E.B.'s Notes & News: July 2023 🌭🐢😎

Notes & News: July 2023

Happy summer, people! Even if the nonstop thunderstorms/rain in New England have not made it feel very summery (though as I write this it is a blazing 90 degrees so I guess joke's on me now, it's definitely summer). I hope by now you've grilled a hot dog and gotten to the beach at least once or whatever other things mark summertime for you.

Anyway, as always, below you can find what I've been writing, reading, some causes I care about, the events I have coming up, and the very cool and awesome 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:
Mental health awareness and care for those suffering from severe mental illness is something that has always been important to me. Recently I just learned about this organization called the Fireweed Collective, which does great work. From their website:

Fireweed Collective offers mental health education and mutual aid through a Healing Justice lens. We help support the emotional wellness of all people, and center the needs of those most marginalized by our society. Our work seeks to disrupt the harm of systems of abuse and oppression, often reproduced by the mental health system. 

We strive to cultivate a culture of care, free of violence, where the ultimate goal is not just to survive, but to thrive as individuals and as communities. We envision a world in which all communities get to self-determine the source of their care, medicine, and wellness.

Check it out!

Writing Notes & News:
In non-book related writing news, I had an essay published on Pangyrus! I'm so thrilled about this. After all the years I was the nonfiction editor for them and for all the former students and fellow writers I've helped get published in Pangyrus, I've never had an essay in the lit mag myself.... until this past month! You can read "I Want to Believe" here.

In terms of Good Grief news, the biggest thing is that a KOREAN TRANSLATION of the book is coming out this fall! Stay tuned for more on that. I am so excited! Plus, there has been some fun media attention on Good Grief since I last emailed you all:

• Good Grief was featured in an article in The Behavior Therapist (the journal of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy). Thank you to writer and psychologist Holly Bedotto for writing about my book in her moving article about losing a beloved therapy dog.
   

• I had another piece in Modern Dog Magazine -- this time a "tiny dog story" in the summer 2023 issue.
   

• On World Pet Memorial Day (the second Tuesday of June each year) I was *live* on the show Doctor Radio, a partnership between NYU Langone and SiriusXM. Thank you to Dr. Frank Adams for having me on the show. I'm trying to figure out if there is a recording available anywhere online, and if I find one I will share it with you in next month's newsletter!
   

• I'm so grateful to Jaime Herndon for featuring Good Grief again in another excellent reading round-up on Book Riot! Check out the list of "8 Great Books to Read About the Relationship Between Humans and Animals." 
   

• And finally, thank you to Lisa Davis for having me on her podcast DOG EARED! (See above.) It was such a fun conversation, and I loved getting to hear about Lisa's sweet elderly pit bull Blue. 

There is another new Non-Fiction about Non-Humans interview up on Fiction Advocate -- my conversation with Jaime Green, author of The Possibility of Life. Also you can find all the past Non-Fiction about Non-Human interviews now at this link here. 

And, finally, for Wellesley, I've had four pieces run since I last emailed you: a Q&A with legendary researcher Peggy McIntosh, a feature about the merger of the astronomy and physics department, a profile of Wellesley's new Mentorship Affinity Pod program, and (just published this week!) a round-up of ten new books by Wellesley faculty members.

Events Notes & News:
My upcoming events are below, but 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.

***Be sure to note the two events I have coming up in July, both at GrubStreet's location in the Seaport neighborhood of Boston!***
 

UPCOMING 2023 EVENTS:
NOTE: all events are in person unless labeled ***VIRTUAL***

• Wednesday 7/19/23, 7:00pm EDT: I will be teaching a special seminar as part of GrubStreet‘s Craft Talk Series: ‘Writing Through Darkness (and How to Take Care of Yourself During It)’. More info and registration link here. This talk will be held at Porter Square Books: Boston Edition in the Seaport.
   

