2020 In Review: Books I Read and Things I Wrote

 2020! Yikes!

There’s a lot I could say about this year – taking an unexpected gap year due to a pandemic, political turmoil, multiple 1000 piece puzzles that I puzzled over, but “Yikes!” really does sum up most of it, right?

And yet, 2020 was still a whole year, which meant that I had the privilege to read great books and write fun stories. So here are my little literary delights of the year.

One of my favorite memories of 2020 – going to a sunflower field!

Reading

Bookstores + Masks

I met my reading goal of 52 books this year – I ended up reading 55. That’s a silver lining of suddenly and unexpectedly having more time – you can get a lot of reading done! Escapism was clearly on my mind, because middle-grade books were my leading genre for the year. It was a stellar year in books – every single Fiction book I read stayed with me for weeks after I finished it. This was also the first time I’d read a Mary Oliver collection, and after I read one, I couldn’t stop. 

Favorite Books

OVERALL FAVORITE: Mary Oliver’s Collections, Felicity, Blue Horses, and American Primitive

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Mary Oliver’s collections are a quilted blanket, and time and time again I wrapped myself up in her words. The peacefulness and careful observation in her words were the complete opposite – and the perfect antidote for – the chaos, uncertainty, and stress in this year. Let me share some of my favorite lines with you:

• “When it’s over, I want to say all my life / I was a bride married to amazement.”
• “Except for the body of someone you love, including all its expressions in privacy and in public, trees, I think, are the most beautiful forms on the earth. Though, admittedly, if this were a contest, the trees would come in an extremely distant second.”
• “To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.
• “Things! Burn them, burn them! Make a beautiful fire! More room in your heart for love, for the trees! For the birds who own nothing—the reason they can fly.”
• “I’ll just tell you this: / only if there are / angels in your / head will you / ever, possibly, see one.”
• There is nothing more pathetic than caution / when headlong might save a life, / even, possibly, your own.”
• “I don’t want to lose a single thread / from the intricate brocade of this happiness / I want to remember everything.”
• “I did think, let’s go about this slowly. / This is important. This should take some really deep thought. We should take small thoughtful steps. / But, bless us, we didn’t.”
• “I live / now in a sky-house, through every / window the sun. Also your presence. / Our touching, our stories. Earthy / and holy both. How can this be, but / it is. Every day has something in / it whose name is Forever.”

HONORABLE MENTIONS BY GENRE

Fiction: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (“In Vietnamese, the word for missing someone and remembering them is the same: nhớ. Sometimes, when you ask me over the phone, Có nhớ mẹ không? I flinch, thinking you meant, Do you remember me? I miss you more than I remember you.”)

Poetry: Pecking Order by Nicole Homer (“Motherhood is like / being pecked / to death / by my / favorite birds / made from my / body, torn / by beaks sharpened.”)

Play: Machinal by Sophie Treadwell (In my costume design class, we envisioned different wardrobes for the characters in Machinal!)

Graphic Novel: On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden (“It’s like the older you get the more you forget that you can change things. Which is stupid because adults have money. Which means you can afford to buy a sledgehammer and break down the room you’re stuck in. Kids don’t have sledgehammer money.)

Nonfiction: Paperback Crush by Gabrielle Moss (Completely and totally delightful book about the paperbacks of the 80s and 90s – my favorite bit was about the Teen Angel series, which featured teen girls who were dead. The characters live in Teen Heaven, a place overseen by James Dean, and go to Heaven High. every now and then James Dean makes them go do good deeds on Earth. Can’t make this stuff up.)

Young Adult: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (“If summer was a book then I was going to write something beautiful in it. In my own handwriting. But I had no idea what to write.”)

Middle Grade: Bob by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead (“But it’s important to think about words. You can’t understand how you feel sometimes until you know the words for it. Words make things real. You can quote me on that.”)

Total List of 2020 Books

Fiction

1. Grain of Wheat by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
2. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
3. Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
4. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
6. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
7. The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno
8. Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

Poetry

1. American Sonnet For My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes
2. Great Sonnets (Collection) edited by Paul Negri
3. American Primitive by Mary Oliver
4. Blue Horses by Mary Oliver
5. Felicity by Mary Oliver
6. Norma Jeane Baker of Troy by Anne Carson
7. Pecking Order by Nicole Homer

Plays

1. Machinal by Sophie Treadwell
2. Getting Out by Marsha Norman
3. Hecuba by Euripides
4. The Tempest by Shakespeare

Graphic Novels

1. Queer: a Graphic History by Meg-John Barker
2. The Low Low Woods by Carmen Maria Machado
3. On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
4. Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home by Nora Krug
5. Tea Dragon Society by Katie O’Neill

Memoir / Nonfiction

1. Picture This: How Pictures Work by Molly Bang
2. How to Read Literature by Terry Eagleton
3. Elements of Style (Illustrated Edition) by Strunk and White
4. Cut My Cote by Dorothy K. Burnham
5. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
6. Bill Cunningham: On the Street: Five Decades of Iconic Photography by Bill Cunningham
7. Barbie Forever: Her Inspiration, History, and Legacy by Robin Gerber
8. Women in Clothes by Heidi Julavits, Leanne Shapton, and Sheila Heti
9. When They Call You a Terrorist by Asha Bandele and Patrisse Cullors
10. Paperback Crush by Gabrielle Moss
11. When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice by Terry Tempest Williams

Young Adult 

1. Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy
2. We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
3. With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
4. I Kissed Alice by Anna Birch
5. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Children’s / Middle Grade

1. The Lonely Heart of Maybelle Lane by Kate O’Shaughnessy
2. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
3. Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate DiCamillo
4. To Night Owl From Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer
5. Short by Holly Goldberg Sloan
6. The Gollywhopper Games: Friend or Foe by Jody Feldman
7. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
8. The Line Tender by Kate Allen
9. Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo
10. Writing Radar by Jack Gantos
11. Bob by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead
12. Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo
13. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
14. Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina
15. Blended by Sharon M. Draper

Writing

Picnic journaling!

approx 110,000 words written in 2020

• I finished my final edit for book #2! I rewrote around 40,000 words, then shaved off another 10,000. That’s killing your darlings for ya.
• I won my third NaNoWriMo with 50,000 words written in November. It feels good to get back into the habit of writing daily.
• For the second year in a row, I finished a journal! I’m finally becoming the sort of person who keeps a consistent diary. Childhood me would be so proud – back in the day, almost every entry started with “Sorry it’s been three months since I’ve last written!”
• In the Spring, I was in a college fiction class. I wrote stories every week, and my final project was around 10,000 words. Also, one of my stories won an English Department award!
• My short story The Haircut was published in Kingdoms in the Wild.
• Finally, I had an incredible year with Project Write Now. I took a poetry class where I wrote weekly poems, and I co-taught two classes, the first for 3rd graders and the 2nd for teens. I also taught a virtual class over the summer called Fridays with Vivian. I can’t wait to keep teaching this year!

Resolutions

1. Read 100 books. (This one’s a long shot.)
2. Write a new book. (My big semester project!)
3. Learn French. (Duolingo, here I come.)

Thanks for reading! How did you make it through 2020? What were your favorite reads? Did you too become briefly and totally obsessed with puzzles? Let me know in the comments! Until next time, you can find me on Pinterest or Instagram.

