Clik here to view.
A Recommendation for Y’all. And Some Receipts.
Illustration for the New York Times Magazine by Clay Hickson. For the New York Times Magazine, I wrote a letter of recommendation for “y’all,” a word I shied away from in my youth as a transplant from...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Writing About Ancestor Trouble Class
Illlustration of me for Tricycle Magazine by Harriet Lee-Merrion After many months of planning, I announced my Writing About Ancestor Trouble class in my newsletter on Tuesday. To my great...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Writing About Abuse is Not Abuse*
I’m often asked whether my parents are still alive and if so what they think of my book. They are — mom, father, and stepdad — and I can answer honestly that I don’t know what they think of Ancestor...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ancestor Trouble’s Best of 2022 Mentions
Ancestor Trouble is a best book of 2022, according to The New Yorker, NPR, The Washington Post, Time, and Esquire. It was also a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection. Much gratitude to all the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Best Books of 2022: Garden & Gun & EW
I was born and spent my earliest years in Dallas, but grew up in Miami, so I’ve never really counted as southern to southerners or not-southern to anyone else. I’m floored by the inclusion of Ancestor...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ancestor Trouble is a Finalist for the 2023 John Leonard Prize for Best First...
Being a finalist for the John Leonard Prize, in such exceptional company, is an almost unfathomable honor. Apart from my high school literary magazine and my middle school newspaper, my very first...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ancestor Trouble: The Paperback Cometh
The Ancestor Trouble paperback is coming in June, and I love how much the design draws from the hardcover jacket while also making it new again. Thank you, Rachel Ake! The post Ancestor Trouble: The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ancestor-Oriented Editorial Offerings this Summer
I’ll be sharing my new editorial offerings more broadly in the coming weeks, but I’m posting the word here first on the blog. These offerings focus on my greatest strength and interest: working with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Some of what I’m doing, reading, thinking about
In the past, I’ve only posted links to my Ancestor Trouble newsletters here under special circumstances, but going forward I’ll be mentioning them, because I’m often asked what I’ve been reading and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Art & Kinship: Emily Raboteau’s Lessons For Survival
As promised, if a little late: the first subject of my new Art & Kinship series is Emily Raboteau, whose work I’ve been reading with admiration for almost two decades. Her new book—Lessons for...
View Article