• Friday 7/28/23, 7:00pm EDT: Excited that Good Grief was chosen to be part of GrubStreet’s Beach Reads Party. Come hear authors read excerpts from their “beachy” (broadly interpreted) books and mingle and hang out at 50 Liberty Drive in the Seaport! RSVP for this free event via EventBrite here.
   

• Sunday 8/6/23, 4:00pm EDT: My first book event in the state of Maine! I will be in conversation with Karen Fine at Back Cove Books in Portland, ME. The event will be a fundraiser for a local animal organization -- stay tuned for more info!
   

• Thursday 10/19/23, time TBD: I am over the moon to get to be part of the Cary Library Literary Cafe Series, an author series that happens at the library in my hometown of Lexington, Massachusetts! The very library I grew up going to! And even more exciting, I will be in conversation for this with Neema Avashia. Stay tuned for more info!

Reading Notes & News:
Since I last messaged you all, I read Soccer Grannies by Jean Duffy, a narrative nonfiction book I had the pleasure of serving as an editor for in its earlier stages several years ago. It's so cool now to see it out in the world as a real, live book! Check it out! It's incredible.

I also read and loved the young reader's version of What the Dog Knows by Cat Warren, plus the very excellent Eight Bears by Gloria Dickie (which comes out next week on 7/11, see above for one of the eight bears). Look out for Non-Fiction about Non-Human interviews with both of them coming out later this summer!

Also, in terms of books I can't wait to read, a quick endorsement for The Hunt by Kelly J. Ford, which is coming out 7/25! I am so excited to dive into Kelly's third novel which The New York Times (!!!!!) called "truly absorbing." See you all at Kelly's launch party rager event at Harvard Bookstore on 7/25!?! I'm bringing the cake!

Friend Notes & News:
Look at all these incredible and cool things my friends have been doing!!!!!

• My very cool friend from college, Molly Wasser, is the Digital Media Lead for the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and she helped make this really fun video where the cast of Wes Anderson's new movie Asteroid City asks NASA about the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Mission. Enjoy! 

• I've been listening to season two of the very excellent New Hampshire public radio true crime podcast Bear Brook and low and behold when the credits rolled I found out that another very cool friend of mine from college, Katie Colaneri, is the editor of the show! 

• An update from Thu-Hằng Tran! Remember her beautiful floral arrangement from last month's newsletter? She wrote to me: "Woah, I was so surprised to see you including my 6x8 in floral design! Thank you. It did get First Place in my Class. I sent it to you hot off the press without knowing the result of the Show. I love all the news and read all of your newsletter, EB. Thanks!" Congrats, Thu-Hằng!!! And thanks for reading. :-)

• Congrats to Gloria Dickie for having Eight Bears on this LitHub list of most anticipated books for the second half of 2023!

• Karen Harris started a Substack called "Wising Up Together," dedicated to teaching, literature, and teenagers. Sign up here! It's great.

• Loved this list of animal book recs from Tove Danovich on The Shepherd!

• It's so exciting to see Alysia Abbott's Fairyland on Berkeley's summer reading curriculum! 

• Anri Wheeler's essay about The Little Mermaid, her mother, and the importance of being able to rewrite the narrative was published in LitHub!

• Congrats to Nicole Graev Lipson for having her essay "The Solitary Mother" in The Gettsyburg Review!

• Ethan Gilsdorf published his essay “Dear Chatbot, Should I Write About My Dead Mother? A conversation between Ethan Gilsdorf and ChatGPT” in Electric Literature!

• And in case you somehow missed it above..... Kelly J. Ford's new novel The Hunt was written up in the motherfucking New York Times!!!!!!

Menagerie Notes & News:
Please enjoy this photo of Seymour on his first (and likely last) ride on my dad's boat. Last Friday Richie and I missed the ferry to Fishers Island by four minutes, so my very kind parents Karen and Rich offered to pick us up. Seymour was initially excited to get on the boat with my dad, but as soon as those engines turned on he was not pleased. Did he maybe even poop himself a little bit because he was so scared? I'll never tell. And so began and ended Seymour's career as a seadog.