Here’s What Book You Should Read Next Based on Your Favorite Folklore Song

At the end of July, lyrical genius Taylor Swift dropped the ultimate quarantine gift: a new album! If you’ve now memorized every single word to folklore, but you’re in the search for some new words to read (or a Christmas gift for a beloved Swiftie friend), I’ve got you covered: here’s what book you should read next, based on your favorite Folklore song!

(PSA: Pick up these books at your local bookstore, if you can! If you don’t have a local bookstore, consider ordering from the Strand, a brilliant independent bookstore in NYC which recently posted a message about needing customer’s support to stay afloat.)

(Double PSA: If you want even more Taylor Swift in your life, I’m teaching a one-day writing workshop on November 6th based on Taylor’s incredible song-writing skills. Find out more here!)

the 1. – Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The 1 is a deceivingly happy-sounding song, isn’t it? Despite its upbeat melody, this song reminisces about a past lover – what would life be like if they were still together? Is there such thing as a “true love” Will they ever know what could’ve been? Americanah, an absolute tour-de-force of a novel, gave me the best answers I know to these questions. It follows Ifemelu and Obinze, who are “are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.” They’re separated for fifteen years, but this novel answers the question “what could’ve been” when they’re reunited in newly democratic Nigeria.

cardigan – Modern Lovers by Emma Straub

Just as Cardigan features a woman reminiscing about a past love, Straub’s novel follows three former college bandmates. “Elizabeth and Andrew and Zoe have watched one another marry, buy real estate, and start businesses and families, all while trying to hold on to the identities of their youth. But nothing ages them like having to suddenly pass the torch (of sexuality, independence, and the ineffable alchemy of cool) to their own offspring.” This novel captures youthful love – in the moment and years and years later, much like this song. But of course, we know everything when we’re young.

the last great american dynasty – The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

“Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love…but as Evelyn’s story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.” The glamorous woman who shocked the public! The scandalous marriage! Very long titles! The connection to the present day, much like Taylor herself! Perfect match.

exile (featuring bon iver) – The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennet

In this duet, Taylor Swift and bon iver sing their separate verses as if exiled form each other. The chorus, “You’re not my homeland anymore / So what am I defending now? / You were my town, now I’m in exile, seein’ you out,” made me think of another story where two people used to share a town in a literal sense. In Brit Bennet’s novel The Vanishing Half, identical twin sisters grow up together in a small, southern Black community. But “many years later, one sister lives with her Black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past.” The twins are exiled from each other by time, distances, and lies, but “the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters’ storylines intersect?”

my tears ricochet – The Book Thief by Mark Zusak

This song has is one of Taylor’s boldest songwriting moves yet: the narrator is speaking to us from beyond the grave! (Okay, the “funeral” and betrayal could also be metaphors for Taylor’s ongoing fight for rights to the songs she wrote, but for the sake of this book recc, let’s take the song literally.) Pair it with a book that makes a similarly bold stylistic choice: The Book Thief, which boasts Death himself as a narrator.

mirrorball – On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Things that Mirrorball by Taylor Swift and On Earth by Ocean Vuong have in common: 1. Both make me think about the way we become around the people who want to love us back, acting like mirrorballs, simply reflecting our loved ones back to themselves, until we break ”in a million pieces.” So gorgeous, so brief, which reminds me of how 2. “the sunset, like survival, exists only on the verge of its own disappearing. To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted.” and 3. both made me cry.

seven – Bink & Gollie by Alison McGhee and Kate DiCamillo

I love seven!! I love stories about childhood friendships!! The characters in “seven” are dealing with family troubles and other difficult subjects, and discuss running away together – read “Bink & Gollie” to imagine what their lives might be like if, in another world, they did. This book follows Bink and Gollie, who live in a super-deluxe treehouse and feast on peanut butter and waffles. They are best friends – or, as they prefer to call each other, adventure-seeking companions. This book and seven are both wonderful odes to the wonder and power of girls’ friendships.

august – We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

Ughhhhhhh. I want to say that august hurts like a punch to the gut, but the pain isn’t that sudden. August is the long minutes before you go to sleep, slow and lonely and nostalgic and lurching. August is slow-burn sadness. And so is We Are Okay. This stunning, queer, atmospheric novel is a book that understands loneliness unlike any other. These narrators are “living for the hope of it all.”

this is me trying – The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno

“In the twilight of a mysterious childhood full of wonder, Billy Argo, boy detective, is brokenhearted to find that his younger sister and crime-solving partner, Caroline, has committed suicide. Ten years later, Billy, age thirty, returns from an extended stay at St. Vitus’ Hospital for the Mentally Ill to discover the world full of unimagi-nable strangeness…along a path laden with hidden clues and codes that dare the reader to help Billy decipher the mysteries he encounters, the boy detective may learn the greatest secret of all: the necessity of the unknown.” Let’s just say that I think Billy Argo would really relate to the lyrics “They told me all of my cages were mental / So I got wasted like all my potential” and “I was so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere / Fell behind all my classmates and I ended up here.” Both the song and the book feature burnout narrators down on their luck – but they’re trying.

illicit affairs – Stag’s Leap by Sharon Olds

Taylor’s song chronicles the heartbreak of being the other woman, while “Stag’s Leap” offers the other side of the story: a woman whose husband now loves someone else. This aching and tender collection tells the story of a divorce. As Taylor would say, “it dies and it dies and it dies / A million little times.” And as Sharon Olds would say – ““When anyone escapes, my heart / leaps up. Even when it’s I who am escaped from, / I am half on the side of the leaver.”

invisible string – Meet Cute (Anthology)

This song is about the cute coincidences of love and life and it makes my heart very warm!!! This is a YA short story collection about people who meet by chance, though often it feels like something bigger…”like all along, there was some invisible string tying youuuuu to MEEEEEEeeeee.” Read this for the same smile you have in your face when you listen to this song.

mad woman – Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

Oh look! Taylor Swift and Carmen Maria Machado, two of my absolute favorite writers for very different reasons! This song has a tinge of the surreal in it (“Do you see my face in the neighbor’s lawn?” and “women like hunting witches, too”) that make me think of Machado’s collection of feminist, queer horror stories. Her prose “bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women’s lives and the violence visited upon their bodies.” In other words, “no one likes a mad woman / What a shame she went mad / You made her like that.”

epiphany – All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

epiphany captures the atrocities of violence, whether that’s a military battle Taylor’s grandfather fought in or the current global pandemic. The exquisite imagery describing unfathomable pain reminded me of All the Light We Cannot See, a novel about “a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.”

betty – Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki

Betty is a song about teenage love and teenage mistakes. In that spirit (and also in the spirit of the song being embraced by the queer community), try this graphic novel. Laura Dean Keeps Breaking up With Me follows Freddy, who’s dating her dream girl, Laura Dean…except for the fact that Laura Dean is perhaps not as great of a girlfriend as she’d thought. This is a great story of complicated first love, with art as beautiful as a Taylor Swift bridge.

peace – Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

“Our coming of age has come and gone / Suddenly this summer it’s clear.” Okay, well, Aristotle and Dante haven’t quite come of age in the beginning of this wonderful novel, but we watch them grow up, The lines “Your integrity makes me seem small / You paint dreamscapes on the wall” made me think of Aristotle and Dante’s relationship – there are many differences between them, but they admire each other so fully for what the other is.

hoax – How to Love the Empty Air by Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz

This pick was inspired by the lines: “Your faithless love’s the only hoax / I believe in / Don’t want no other shade of blue / But you / No other sadness in the world would do.” What kind of love is so unconditional that in any other circumstances we’d call it a hoax? What kind of love would you want to be sad for? What a devastating thought. For me, it’s a mothers love. This made me think of the heartbreaking poetry collection How to Love the Empty Air, which chronicles the life of the poet in the wake of her mothers death, with incredible lines such as “to elope with this grief, / who is not your enemy, / this grief who maybe now is your best friend. / This grief, who is your husband, / the thing you curl into every night, / falling asleep in its arms…”

bonus track: the lakes – Felicity by Mary Oliver

Nature as muse! Cottage core sapphic vibes! Clever word play! It’s Mary Oliver, just thank me later!

