The Winter Newsletter
“Writing—like broadcasting—is a rather solitary pursuit.”
The Ides of October
At the exact half way point between my Fall and Winter newsletters, I'm slipping in an extra one because ... the moment is finally here! The national (and international) Pub Date of the hardcover of Old New Worlds is today, October 15th 2019. Three years of writing...
My Reading List at The Rumpus
If anyone had told me a year ago that I would be published in The Rumpus—along with the likes of Roxane Gay, Rick Moody, Cheryl Strayed, Steve Almond, et al—I would have thought I was dreaming. Yet, thanks to Creative Strategist, Ben Tanzer, it turns out to be...
Fall Newsletter: “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness …”
This was my view for much of the past month while I was recording the audiobook of Old New Worlds. As I recount in the book, The first time I had to share my words when I started the MFA program, I wanted to climb right back inside myself from sheer awkwardness and...
The Tiny Letter giveaway
As an incentive to sign up for my newsletter, I offered a framed print of this painting by my mother, which inspired the cover of Old New Worlds. The youngest twig of our family tree, Lizzy, made the pick! Watch it here.
Priceless birthday presents
Tucked away in the basement of this building on the leafy campus of Johns Hopkins University, is the Department of Conservation & Preservation of the Sheridan Libraries. It was here that I went early this year to meet Jennifer Jarvis, a Book & Paper...
#Celebrateimmigrants
"Every writer has only one story to tell" —James Baldwin In my case, I wouldn't even have been a writer if telling my story hadn't compelled me; after I became an immigrant twenty-two years ago, I simply hadto write about it. So now, on this first day of June, the...
Behind the façade
Evidently, the research bug hasn’t left me since I went in search of Sarah’s story for “Old New Worlds.” The other day I took myself on a walking tour of Earls Colne in Essex, where my sister settled about twenty miles from where Sarah’s husband grew up in the early...
Today, I am American 18 Times Over
...for the judge who presided over my citizenship ceremony, it was his last day before he retired, and he teared up as he told us that swearing in new American citizens had been one of the best parts of his job. “This is a land of immigrants,” he told us. “Even as you...
The world’s oldest paper
My publisher at Green Writers Press is floating the idea of printing Old New Worlds on hemp—and my instinctive response of “oo!” has quickly turned to Google. “Hemp hurds are favorable in comparison with those used with pulp wood.” – Jason L. Merrill, U.S. Department...
New Book
