PicoBlog

I remember when Deb Perelman, aka: Smitten Kitchen, came on the scene in 2006. A few of us had been blogging for a couple of years, doing our thing—when suddenly, a fresh new voice came out of the blue (and out of New York), that segued perfectly to the new way we eat, and cook—less rules, more fun, and how we write about food. If you’re anything like me, you’ve been following her blog for years and cooking from her books.

“As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. 16 This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like topaz, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel.“ (NIV Ezekiel 1:15-16) The Ophanim, sometimes called Thrones, Wheels, or Galgallin, are the strangest and most outlandish rank of angel in the Bible.

Get 75% off for 1 year Before we begin, let me start by saying I am not a parent. I cannot give you “best parenting practices” or tell you what is best for your child. What I can do is give you my honest opinion and present it in a way that I hope will be helpful to you as you make your decision. That being said…I saw “Wish” on Saturday.

Need to preface by saying it’s a HGTV flick, essentially the same style of a Hallmark Channel feature, so expectations shouldn’t rival The Preacher’s Wife or Miracle on 34rd Street.  “A Christmas Open House” centers around a newly re-married elder mother who’s moving into her husband’s house and looking to sell hers, unbeknownst to her daughter—ironic consider she’s literally a fucking professional home stager who still lives in the same state.

In my contemporary fiction class this semester, my MFA students and I have read one novel or story collection each week, with all of our books having been published in the past ten years. Each book I chose for the class is notable or interesting in its own way: There are NYT bestsellers, award winners, critical darlings, and other categories represented, as well as books from presses of various sizes; there are books from a variety of genres, including literary fiction, commercial fiction, horror, sci-fi, crime, and fabulism, plus one book in translation.

Intimate conversations with our greatest heart-centered minds. Hello Beyonders! is now on Substack. How lucky are we! As a gesture toward welcoming Esmé, and because there are so many new subscribers, I’m lifting the paywall on this beautiful interview with her for the week. Enjoy! Esmé Weijun Wang has one of the most brilliant minds and beautiful hearts that I’ve ever encountered. And her writing is breathtakingly graceful whilst also laser sharp.

Julia Gargano likes to take risks. When she auditioned for season 18 of American Idol, she decided to perform an original song. The risk paid off. After a hug from Katy Perry and a resounding “YES!” from all three judges, she advanced to the next round, eventually finishing in seventh place. But that wasn’t enough. Though she’s built a following under her birth name, Gargano decided to launch a new project, Ferry Townes.

In January of 2022, I visited one of my all-time favorite authors in Jamaica, Gregory David Roberts (“GDR”). You can find the audio file of our interview above, which was recorded while we sat outside his rented tropical home, one stone’s throw from the white-sand beach. GDR is the internationally bestselling author of Shantaram, an epic 993-page novel about a convicted Australian bank robber and heroin addict who escapes from prison and flees to India.

Tahlena Chikami shouldn’t be intimidating, and yet she is. She is beautiful and multi-talented, funny and easy to talk to. This all combines to make approaching her feel a little daunting. At least, it felt that way at first for me. As soon as we started talking, however, all feelings of that sort melted away. In fact, she confirmed a suspicion I’ve had about her since the first time I saw her in the music video for the Bite Me Bambi song “Strippers on a Sunday.