Thanks for reading! What’s your favorite song off of Folklore? Do you have any Taylor-based book recommendations? Let me know in the comments! You can find me on Pinterest or Instagram. Until next time, serve some looks and read some books.

20 Literary Things To Do in Fall (For Writers And Readers!)

Am I writing this post just so I can make a big list of things that I’m excited for in October? Yes! Why deny it! This year has been an objective train-wreck! I am taking an unexpected gap semester from college! But Autumn never lets us down! I am embracing cozy socks and pumpkin picking and basic sweaters with open arms! Grab your Pumpkin Spice Latte! Let’s shamelessly enjoy ourselves!

1. Reread One of Your Favorite Books

Who, me, rereading Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado? Couldn’t be.

2. Go Outside and Journal

Soak in those beautiful fall vibes. Journal about how you’re feeling, or about the dogs in whatever park you’re in. Be present in the moment.

3. (Safely) Visit a Literary Landmark

Take all COVID cautions! Wear a mask! But this month, I went to Salem, Massachusetts. (My picture is of their independent bookstore, Wicked Good Books.) Many literary landmarks are outside, and trips are perfect for fall…you’ll get to see all the foliage on the drive over!

4. Plan Your Halloween Costume

Something literary, perhaps? (My dream couple costume: Emily Dickinson & Death.)

5. Settle Down For A Cozy Day Of Writing

Brew some tea. Turn on a Jazz compilation. Let yourself get lost in a story.

6. Settle Down For A Cozy Day of Writing, But This Time With Fuzzy Socks

Socks!!!!!

7. Tackle a Classic You’ve Never Read Before

I’m in the middle of both Wuthering Heights and Orlando…this fall, I shall finish them! Preferably in front of a fire. (With the aforementioned socks on.)

8. Try Some Fall-Themes Writing Prompts

Write about a time of great change. Write about red, yellow, and orange as if they were people. Write about a ghost who only haunts man caves in McMansions. So many possibilities.

9. Watch a Classic Literary Adaptation

Little Women!!!!!! Directed by Greta Gerwig!!!!!!

10. Take A Writing Class

Fall always makes me think of school starting again. I’m taking a class about poetry and the natural world with Project Write Now – it feels so good to write verse again.

11. Go to a (virtual) Poetry Reading

The Dodge Poetry Festival is free and will be online from Oct. 22nd to Nov. 1st this year! Go see your favorite poets, like Richard Blanco, Marilyn Chin, Terrance Hayes, Edward Hirsch, Marie Howe, Ada Limón, and more.

12. Bribe Yourself to Write With Hot Beverages

LOOK at this tea tray…my heart! Go order your Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Sit down with a Chai Tea. ‘Tis the season to be caffeinated.

13. Read a Horror Novel

Spooky season.

14. Vote!

If you’re from the US, vote in the upcoming Presidential election! Here is more information. (This will be my first national election that I get to vote in.)

15. Carve or Decorate a Literary Pumpkin

Isn’t this one (from here) precious??

16. Read Mary Oliver Under A Majestic Tree

Okay, we’re getting specific now, but seriously…do it.

17. Have An Autumn Picnic (+ Bring a Book!)

Pack an apple, some brie, and fancy bread. Bring along someone you care about. Go sit in a meadow or a front doorstep, whatever’s available. Read to each other.

18. Write a Love Poem

For someone you have a crush on, for cuffing season. For your mom, because she’ll love it. For the trees, because it should be said.

19. Read This Emily Dickinson Poem Right Now

(Yes, this poem has made me cry in quarantine. Thank you for asking.)

20. Start Preparing for NaNoWriMo

Okay, confession time: October is the best month. But November is still my favorite. It’s NaNoWrimo! Is anyone else shooting for 50,000 words? I’m working on a giant outline so I’ll be ready to write next month. Yay fall!

Thanks for reading! What do your fall plans look like? Are you participating in NaNoWrimo? Let me know in the comments! You can also find me on You can find me on Pinterest or Instagram. Until next time, serve some looks and read some books.

10 of My Favorite Sapphic Reads (+ 10 Books On My Pride Month To-Read-List)

Hello and happy Pride Month!

First, I wanted to link to some resources that I’ve been using:

• Antiracist Reading List by Ibram X. Kendi
• Black-owned bookstores that are open virtually
• Upcoming books by Black authors that you can preorder
• And speaking of Pride Month: Why we owe Pride to Black transgender women

I also wanted to share these words from Ashia Monet, author of the Black Vein.

“Don’t just read Black literature in this moment. Read Black lit for the rest of your life. Read and support the work of Black essayists, novelists, poets, today and forever and always. Do NOT make your support conditional on whether or not racism is in the headlines.”

If you’d like to celebrate Pride by donating to some Black queer organizations doing great work, check out this list. If you’re a rising high school senior (or if you know any), I teamed up with two of my friends to raise money by editing college application essays – all proceeds will be donated to Black Lives Matter. You can find out more here.

On Instagram, I shared some of my favorite sapphic poems. (June Jordan! Chaia Heller! Natalie Wee! Joan Larkin! Also Strawberry Blond by Mitski which is not technically a poem but it may as well be!) I thought I’d keep sharing the love (literally) with ten of my favorite sapphic books, plus ten that I’m hoping to read.

10 of My Favorite Sapphic Reads

1. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

INCREDIBLE. LIFE-CHANGING. Completely altered my ideas about graphic novels, queerness, and metaphor.

2. Songs of Sappho

Listen, I can’t write a list of “sapphic” lists and not include SAPPHO. She wrote some love poems about girls, she lived on an Island named Lesbos, and now we call women who love women lesbians. That’s iconic. Sappho is a really interesting figure to me – despite being a woman living in 600 B.C., she gained an immense amount of respect as a poet; yet only fragments of her work survive. And that writing varies widely depending on what translator you’re reading. Here’s one of my favorite lines of hers: “Sweet mother, I cannot weave – slender Aphrodite has overcome me. with longing…” One translator finishes this line with “for a boy.” Another? “For a girl.” Queerness is a matter of translation.

3. Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

I love Carmen Maria Machado so much and it pains me that whenever I write about her, I sound like New Year Eve noise maker. “WHOOOO WAH AHHH!” She is just so good! She is my favorite writer! She is one of the smartest humans alive probably! Okay, I’m going to try to write something comprehensible: this book changed me as a reader and a writer. Machado plays with form – there are stories told through inventory lists and Law and Order episodes. I would say that Machado rewrites classic myths, but it feels more as though she is simply revealing the story that’s been there all along, unwrapping the truth. I didn’t know that writing could look like this. Do yourself a favor. Go read it.

4. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

What’s this, another book by Carmen Maria Machado? Yes. This is my list and I shall do what I want! I read this book in one painful and incredible gulp at the end of 2019. The words are still with me. The way she uses POV, switching from first to second person? The freaking choose-your-own-adventure section??? Please, just go read this and then email me so I can continue to talk about it for eternity.

