How do you do, ye clusters of cells willingly trapped in an epidermal barrier?
There is so little between us.
Think about that, next time you rest your hand on someone’s arm, or touch their cheek. There is only this thinnest layer of cells separating you from them. Or if you aren’t close enough to anyone to platonically touch them (or have prickly teens) — recognize it is the same even now, just sitting - you are held together by a thin skin, same skin that you break when you crack and egg, same skin that you peel from a sausage, just a flimsy little skin.
And yet, that millimeters-thick porous barrier is what makes us whole.
That random thought was brought to you by this terrific satiric essay in the Washington Post equating Covid to the Zombie apocalypse. It made me think of another analogy - those people who refuse to squash Lanternflies. See how all my newsletters do somehow randomly string together? Welcome to my weird brain.
Thanks to all of you who read and shared this Medium post about being a library kid. (It’s an expanded version of the newsletter I wrote—the one about being a library kid.)
In other #LibraryKid news, LadyTeen just finished her first-ever paid internship. She and her peers set up the Trinity Church community center’s youth library over six weeks. In association with volunteers from the NYPL, these teens collectively decided on the design, furnishings, rules, categories, systems, and operations of the 1,000-volume teen space—as well as individually choosing each of the 1,000 titles for the lending library.
While the ordered bookshelves still haven’t come in, so everything is on temporary carrels, I could not be more proud. The library has a huge assortment of Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Black History, plus a case each devoted to literature by and for BIPOC & AAPI. Additionally, there is a cookbook shelf, a section devoted to disabled main characters, a space for The Human Body, and there is a large LGBTQ+ selection, among others. In the opening ceremony, the teens explained that they wanted every kind of person to feel immediately included and welcome.
There is even a whole shelf devoted to “Classics” which I found entertaining. It was introduced as “Classics aren’t for everyone, but I like them a lot.”
I love what made the cut:
I’m having some lovely success with a short essay about creativity - it got picked up by Counter Arts on Medium and is available to be read here. You’ll like it if you like 2 minute reads that make you feel like writing, and you’ll like it if you think your writing is unique.
If you DO read and like the piece, please share the link on social! Thanks!
You guys! BOOK & BABY is a finalist for the Best Book 2022 Page Turner Award! (here’s the proof, feel free to log in with social and leave me comments!)
There are so many things coming in September!
My story “The Heaven - The Earth” is forthcoming in the Issue 27—September 2022 edition of After Dinner Conversation Magazine. I’ll post a link when it is live.
My retelling of a Lithuanian folk tale about marrying snakes is coming out in New Myths Magazine, also in September, and I will post that link too!
I’m going to be resuming my post as co-host of the Pen Parentis Literary Salons. Our inaugural salon is September 13th at 7pm Eastern (livecast everywhere). I will post a link next week where you can sign up if you want to watch.
On September 29th, from 5-7:30pm in a cool Park Slope bar called Barbes, I’m making a rare in-person appearance at Mutha Magazine (and Pen Parentis’) official Brooklyn Book festival “BookEnds” event - put it into your calendar! Free, but you should probably buy a drink (they start at $5!)
The biggest news of all is that an editor asked me to put together a short story collection of my own work! Really! (but don’t worry, I’m still working on getting a novel out!) — way to bury the lede? Yep.
Last thoughts:
Can we just all stop and think about this art show for a minute?
Breaking Barriers
I like that creativity essay!