E.B.'s Notes & News: April 2023 🐓💕🐢
Notes & News: April 2023
Annnnd it's April! Spring is here (sort of, at least in Massachusetts) and it already feels like it is flying by. (I guess it doesn't help when the first Friday of the month is the absolute latest it can possibly be, which makes me feel like I am sending this newsletter out super late.)
Below, as always, you can find what I've been writing, reading, some causes I care about, the events I have coming up (including one *~*~*TONIGHT*~*~* at Porter Square Books in Cambridge!), and the exciting things my friends and pets have been up to.
xoxo,
E.B.
Header image is part of an illustration by John Jay Cabuay.
People & Places to Support:
Trans people need your love and support. A few things you can do:
Find out whether anti-trans bills are moving through the legislature in your state by visiting the ACLU's Mapping Attacks on LGBTQ Rights in U.S. State Legislatures page.
If there are such bills in your state, harass your representatives with emails, letters, and phone calls!
Donate to a grassroots group that's directly supporting transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people. Here is a good list from the Trans Justice Funding Project.
If you're a Wellesley alum, consider signing this open letter.
Writing Notes & News:
Since last emailing you, I've had another Good Grief-related essay published! This one is about "When pets outlive their people" and it went up on WBUR's Cognoscenti on March 28. Thanks to editor Sara Shukla for her help getting that one just right!
I also completely failed to tell you in my last newsletter that in February I had my Slate story about pet composting reissued on the website The Wildest, complete with a beautiful new illustration (see above). Check it out here!
Last month Good Grief was also featured in AARP Magazine in a great story ("How to Cope with the Death of a Pet") by journalist Robin L. Flanigan. Thanks to Rachel Barenbaum and Ellen Comisar for connecting me with Robin! (Visit the Good Grief page on my website for a complete list of all media coverage for Good Grief.)
Plus the third and fourth installments of my new interview series on Fiction Advocate, Non-Fiction about Non-Humans, have gone up since I last emailed you: my third interview was with Erica Berry, author of the incredible Wolfish, and my fourth interview was with Tove Danovich, author of the delightful Under the Henfluence. (And if you haven't read them already, also check out my first interview with Bethany Brookshire and my second interview with Sabrina Imbler!)
In terms of non-animal writing, I also wrote this profile of Massachusetts State Auditor Diana DiZoglio for the Wellesley website. Wellesley alums are always doing the coolest things!
Events Notes & News:
The events continue!!!! Be sure to check the events page on my website for the most up-to-date information, plus links to recordings of some of my previous events.
UPCOMING 2023 EVENTS:
NOTE: all events are in person unless labeled ***VIRTUAL***
TONIGHT! TONIGHT! TONIGHT! Friday 4/7/23, 7:00pm EDT: I get to be in conversation with Tove Danovich to talk about her new book Under the Henfluence at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA! Click here to register/get more info.
Thursday 5/11/23, time TBD: Save the date for a very special “dog authors” event hosted by Newtonville Books at Baramor in Newton Centre, featuring Annie Hartnett, Jenna Blum, Karen Fine, and yours truly! More info coming soon.
Tuesday 6/20/23, 7:00pm EDT: I will be celebrating the launch of Soccer Grannies: The South African Women Who Inspire the World by Jean Duffy, my former GrubStreet student. I will be in conversation with Jean and Soccer Grannies founder Beka Ntsanwisi as part of the Grubbie Debut Author Series at Porter Square Books: Boston Edition in the Seaport!
Reading Notes & News:
More all-over-the-place reading recommendations!
I finally finished An Immense World by Ed Yong, which was absolutely incredible! I also read and loved Into the Eye of the Wild by Nastassja Martin, Dyke (Geology) by Sabrina Imbler, and an ARC of The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos by Jaime Green which comes out in less than two weeks!
There were also some audiobooks to be had: Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep, The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami, and Drunk on Love by Jasmine Guillory.
Plus a baker's dozen books I think you should consider reading/buying in 2023:
Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear by Erica Berry (out now!)
Paperback version of Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett (out now!)
Paperback version of Atomic Anna by Rachel Barenbaum (out now!)
The Other Family Doctor: A Veterinarian Explores What Animals Can Teach Us About Love, Life, and Mortality by Karen Fine (out now!)
Under the Henfluence: Inside the World of Backyard Chickens and the People Who Love Them by Tove Danovich (out now!)
A Living Remedy: A Memoir by Nicole Chung (out now!)
Now These Three Remain: Poetry by Sarah Dickenson Snyder (out 4/12)
The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos by Jaime Green (out 4/18)
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann (out 4/18)
Emptying the Nest: Getting Better at Goodbyes by Morgan Baker (out 5/2)
Quietly Hostile: Essays by Samantha Irby (out 5/16)
The Hunt by Kelly J. Ford (out 7/25)
Rogue by Mona Awad (out 9/1)
Friend Notes & News:
Look at all these incredible things happening with my friends, especially Karen Fine and Tove Danovich! They're absolutely crushing it!!!!
Neema Avashia's Another Appalachia is a finalist for the 2022 Lambda Literary awards! (See above!)
S. Schirl Smith had an essay (about her cat Merlin!) appear in Kindness Over Matter!
Elisabeth Sherman wrote for Business Insider about finding a supportive parenting community on Twitter!
Melissa Fraterrigo wrote about trying to be a good daughter when your father has cancer for Motherwell Magazine!
Kirsten Levy's memoir Alzheimer's Fantasy in the Key of G is a 2023 Independent Press Award Distinguished Favorite in the category of New Nonfiction!
Sara Shukla's novel PINK WHALES is coming out in 2024!!!!
Soren Stockman's poem "To Be Born" was featured in Poetry Society of America's "In Their Own Words" series!
Tove Danovich is everywhere! This sweet essay in Country Living magazine, plus appearances on the Humans Outside podcast and WNYC Studios The Takeaway podcast! And don't forget Tove and I are doing an event together tonight at Porter Square Books in Cambridge!
And Karen Fine is also everywhere! A great review of The Other Family Doctor in the Albuquerque Journal, a feature on NPR's Fresh Air and on the podcast Dog Talk (And Kitties Too!), a spot on CNN (!!!!), a New York Times opinion piece, and oh, casual, just made the New York Times bestseller list!!!!
Menagerie Notes & News:
It might be springtime, but Seymour still appreciates a good blanket.