My Carmen Maria Machado collection!

5. Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell

I expected this book to be about queer love, but I wasn’t expecting the poignant and compelling friendships that Freddy navigates along the way. Also, the artwork is gorgeous.

6. Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

This is a Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda spin-off novel – Leah was always my favorite character in Simon’s story, so it was fun to spend more time with this snarky, bisexual drummer.

7. Queer: A Graphic History by Meg-John Barker and Jules Scheele

This was super informative – definitely gave me a better sense of queer history and theory.

8. American Primitive by Mary Oliver

If I was a doctor I’d tell anyone who didn’t feel well that they should read Mary Oliver, because reading her poems makes me feel like everything will be okay. This is probably why I am not a doctor.

9. We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

The sort of book that’s about loneliness, but makes you feel less alone. Achingly good.

10. Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

“Your silence will not protect you” and ““Black and Third World people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expected to educate men. Lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain their position and evade their responsibility for their own actions. There is a constant drain of energy which might be better used in redefining ourselves and devising realistic scenarios for altering the present and constructing the future” and ” “I find I am constantly being encouraged to pluck out some one aspect of myself and present this as the meaningful whole, eclipsing or denying the other parts of self.” Foundational, fundamental, and fantastic. Required reading for everyone.

10 Sapphic Books That Are On My TBR

1. The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith

Any book that inspired both Carol and King Princess’s 1950 has to be worth its salt. (Haha. See what I did there?)

2. Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera

This YA novel follows Juliet Milagros Palante, who’s trying to “figure out this whole “Puerto Rican lesbian” thing” during a summer internship with the author of her favorite book. Sign me up.

3. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

The Poet X was brilliant, so I’m excited to read another novel in verse from Elizabeth Acevedo!

4. Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

A student in my Gender and Sexuality class read an excerpt of this novel by Leslie Feinberg – “an anti-racist white, working-class, secular Jewish, transgender, lesbian, female, revolutionary communist” – and I immediately added it to my TBR list. (I’m aware that was a very liberal-arts-student-sentence.)

5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Through a series of letters spanning more than twenty years, some written to God, some written between two sisters, Walker writes about the lives of Black women in rural Georgia. Everyone who has recommended this says the same two things: this book is devastating, and you have to read it.

6. The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

This YA “rom com about two teen girls with rival henna businesses” looks SO good. (Also, that cover!! My heart!!)

7. Orlando by Virginia Woolf

I’m working my way through Woolf’s works! (Whew, that was a lot of w’s.) We watched a clip of the movie version in my costume design class and it was STUNNING. This novel was also the major inspiration for the MET Costume Institute’s delayed 2020 exhibit.

8. Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz

Natalie Diaz did an interview with Poets and Writers and it made me reconsider my entire life and now I have to read her poetry collection.

9. Queer Style by Vicki Karaminas and Adam Geczy

Any book with a chapter titled “Lesbian Style: From Mannish Women to Lipstick Dykes” feels worth reading.

10. In the Role of Brie Hutchens… by Nicole Melleby

What can I say? Middle-grade will always, always have my heart, and I cannot wait to read this story about a soap opera super fan navigating her queerness at a small Catholic school.

Thanks for reading. What books are you reading this Pride month? What are your fave queer novels and poems? Let me know in the comments! You can also find me on You can find me on Pinterest or Instagram. Until next time, serve some looks and read some books.

2019 In Review: Reading, Writing, and Going to College

What! A! Year!

I started college! Game of Thrones disappointed us all! I finished the third draft of my book! NASA revealed the first photo of a black hole! I read an absurd amount of magazines! Greta Gerwig’s Little Women was the Little Women we always deserved! (I laughed. I cried. Mostly cried. Might be my new favorite movie of all time; Emma Watson, Timothée Chalamet, and that ending? PERFECTION.) And apparently, I’ve become an advocate for the exclamation point!

My college campus in the fall!

2019 was twelve months of transition for me – I voted for the first time, moved up to Massachusetts (which I still misspell on occasion) for college, took classes in art history, literature, gender and sexuality, and astronomy, and learned how to do laundry. (DO NOT accidentally put your gray felt beret in the washer. It’ll shrink and flatten like a moldy pancake, and you’ll be sad.) This year felt like a movie montage, jumping from stress-cutting my friend’s bangs to seeing the constellations to a King Princess concert to running down a hill at full speed while my friend blasted Taylor Swift’s “Style” to gazing at the Philadelphia skyline from a rooftop to writing, writing, writing, and I’m only now catching my breath.

I feel like I’m on pause, taking a moment to look around me and see what will come next. What will happen next with the book? Am I taking the right classes? What will I write next? I don’t know what answers 2020 will bring. I can only hope that it will involve flappers dresses. (BRING BACK THE FRINGE!)

But before we move into the 20s, here’s a look back at 2019.

Reading

I met my reading goal of 52 books this year. Graphic novels became one of my biggest genres, largely thanks to Alison Bechdel. I also read a lot of plays, middle-grade novels – especially classics, because I was taking a college class about gender roles in children’s literature – and young adult books; I didn’t read as much poetry as I would’ve liked, though!

Best Books

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

My favorite two books sound like they have a real estate theme. Non-spoiler spoiler: these houses are neither dreamy nor fun. For the second year in a row, I will not shut up about Carmen Maria Machado. In Dream House, she examines an abusive queer relationship through a different lens in every chapter – she’s my current writing obsession. Alison Bechdel showed me what the form of the graphic novel could do; she’s incredible at weaving her themes through a narrative, with words AND art.

Biggest Disappointments

I wouldn’t say that there were any HUGE disappointments on my list this year, because if a book wasn’t doing it for me, I didn’t finish it. College is incredible. It is is also an incredible time-suck. I brought 25 books with me to read in my free time. Ha. Hahahahaha. To be fair, I was reading all the time – but I was mostly reading novels, articles, and excerpts for classes. However, having less time to read made me pickier about what I chose to invest my time into, so I had a pretty great reading year.

Total List

Poetry

1. The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded by Molly McCully Brown
2. Songs of Sappho

Plays

1. No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre
2. Brighton Beach Memoirs by Neil Simon
3. Trifles by Susan Glaspell
4. The White Card by Claudia Rankine

Graphic Novels

1. The Wicked + The Divine Volume 7: Mothering Invention by Gillen, McKelvie, Wilson, & Cowles
2. The Wicked + The Divine Volume 8: Old is the New New by Gillen, McKelvie, Wilson, & Cowles
3. The Wicked + The Divine Volume 9: Okay by Gillen, McKelvie, Wilson, & Cowles
4. Paper Girls Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan 
5. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
6. Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel
7. Alls Faire in Middle School by Victoria Jamieson
8. Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson
9. Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki

Memoir 

1. Understanding Owls With Diabetes by David Sedaris
2. Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
3. What Now by Ann Patchett
4. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
5. Homesick by Jennifer Croft
6. Heating and Cooling by Beth Ann Fennelly
7. Ongoingness by Sarah Manguso

Nonfiction

1. How to Date Men When You Hate Men by Blythe Roberson
2. In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri
3. The Clothing of Books by Jhumpa Lahiri
4. Radium Girls by Kate Moore
5. How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate by Andrew Hoffman
6. The Art of Perspective by Christopher Castellani
7. March Sisters by Carmen Maria Machado, Jenny Zhang, Kate Bolick, and Jane Smiley
8. Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon 

Children’s / Middle Grade

1. See You In the Cosmos by Jack Cheng
2. The Landry News by Andrew Clements
3. The Next Great Paulie Fink by Ali Benjamin
4. Eliza is Not a Big Fat Loser by Carmella Van Vleet
5. Eva by Peter Dickinson
6. The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
7. Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
8. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
9. Cinderella Liberator by Rebecca Solnit
10. Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot

Young Adult 

1. Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson
2. Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson
3. Meet Cute (Anthology)
4. Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli
5. Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler 

General Fiction

1. There There by Tommy Orange
2. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
3. The Crane’s Dance by Meg Howrey
4. Ayiti by Roxane Gay
5. American Housewife by Helen Ellis
6. Blueprints for Building Better Girls by Elissa Schappell

 

People reading my story at the Kennedy Center!

