last time—that said, it's not too late to jump in now, so drop me a line if that is your desire. The deadline to send me your photos & captions is January 15th—after that, I will send the photos out in a weekly digest, one theme at a time. The themes are:
photo of an animal
screenshot/meme
food photo
thirst trap/selfie from a time u looked good
something in nature
photo you can't remember taking
photo of a major life event
diptych (i.e. pair of two photos): photo from a trip // photo at home
photo of someone you love
truly WTF
In New York a few weeks ago, Ashley and I went to the Brooklyn Museum and stumbled across the absolutely incredible "Death to the Living, Long Live Trash," an exhibit by the artist Duke Riley wherein he transforms various pieces of flotsam and refuse into art—tampon applicators into decorative (and usable!) fishing lures; bottle caps into murals; empty nips into a chandelier; and perhaps most impressively, many and various plastic vessels into works of scrimshaw. If you have the chance to go in person, go! And if not, check out the images in the NYT piece above. Immaculate The Decemberists meets environmental crisis vibes.
In the lead-up to my birthday this year, I took two classes—one online and one in person—which turned out to be a favorite thing from 2023. The first was a virtual cooking class with my dearest Julia Turshen, who gathers a group every Sunday afternoon on Zoom to make a full menu complete with cocktail and dessert; the second was an in-person letterpress printing class in which I learned to set type and print hot pink (and other colors of) ink. Highly recommend more learning for us all in the new year!
I leave you with this glimpse of the incredible lewks A. Treb and I assembled from the clothing that still lives in my parents' home in Denver. I am modeling the classic turtleneck, overalls, and holiday socks while they rock the bicycle print skirt that I bought at the Oxford Primark right around the time of our first meeting!
THE END (FINALLY!)
What were your favorite TASTES of 2022? What is the most offensive piece of diet-culture-infused messaging that has entered your orbit in this dark "new year, new you" season & how are you banishing it from your consciousness? What were your favorite 2022 reads & what is at the top of your reading stack for 2023?