getting ready with your period is like "remember that you are looking at yourself in the worst possible light, with ugly glasses on, and chill out"

My 11 am EST workshops and events are always more popular than the evening ones… but there had been requests! So I put them up! Food Essay (5 weeks!), Newsletter, and Self-Edit all available for February and March. alicia-kennedy.com/workshops

Don’t speak hyperbolically or they will curiosity-gap-headline you into eternity.

THE MONTHLY MENU, always an array of my eating, cooking, & drinking—bounces around from New York to San Juan to Copenhagen; good sandwiches & fermented veggie burgers; small-batch ginger beer & my organic cola obsession; how I made the best focaccia of my life. www.aliciakennedy.news/p/a-sandwich...

Has it affected anyone (in the U.S.)'s feelings on beef and whole milk to see the fascist admin pushing them really hard?

Preparing for book club. I blurbed this book after reading a digital copy and it’s very nice to get into the text in print.

There’s a big festival in old San Juan this weekend, millions will pack the streets, so Benny went to the dog sitter last night… today, I have no motivation? lol the dog is my productivity hack??? My reason for living?!!!

Wait I just saw this and it made me cry! www.tastingtable.com/2009322/icon...

I’m going to read from her tomorrow for the first time 🥰

getting diagnosed (early, before any truly terrible symptoms, thankfully) with graves' disease and finding out... i am not actually mentally ill; it's my hormones... i love that for me

If you also hate Bezos, you can preorder from Kitchen Arts & Letters—I'll be signing each copy! www.kitchenartsandletters.com/products/on-...

I prefer not to draw attention to Bezos ventures, but my publisher is running a giveaway of ON EATING through GoodReads, so if you have an account, throw your hat in the ring! Make me look desirable thank you! www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...

Tomorrow begins the first session of my FOOD ESSAY class, five weeks of reading, discussion, and instruction on how to approach different types of essays for publication. We are reading and discussing food essays, but this will help with every type of essay. alicia-kennedy.com/workshops/p/...

This week, I wrote about my shifting understandings of ambition: www.aliciakennedy.news/p/on-ambition

Because even when I just chronicle my eating in a city I get people responding angrily that I'm a sellout piece of shit for being an ex-vegan (now a bivalve-eating vegetarian, the scandal!!!), I'm extremely cautious on any pre-paywall political commentary. WHICH IS DEPRESSING.

I'm launching a literary journal of food writing this year. The sections are specs and prompts. Here are the pitch guidelines: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

I talked about how the whole steakhouse concept pretty much leaves me cold now; even as a meat eater. Alicia, as always, nails it better than I did.

My culture roundup, with a few new book recommendations (I'm always recommending books... sorry???). www.aliciakennedy.news/p/new-year-f...

"We can't delude our way out of climate change & the effects of using land to feed large amounts of cattle...-though some people are certainly trying." Timely piece for this moment, & if we're going to do old school steakhouse nostalgia, I vote for the 🍸🍸 lunch.

I wrote for @bestfoodblog.bsky.social about the DELUSION inherent to the steakhouse trend (filed minutes before RFK Jr. flipped the food pyramid, btw): www.bestfoodblog.net/the-steakhou...

The only feature I miss from Substack is that I was able to block free subscribers from replying to my newsletter. Sometimes the replies are nice, but this is mostly where the frustrating weird shit comes from...!

I wrote about our trip to Copenhagen, and it includes a conversation with Thomas Hjart, sommelier of the Ark Collective of plant-based restaurants to discuss rigorously sustainable and interesting pairings. The return to a bit of podcasting! www.aliciakennedy.news/p/on-copenha...

I so appreciate how this review looks at both of my books, which on the surface are quite different but I think are so intertwined. THANK YOU!!!

It is so hard to come back to the internet after time away. Nothing makes any sense. Why am I talking to strangers. Help.

literally why did we live through a pandemic for so many people to emerge more disgusting than before

Need to pack but I saw some scans of old Delia*s catalogs and am now letting YouTube tour me through my youth. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMCg...

I spruced up this spiced molasses shortbreads aka gingerbread recipe for this crucial week! Vegan or non-vegan, it’s up to your butter: www.aliciakennedy.news/p/from-the-k...

The Substack app will have people announcing a random blog to be the greatest thing they’ve ever read.

@aliciadkennedy.bsky.social on the future of food media podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

This is basically a chapter in my book NO MEAT REQUIRED. The one where I had to talk about meat as a powerful symbol because I could get into anything truly interesting.

that i'm a vegetarian is like literally the only thing i ask people to know and remember about me... lol... i don't care if your forget my name...

winding down for the year and also giving myself a lot of work to do in the new... will say as SELF-EMPLOYED PERSON it is very nice to treat december like a true in-between month of figuring out what's been working and what's not, getting a little bit ahead on new plans, ET CETERA!

I hate so much this extremely predictable wave of publicity for... steak.

More up, including Bryant Terry, Reem Assil, Preeti Mistry, and Roxana Jullapat—10 more to come and fresh, full episodes planned for the future. www.aliciakennedy.news/t/interviews

I'm resurrecting some select interviews. First up, of course, is Nigella: www.aliciakennedy.news/p/a-conversa...

Want to enjoy some great reads? If you're not already following @aliciadkennedy.bsky.social I recommend you do!

I'm just seeing this, but I've also lost a bunch of folks since leaving Substack. It sucks to see them proven right, but I'm confident things will turn around as I find more readers who aren't all-in on the walled-garden app experience.

i love to sign up as a vendor for a university, every system from ivy league to state school is a maze

If you'd never read my newsletter before—on food culture, media, and politics—these are the 6 pieces I'd recommend (one pulled from each year of publishing): www.aliciakennedy.news/p/on-the-arc...

Unsolicited and random writing advice: If you’re having one sentence stand alone, it better be worthy as fuck of standing alone because otherwise it’s obvious manipulation to force a profound moment or overstate the case. It’s also a way that AI writes because robots are stupid.

I added photos to recipes for gingerbread cake and jackfruit skewers so I think my recipe archive is all set for now…! (Every recipe is vegan.) www.aliciakennedy.news/t/recipes

In case you need some inspo or just want to nerd out: www.aliciakennedy.news/p/a-plant-ba...

It’s rare I have to look up a word these days (which tells me I need to be reading differently) but today… I did. “Micturate”:

My first talk that will reference my forthcoming book is on January 15. Virtual! Fun! www.mofga.org/event-calend...

some notes

I am a woman on December 10 sending out multiple interview requests for the pieces she will be writing in early 2026.

My husband talked about the US using Puerto Rico for military purposes on @aljazeera.com “The Take”: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/u...

I love to get yelled at for simply writing that a book is about (among other things) “Palestinian liberation.” Just those words and it’s freak-out city.

Reading a piece called “Framing Class” by Diana Kendall from 2005 for a class visit this afternoon and OH BOY… this has gotten so much worse

morning ☀️