Writing

• I finished two journals! I’ve finally become the Girl Who Keeps An Active Journal, an identity I’ve been trying (and failing) to have since second grade.
• My portfolio won a national award in the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards, so I was in TINA FEY’s vicinity at the medal ceremony! All 206 of her bones must be funny bones. (That was bad. I’m sorry.)
• I was a Presidential Scholar of the Arts, and my writing was displayed in the Kennedy Center – it was incredibly surreal to see people reading my work like that. It felt more vulnerable than posting it online or watching someone read it off a sheet of paper.
• My writing appeared in Lunch Ticket, is forthcoming in The Hunger, and my short story was a semi-finalist for the Adroit Journal Prizes. I also become a youth poet laureate for New Jersey.
• I finished another draft of my book. I thought I’d feel very triumphant (in my family, we say “Triumphancy!” after a victory, and sometimes I forget it’s not a real word.) Instead, I feel sort of uneasy – I think it’s time to start beta-reading, and perhaps then querying, but it’s weird to think of your book living outside of you. For two and a half years, the novel has been mine, and releasing it into the world in any capacity feels simultaneously thrilling and terrifying.

Resolutions

1. Read 52 books.
2. Pitch my book to literary agents
3. Drink more water
4. Start researching my next novel

 

Thanks for reading! Did you gush over Little Women? What where your favorite books? Did you stress-cut your bangs? Let me know in the comments! Until next time, you can find me on Pinterest or Instagram.

My Top Ten Favorite Book Titles (Spoiler Alert: They’re All Super Long. Like This Title Is. Whoops.)

Hey everybody! I’m officially back from Miami, where I was participating in National YoungArts week. I had the chance to take classes with INCREDIBLE master teachers and panel members. I also got to read a two minute excerpt from my short story, Locations. Once that video is posted, I’ll share it with all of you. ❤

I’ve been hard at work revamping the third draft of my book. Because I’m constantly creating new documents for different sections, I think I’ve written the words The Space We Take too many times to count. I’m probably muttering Space in my sleep. Long story short: it made me think a lot about titles. It’s so weird how less than ten words come to represent more than 80,000 words, isn’t it? A title really becomes an identity. I’ve gathered up some of my fave titles to share (and steal ideas from, because that’s what writers do.)

1. Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude

Okay, a lot of what I write is sad. And a lot of what I read is sad. And a lot of the news is sad, and a lot of events are sad, and what I’m trying to say is, Ross Gay is the hero we need but don’t deserve. Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude makes me smile. There are sad moments, sure, but this poetry collection knows joy. Even the title wears the happiness like a crown.

 

2. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

Omg, get it? Storied, because it’s about his life story, but also because he owns a bookstore? No? Just go read this, it’s one of my all-time favorites.

 

3. Her Body And Other Parties

UGH. So if you read my yearly wrap up post, you’ll have noticed that this book was one of my faves. This title matches the book in terms of sheer excellence, percentage in which it makes me want to unleash female rage (100%), and inspiration it’s given my writing. UGH. READ THIS.

 

4. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and Other Concerns)

Wow, didn’t know a title could transport me right back to my 6th grade formal. But no, despite the trauma, this title (and the book) is as funny as Mindy Kaling is. Which is very funny.

 

5. Speak

So, most of the titles on this list have a lot of words in them. That makes sense. When you have more words, you have more space to make a joke or set up tension. But Speak only needs one word to introduce it’s heartbreaking premise. This book, more poignant then ever in the aftermath of #MeToo, should be on required reading lists everywhere. (Side note: Shout, Laurie Halse Anderson’s poem memoir follow-up to Speak, is one of my most anticipated reads of 2019!)

 

6. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

A brilliant title for a brilliant book. This title is so smart, because it immediately lets us know what’s going to kickstart the action. I literally took notes in my writer’s notebook when I read this title.

 

7. Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

Talk about a title that makes you want to figure out what happens next. Why is she after my ass? Do I want to kick her ass? The questions are endless. Another inciting incident title.

 

8. And Then There Were None

Here’s a not so fun fact: And Then There Were None was not always the title of Agatha Christie’s classic. This book was originally published in Britain Ten Little N-Words, though as you might imagine, the cover had the actual n-word written on it. This was quickly (and rightfully) deemed racist and offensive, so it was changed to Ten Little Indians, which was still somewhat racist and offensive. Finally, the book was dubbed And Then There Were None, which is a vastly superior title, though don’t we all just wish it had started that way.

 

9. The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden

Don’t you love titles that have entire plots crammed into them? I know I do. Someone with the name Jonas Jonasson should be well aware of the importance of a catchy title, and he’s mastered the art. (Jonasson is also the author of The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared.) I bought this book for title alone, but it turned out the story was brilliant too!

 

10. Men Explain Things To Me

Before there was mansplaining, there was “Men Explain Things to Me.” I had no idea that five words could contain the bitterness of hundreds of years of dismissal and oppression, but here we are. Language is great, isn’t it?

Thanks so much for reading. What’s the title of your WIP? Do you have any fave titles? Let me know in the comments! Until next time, you can find me on Pinterest , Etsy, and Instagram.

2018 In Review: Things I Read, Wrote, and Blogged

Hello everybody! Long time no see. I had an unplanned hiatus, for possibly the best of reasons: I found out in November that I was a YoungArts finalist in Novel and Short Story, and I’ve been busy planning for YoungArts week ever since. I also rewrote my book for NanoWrimo. (Plus I finished all my college applications. I wrote so many supplementary essays. SO MANY. The whole process is so weird and subjective, and I’m pretty happy to be almost done with it. If someone mentions the ACT one more time, I might throw a book at them.)

Actual footage of me after getting my haircut.

2018 certainly wasn’t perfect, particularly in regards to world news, but I became a better writer, travelled to new cities, and got bangs – obviously my most important life event. I’m going to be sad to see this year go, but I’m excited for everything that 2019 will bring, even if a lot of it will be big changes for me. (Going to college? Writing another book? Learning how to cook more things than eggs?? Anything could happen.) As Emily Dickinson once said, “I dwell in possibility.”

But right before I move onto 2019, here is 2018 in review.

Reading

I had my typical reading goal of 52 books, and I managed to surpass it with 61 books! This year, I finally embraced my love of middle grade novels – they have so much heart – reading 15 MG/Young Adult books. Contemporary & Historical Fiction was close behind, but I only read five poetry books this year. I also read my first ever graphic novel series. All in all, it was a pretty great year for books,

Best Books

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin

The Mothers by Brit Bennett

Circe by Madeline Miller

WOW. These are the books I refused to shut up about for a whole year. Her Body and Other Parties has been the book I’ve recommended to everyone. It’s totally influenced my writing, reading, and concept of feminism and genre. I wrote my first ever science-fiction story because of this collection! This book is the future. The Thing About Jellyfish reignited my love of middle grade, and The Mothers was so well-written that I refused to read it until I finished my own book so I wouldn’t be intimidated. Finally, I found a new favorite author with Circe. I didn’t think my love for greek mythology could grow anymore, and Madeline Miller took that challenge by sprinkling in what I always thought was missing in the myths: women’s perspectives. My favorite greek myth yet.

