Running into a new year….

I'm back, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ghost

Hello earth angels,

It’s good to write to you again. We are, as Lucille Clifton writes in one of my favorite poems, running into a new year - somehow, already.

New Years Day altar built by Tess Altman

Life has been busy and difficult and funny and sometimes very beautiful but isn’t that always the case. Since I wrote to you last, I turned 32 (or as I like to think of it sweet sixteen, again.) I just went to Vermont for 11 days and got stuck in a snow squall and got to hear a bunch of incredible writers read work aloud, and gossip and eat entirely dining hall food which is a dream if you’re lazy in the kitchen like I am. I’ve bought flowers and scratch offs and books and drinks and photo booth strips in the Whitney. I started the year by running into the ocean at Fort Tilden with friends where the water was so cold I couldn’t breathe. I continue to fight with my writing project (book…) and read and that’s why I’m here, humbly poking my way into your inbox - to tell you about two of my favorite books I hadn’t yet talked about that I think you should read.

In no particular order…

Daughter by by Claudia Dey

In Daughter, a woman artist attempts to distance herself from her famous writer father who treats her as a confidante only in moments of his own turmoil — particularly, when he’s cheating on his very evil wife who hates the narrator, Mona. The writing is so smart and so intimate and fucked up in a way that is very domestic. If you are someone interested in complicated family dynamics or have experienced a, hmm, rocky relationship with your father, this is for you. Going to awkwardly plug my own essay “Joe at the Aquarium” here. This one I was probably predisposed to love but it really knocked me out. I read this after Madeleine Lucas (whose book Thirst for Salt I absolutely loved) posted it on her Instagram and told me to buckle up for a sob. She was right and I’m so glad I read it. 

I’m A Fan by Sheena Patel

A woman obsesses over her ex’s new girlfriend on Instagram. The woman object of obsession is a rich white influencer with a Macarthur genius father who has bequeathed  her infinite amounts of cultural capital. The narrator’s obsession is deliciously wicked, her thoughts ranging from sexual and mean to biting and brilliant in their class commentary, particularly around the performance of whiteness, goodness and artist. If you frequently find yourself thinking about how social media is affecting us, run. I am, deeply, a fan.

I also read and loved, at James Frankie Thomas’ recommendation, Vladimir by Julia May Jones and loved it (if you loved A Certain Hunger, I think you’ll like this) and Darryl by Jackie Ess which has been on my to read for months if not years. I’ve written about these already but loved Dykette by my now friend Jenny Fran Davis (to the point where I bought it for multiple friends for their birthdays… yes, really, hi Jenny), The Mythmakers by Keziah Weir, Candelaria by Melissa Lozada-Oliva, I Keep by Exoskeletons to Myself by Mac Crane, All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Matthews…. At Melissa’s suggestion, I spent a long drive listening to Shirley Jackson as I meandered through the mountains to Vermont in early October. It was a good reading year but, I say this every year, I need to read more poetry. There’s also a favorite I read this year that will have more air time very, very soon so keep an eye out for that.

Whether or not you pick up any of these books, I sincerely hope that you will spend time with these urgent pieces that I’ve read recently and think about constantly… The essay “The Free Speech Debate is a Trap” by Andrea Long Chu which is so fucking smart and so well done, “A Palestinian Journalist’s Perilous Journey out of Gaza” in The New Yorker by Mosab Abu Toha, this interview with Nan Goldin in n+1, the poem “If I Must Die” by martyred Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer and this conversation between Palestinian author Isabella Hammad and Sally Rooney.

This year, I hope you turn towards hope, towards humor, towards friends who make you braver. 

If you read something you loved from my newsletter, tell me tell me!

Talk soon -big kiss and Free Palestine!

xo,

Ariél