Biggest Disappointments

The Promise of Stardust by Priscille Sibley

Let It Snow (DNF) by John Green Maureen Johnson , and Lauren Myracle

The Promise of Stardust just wasn’t for me. I thought it was going to be a moral family drama in the vein of My Sister’s Keeper, but I found it to be pretty preachy. If you have an eye for detail, you may have noticed Let It Snow wasn’t on my total list, because I didn’t finish it. It’s a collection of short stories, and centered around a broken down train and a bunch of cheerleaders in a Waffle-house. (Yes, this has John Green’s fingerprints all over it.) Speaking of John Green, it was during his story that I put the book down and didn’t pick it back up. This was a weird misognistic thing going on regarding the cheerleaders throughout the novel, but since I liked Green, I was particularly disappointed to read this fun line of dialogue from his female character: “If by that you mean that I dislike celebrity magazines, prefer food to anorexia, refuse to watch TV shows about models, and hate the color pink, then yes. I am proud to be not really a girl.” UGHHHHHHHHH. The whole thing is obviously “I’m not like other girls,” which is obnoxious in its own right. What’s so wrong about being a girl? What’s so wrong with the color pink? (Fun fact, pink was a boys color in the early 1900s. Y’all don’t hate pink. Y’all hate women.) But I can still forgive that, because a character’s dialogue is not an author’s opinion. However, referring to eating disorders as a “choice” that girls make is both dangerous and blatantly incorrect. Presenting a deadly disorder as something that is girly and weak is so messed up. I still think the first story by Johnshon is pretty cute, but I settled down for some cute snow tales and instead got hit with warped internal misogyny, so unfortunately this is the category where this book ended up.

Biggest Surprises

The Wicked + The Divine, Vol.

No Slam Dunk by Mike Lupica

A World Without “Whom”: The Essential Guide to Language in the BuzzFeed Age

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

OKAY. This might seem like a weird medley of books, but hear me out. So, first, I picked up my first graphic novel volume, The Wicked and the Divine, and was hooked. 12 Gods from different religions are reincarnated as humans, but they only have two years to live. Isn’t that one of the coolest elevator pitches you’ve heard? No Slam Dunk was a book I read because of my awesome internship at a book publicity place. I underestimated how much I’d like it. In middle school, I thought “sports books” were probably poorly written, but now I realize like any genre fiction, it can be brilliantly executed. A World Without Whom was a book about copy-editing that I thought I’d skim through. Instead, I read every word. It changed my perspective on the power of language in a time where people’s words are limited by characters. Finally, I thought Slaughterhouse-Five would just be a book about war and gore, If someone said “So it goes,” I thought of the Taylor Swift Song. But wow. What an honest and brutal depiction of human suffering. I’m a total Vonnegut-convert.

Best Existential Crisis Books

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

My Private Property by Mary Ruefle

You know that feeling when you finish a book and you have to lie down on your back and stare at the ceiling and reconsider absolutely everything that you’ve previously taken for granted in your insignificant life? Yeah, these books will do that for you.

Books That Made Me Cry

How to Love the Empty Air by Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

UGH. UGH. UGH. So, How to Love the Empty Air is basically the most eloquent sob-fest I’ve ever read. Do not trifle with it in public, but if you’re a writer, someone who loves their mother, or someone who likes crying, pick up a copy. I grew up with the Illiad, and I never thought a rewriting would make me cry, but Madeline Miller made me care about these characters like I never had before. Also, she made me cry. So there’s that.

Books That Made Me Laugh

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler

I knew I was probably in for some laughs based off the titles alone, but I had no idea how much joy the narrators in these books would give me. These are not easy or necessarily funny stories; there’s violence and complication in both. However, despite it all, both of these novels made me actually laugh, because the main characters’ voices are just that authentic and compelling. It felt like a friend was telling me the story.

Total List

Contemporary/Historical Fiction

1. The Mothers by Brit Bennett
2. Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín
3. The Storyteller’s Secret by Sejal Badani
4. Three Blind Mice and Other Stories by Agatha Christie
5. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
6. The Game We Play by Susan Hope Lanier
7. Modern Lovers by Emma Straub
8. The Girls in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin
9. Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett
10. Plainsong by Kent Haruf
11. The Promise of Stardust by Priscille Sibley
12. Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories by Sandra Cisneros
13. My Private Property by Mary Ruefle
14. A Book on the Table: Flash Fiction by Celeste Ng, Grant Faulkner, and more.

Poetry

1. How to Love the Empty Air by Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz
2. Poems by Louisa May Alcott
3. I’m So Fine: A List of Famous Men & What I Had On by Khadijah Queen
4. One Secret Thing by Sharon Olds
5. There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé by Morgan Parker

Classics

1. The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
2. Hamlet by Shakespeare
3. Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka
4. Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
5. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
6. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
7. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
8. A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
9. Beloved by Toni Morrison

Nonfiction

1. Legendary Authors and the Clothes They Wore by Terry Newman
2. Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
3. Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton
4. A Girl’s Guide to Joining the Resistance: A Feminist Handbook on Fighting for Good by Emma Gray
5. Sounds Like Me: My Life (So Far) In Song by Sara Bareilles
6. A World Without “Whom”: The Essential Guide to Language in the BuzzFeed Age by Emmy Favilla

Children’s/Young Adult

1. The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin
2. Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina
3. The Unlikely Story of the Pig in the City by Jodi Kendall
4. Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes
5. The Big Crunch by Pete Hautman
6. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler
7. The Great Wall of Lucy Wu by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
8. Poison Ivy by Amy Koss
9. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
10. Things You Either Hate or Love by Brigid Lowry
11. This Impossible Light by Lily Myers
12. No Slam Dunk by Mike Lupica
13. Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
14. 500 Words Or Less by Juleah del Rosario
15. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Graphic Novels

1. The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1: The Faust Act by Gillen, McKelvie, Wilson, & Cowles
2. The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 2: Fandemonium by Gillen, McKelvie, Wilson, & Cowles
3. The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 3: Commercial Suicide by Gillen, McKelvie, Wilson, & Cowles
4. The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 4: Rising Action by Gillen, McKelvie, Wilson, & Cowles
5. The Wicked + The Divine Vol. 5: Imperial Phase by Gillen, McKelvie, Wilson, & Cowles
6. The Wicked + The Divine Volume 6: Imperial Phase II by Gillen, McKelvie, Wilson,& Cowles

Science Fiction/Fantasy

1. Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
2. The Hawkweed Prophecy by Irena Brignull
3. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
4. Circe by Madeline Miller
5. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
6. Kill the Queen by Jennifer Estep

Writing

Me feat. my second book

• I started journaling again, which makes me feel like I have my life together. (I don’t. But doesn’t someone who journals sound like they have their life together? Fake it ’till you make it.
• My first book won a national gold medal in the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards.
• I finished my second book, then rewrote it, then submitted it to YoungArts, and I became a finalist!
• I got to participate in two summer writing programs, where I wrote a ton of short stories and poems.
• After going to the New Jersey TeenArts festival, I came first in state for Creative Writing.
• I won 2nd Place in the Waltham Forest Poetry Competition with my poem Rome.
• My work appeared in the Asbury Park Press, Louisville Review, Poets Reading the News, Polyphony Lit, CrashTest Magazine, Bridge Ink, Blue Marble Review, and Navigating the Maze.
• Poets Reading the News nominated my poem, Learning, for the Pushcart Prize.

I want to end this blog post by looking forward. It was pretty tricky to make goals for myself this year, because I don’t know what state I’m going to be living in once fall rolls around. All the different schools I’m applying to are different directions my life could go. It’s almost unsettling that so much is unknown. However, I have a few resolutions that I plan to carry through no matter where I end up:

1. Read 52 books.
2. Blog at least once a week. (Fingers crossed for this year.)
3. Pitch my second book to literary agents (!) and start drafting a third.

Here’s hoping that I’ll be able to accomplish some of these!

Thanks so much for reading. How was your year? What books did you read? Do you also pretend that you’re organized just because you journal every now and then? Let me know in the comments! Until next time, you can find me on Pinterest or Instagram.

 

 

 

The Best Writing + Life Advice from The 2018 Dodge Poetry Festival

Hello everyone! I was lucky enough to attend the Dodge Poetry Festival this year, the largest poetry festival in North America. Unfortunately, the some of the festival’s events had to be cancelled this year because of a manhole fire and power outage, but no one was hurt, and I still was able to attend a few readings. I’ve gathered the best advice from the Dodge Poetry Festival, including quotes from Sandra Cisneros, who wrote the House on Mango Street!

The books I bought at Dodge Poetry!

Pecking Order by Nicole Homer

Fat Girl Finishing School by Rachel Wiley

Writing Poetry to Save Your Life: How to Find the Courage to Tell Your Stories by Maria Mazziotti Gillan

Fossil Sky by David Hinton

I’m So Fine: A List of Famous Men & What I Had On by Khadijah Queen [This is the only one I’ve read so far, but I highly recommend it!]

On Poetry

“In order to write a poem, you can’t know where you’re going.”

– Jericho Brown

“Poetry is healthier than Prozac.” 

– Sandra Cisneros

“You can say things in a poem that you can’t say to loved ones.”

– Jericho Brown

“In order to write a poem, you have to lose something. When writers read, they’re looking for something. It’s the writer’s job to write what’s missing.”

– Jericho Brown

“If you read three poems and write two poems a day, you don’t need alcohol.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“Rely on sound. That’s how I write another line, based off of sound.”

– Jericho Brown

I’m married to fiction, but I’m having an affair with poetry. Poetry’s a bad boyfriend, because he never does what I want him to do.”

– Sandra Cisneros

On Writing

“If you don’t transform your stories, they will transform you.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“The stories we don’t talk about have a lot of power. Think about the stories you want to forget. If it’s far away, the sensory details are hone, but what’s important is how it made you feel.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“Don’t write it for publication, write it so the stories don’t haunt you.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“When I revise, I try to take out 1/2 the adjectives and 1/3 of the self pity”

– Sharon Olds

“The stereotype of the starving artist is a reality.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“If you want a career in writing, I have three things to say. First, earn your own money. Second, control your fertility. Don’t take care of other people before yourself. Third, solitude is sacred.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“Writing is playing. Act your age, but act all of your ages.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“We must write as though what we write is too dangerous to be published.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“Writer’s block is writer’s fear. Make a list of ten things you are afraid to talk about, and then you will always have something to write about.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“I don’t even know what I think until I write it down.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“If you’re telling a true story, then the story is true. The little details just make it come alive.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“When we write fiction, we are drawing from what’s happened to us and cutting it up and pasting like a collage.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“The sense of smell is the oldest and most accurate of our senses – that’s where we start.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“Writing is like cutting your own hair. There only so much you can do in the mirror. Eventually you’ll need help.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“If you want to portray anyone else, you have to do a lot of listening and get out of the way. If you do it curiously with love and respect, and allow the person to take over the page, then it is a service. Whatever we create with love on behalf of those we love with no personal agenda will turn out beautiful.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“In the hierarchy of fame, writers are the protozoa.

– Sandra Cisneros

“Books are medicine and I happened to have the right prescription for our time.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“When the characters make mistakes, that’s me. When the characters and strong and smart, that’s who I wish I could have been.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“Write your first draft in PJs. Write it like you’d speak.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“If you’re stuck in a story, take the end off of one story and put it on another and people will think you’re a genius. Never throw anything away.”

– Sandra Cisneros

On Life

“Your tribe is here. They are out in the world.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“Who I used to be is underneath the layers of who I am now.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“Visualize what you want. See it. Say it. Walk towards it.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“It’s good to be the person on the fringes. It forces you to watch everyone else. Everyday, there are little bits of dialogue. It’s free. You just have to take it.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“In order to be in love, we face ourselves.”

– Jericho Brown

“You will never get to the Olympics by training in your backyard. You need a coach.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“We all grow up being able to listen to the clouds, but then we forget and have to learn again. Artists never forget.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“The way forward is through more dark.”

– Gregory Orr

“The more languages you know, the more ways you have of looking at the world.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“The last time I was lonely was when I loved with someone.”

– Sandra Cisneros

“We live in times where we have to be our own heroes.”

– Sandra Cisneros

Thanks so much for reading! What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve heard? Let me know in the comments. Until next time, you can find me on Pinterest  or Instagram.

 

How To Read Books If You’re Broke

In my humble opinion, the two most important words in the English language are “FREE BOOKS.”

We all know books can be expensive. As a writer, I’m happy that authors are getting fairly compensated for their years of imagination and incredible hard work. When I can, I buy books from local indie bookstores. But since I’m currently jobless and saving for college, I’ve also had to find some thriftier ways to read.

These methods don’t hurt authors or your wallet. (And yes, all of them are legal.)

Me at the beautiful Vassar Library!

1. Borrow Books From Friends

That’s what friends are for. If you have any friends who love reading, ask them if they’d be willing to lend you a book. Just remember that means you have to lend out your babies books to other people too, even with the threats of water spills, dog-eared pages, and bent covers looming large.

 

2. Used Books

This isn’t a completely free option, but used books are a fantastic way to get a lot of good quality, physical books for less. I buy the majority of my books through charity sales and secondhand shops. If you’re a thrifty shopper, you can find recent fiction for as cheap as fifty cents for a novel. You can buy used books online through E-bay and other vendors, but first, see if there’s a used bookstore near you! In my experience, secondhand bookstores are some of the most magical places on Earth. (Even if I am allergic to dust and spend most of my time there sneezing.)

3. Free E-Books

If you love genre fiction, like science fiction and romance, you’re in luck! Some independent authors release free e-books to download, which you can view on sites like Bookbub. Also, keep an eye out for bloggers who release snippets of their writing, free short-stories, and even entire novels for their readers to download.

 

4. Expired Copyright

All works published in the United States before 1923 are in the public domain, which means that these books are free to read. Pride and Prejudice, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and Anne of Green Gables are all at your disposal. If you love classics, or if you want to read something tried and true, check out Project Gutenberg, which offers over 55,000 free E-books to download.

 

5. Libraries!

Um, because of course? Not only are libraries essentially hubs of free books, they’re community centers filled with some of the best, most hardworking people you’ll ever meet. You’ll be able to check books/e-books/audio books out for weeks at a time for free, as well as access computers, literary events, and helpful classes. Also, if you’re looking for a book that the library doesn’t have, librarians will often to go out of their way to find it at another branch.

There was recently a (now deleted) article on Forbes about libraries being replaced by the internet and Amazon. There’s a lot wrong with that sentiment. Libraries provide literature, community, and support to everyone, regardless of income, race, gender, and sexuality. Remember to support your libraries, and the wonderful librarians in them!

How do you buy your books? Let me know in the comments! Until next time, you can find me on Pinterest or Instagram.

Writers Who Influence Me the Most

I have devoted an extremely large portion of my short life to taking online quizzes. I want to know my personality (INFJ) and my Hogwarts house (Ravenclaw.) I almost cried when Buzzfeed told me that The Office character that I was most like was Toby. (To quote Michael Scott, “NOOOO!”)

But recently, my work and my procrastination methods collided when I took a quiz called I Write Like, which attempts to tell you what writer you resemble from analyzing something that you wrote.  The answers are universally flattering. (I was half Joyce Carol Oates and half Agatha Christie, what about you?) However, it got me thinking: What authors, famous and not, modern or traditional, have influenced my writing?

Reading creates writers. I have been influenced by every single book I have ever read. However, to keep this blog post a reasonable length, I’m counting an author as an “influencer” if…

• I’ve read more than one of their books/plays/collections
• Their work has, subconsciously or consciously, influenced my writing
• Their career has inspired my own

Most of the names are probably familiar to you. (After all, the great writers are great for a reason, and the older they are, the longer they’ve had to, you know, influence writing forever.) But there may yet be a few surprises!

1. Margaret Atwood

How they’ve influenced me: It is my firm belief that Margaret Atwood is the best writer of our generation. She’s published an absurdly large amount of books, and while you might think she sacrificed quality for the quantity, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Her writing is innovative and captivating.

She doesn’t limit to herself to one genre, exploring literary fiction, dystopian, poetry, novels, short stories, and more types of writing. Her stories are not always in chronological order, which creates a mystery for the reader to figure out. Her career is one I have always dreamed of: a life of living books, one after the other, not limited by genre or expectations.

My favorite work they wrote: Moral Disorder (Collection of short stories)

One thing all writers can learn from them: Stories don’t have to be linear.

2. William Shakespeare

How they’ve influenced me: Shakespeare set the basis for much of literature as we know it. He invented words, created iconic characters, and practically mastered the art of story telling. Shakespeare has taught me a lot about plot. Whether he’s writing a tragedy or a comedy, there are always twists and turns, surprises and revelations. Shakespeare was one of the first authors I read who didn’t always have happy endings. It goes to show how versatile and powerful his plots are, since people are still recreating his stories with different settings and situations.

My favorite work they wrote: Hamlet

One thing all writers can learn from them: Your writing doesn’t have to have a happy ending.

3. Wendy Mass

How they’ve influenced me: The beautiful thing about children’s books is that they form people. When you write for adults, you try to make the characters realistic enough that they might remind the reader of someone they know in real life. But children’s fiction is different. Instead, real people remind the reader of the character, because the character came first.

That’s what happened to me with Wendy Mass’s books. Every single character was so alive and relatable. They were some of my first friends, and its difficult for me to even think of them as books. Wendy’s stories are living and alive. I think she wrote the perfect middle grade novel – two times. I want to write middle grade books, and she is my biggest inspiration.

My favorite work they wrote: Every Soul a Star (Middle grade novel)

One thing all writers can learn from them: Each character should think they’re the main character.

4. Emily Dickinson

How they’ve influenced me: If she were still alive, I would give Emily Dickinson my first born child. She was my first literary idol, and she is still my favorite poet/author of all time. There will be a blog post in the future fully dedicated to her grace, beauty, and power, but for the meanwhile, I’ll try to tame my abundant devotion to her.

Emily Dickinson wrote about flowers and death at the same time. By using small details about nature and human life, she evokes greater emotions and bigger-than-life themes. Even though her poems are short and her subjects seemingly insignificant, she knows how to wield them to create something powerful.

My favorite work they wrote: All of the above.

One thing all writers can learn from them: Seemingly insignificant details can become powerful with a writer’s words.

5. Jane Hirshfield

How they’ve influenced me: Jane Hirshfield. Queen of poetry, queen of Haiku, and queen of being kind. Jane Hirshfield is the woman who taught me what poetry should be. She is the only person who can write a poem about death and leave the reader feeling happy.

Her poems are controlled yet alive. She uses line breaks to create pauses. Silence is as important in her poems as the words are. Also, I’ve had the joy of meeting her once, and  she replied to a poem I sent her with the kindest letter I’ve ever gotten.

My favorite work they wrote: Come, Thief (Poetry Collection)

One thing all writers can learn from them: Remember to use silence in your writing.

6. Claudia Rankine

How they’ve influenced me: Claudia Rankine cannot be summed up into one simple word like “poet” or “novelist” or “artist.” She uses all three in her book, Citizen, which is one of the most important books of our time. Claudia not only breaks the rules, she makes the reader reconsider why the rules even existed if something this powerful could be written without them. She is kind, daring, and brave. Everyone should read her work. She has something to say, and we have to listen.

My favorite work they wrote: Citizen

One thing all writers can learn from them: Abandon genre.

7. Laurie Halse Anderson

How they’ve influenced me: Laurie Halse Anderson absolutely blew my mind as a teenager because sometimes she would just cross things out and smushwordstogether AND SOMETIMES just put things in all caps.

I swear. It’s much cooler when she does it.

My favorite work they wrote: Speak (Young Adult novel)

One thing all writers can learn from them: Take stylistic risks.

8. Agatha Christie

How they’ve influenced me: I read for many reasons. I read to better understand those who have lived different lives than my own. I read to become a better writer. But I read Agatha Christie’s books for one reason alone: They’re fun. 

As a writer, sometimes I get weighed down by the idea that my work needs to mean something. It has to change the world, or change someone’s mind, or make a difference somehow. But Agatha Christie’s mysteries, which are a pure pleasure to read, remind me that giving the reader something that means something to them is goal number one. And sometimes, that meaning can simply be, “What a great story! It was entertaining to read.”

My favorite work they wrote: And Then There Were None

One thing all writers can learn from them: Reading should be fun.

9. Oscar Wilde

How they’ve influenced me: Oscar Wilde makes me laugh. His one-liners are legendary. Even though he’s more than a hundred years old, he still consistently makes “People I’d Invite to a Dinner Party” lists. He’s just that funny.

Oscar reminds me that no matter how serious the subject, the reader likes to laugh. I aspire to one day be a witty as him, and I try to slip more humor into my novels.

My favorite work they wrote: The Importance of Being Earnest

One thing all writers can learn from them: Don’t forget the humor in your writing.

10. Andrew Clements

How they’ve influenced me: Andrew Clements wrote the book that made me want to write books. I’d always been a reader, and I loved his previous novel, Frindle. Then, I read Clements’ novel School Story, which is about a young girl trying to get her book published. For the first time, I realized someone my age could write a book. Someone my age could publish it.

I started writing long fiction after reading that book, because I knew I could. Andrew Clements is responsible for kick-starting my career, and I’m grateful for it.

My favorite work they wrote: School Story

One thing all writers can learn from them: Simple language doesn’t necessarily mean simple characters and simple stories.

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What writers have influenced you the most? Who do you “write like?” Let me know in the comments! Until next time, you can find me on Pinterest or Instagram.