Cannot underscore enough that the way to find a literary agent is *not* to ignore all the freely available submission guidelines and instead wander around an agency's physical office until someone asks what you're doing there

Do you recite "Who would have thought the old man to have had so much poop in him" in a Lady Macbeth voice when your 3 y/o goes potty or are you normal

Black Friday reminder: You can support independent bookstores and get great deals without lining the pockets of billionaires 😌

"Extraordinarily moving, exquisitely written, and socially revolutionary...RING OF SALT glows with what we need." Thrilled to see this rave review in the Irish Times for @betsycornwell.bsky.social's new memoir RING OF SALT!

Sick day with the 3 y/o has moved on from Frozen to the Brandy "Cinderella" Which of course is also the Bernadette Peters Cinderella and the Whitney Houston Cinderella and the Victor Garber Cinderella and the Whoopi and... Lesley Ann Warren is still *my* Cinderella, but man this cast is stacked

Meanwhile I told my 3 y/o she could select one book to buy. She immediately returned with three copies of a biography of Julie Andrews

At a bookstore in Bethesda where a toddler has evidently decided a copy of HARROW THE NINTH is his new emotional support object. Will not put it down I leaned advised him to start with GIDEON but I'm not sure he quite grasped how the multivolume narrative arc is structured

Obsessed with this quote-- Journalists at the Times of London reporting Americans are at a disadvantage in "sex warfare" because unlike slutty, slutty China, "by statute and by culture" we don't do that www.thetimes.com/us/american-...

We saw this at the Kennedy Center the day the news broke about Trump firing the board, and Alex Brightman nailing everything about this part was *still* the most memorable part of the evening. I'm so stoked for the Broadway run playbill.com/article/alex...

Oh no reason

NYC folks--Want to write a children's book with characters that leap off the page? Join this workshop at 92Y on Saturday, 10/11 Taught by NYT bestselling YA author Betsy Cornwell and multi-award-winning picture book author-illustrator Lisa Anchin www.scbwi.org/events/scbwi...

Increasingly grossed out by the very common phrase "[PERSON] is worth [DOLLARS]"

Check out this memoir publishing today about tactical community building www.simonandschuster.com/books/Ring-o...

Iced take: cafes should offer simple syrup next to the sugar and milk as a matter of course

This sign has been haunting my commute and I can bear it alone no longer

The internet should be a place you can find weird stuff if you want but the weird stuff should not be able to sealion you there

So many problems are addressed by having a giant bowl of spicy Korean stew and an array of banchan placed in front of me while someone else takes my 3y/o on a walk

Rilo Kiley's opening act in DC started at 8pm on the dot and planned a 43 minute set, and I wish to thank him on behalf of both DC millennials and our babysitters appreciate the consideration

Just another morning making pancakes for my kids and thinking how weird it is to be an evangelical German-Welsh family in Indiana naming your extremely gentile babies "Shekinah" and "Zachary Levi"

So no one on Hillary Clinton's team asked "is 'seminal' the word?" when drafting a note celebrating the anniversary of the 1995 UN Conference on Women in Beijing, huh

I don't know which of you in DC needs to hear this right now but if you bring your receipt from Lost City Books to Andy's Pizza, you can get a free slice Have a great Friday 📚🧾🍕

I think about @jsx.bsky.social's tweet about appointing a biblically accurate 70-judge SCOTUS ("Oh, you like Judeo-Christian values? GIVE US A SANHEDRIN, YOU COWARDS") like... daily

Ok who had "ICE kidnaps execs from two chaebols at a factory in Georgia" on their bingo card

Stopped by a photo shoot set for one of my cookbook authors and my arm was recruited for a photo This book is so, so beautiful and I'm in awe of how it's turning out Also hello I'm famous now, will be giving this book to EVERYONE when it comes out with a Post-It flagging the Arm Page

I was NPR's on-the-ground reporter in Butler, PA on July 13. It was harrowing and exhausting (not to mention hot as hell). We won a Murrow today for our live coverage of the shooting, and I'm proud to have responsibly told people what was happening that day. www.rtdna.org/2025-nationa...

Every year on this day, I consider commissioning a custom "ASK ME ABOUT MY ACCIDENTAL HOME BIRTH" tee Happy birthday to my beautiful baby, who isn't a baby anymore but still surprises me every day (though not quite as life-alteringly as on the first day)

I see the "Guy at a bar alone who interrupts your conversation with friends to lean in too far and ask if you like close-up magic" aesthetic is back

Counterpoint: There is has never been a more urgent time to write a book. Technofascism is, among other things, an attempt to capture and enclose literature and literacy. Print is a rent strike.

Took my family in DC and on the Metro elevator we saw youths standing on the left and walking on the right so you can't convince me that crime isn't up

throw between them all the food thou hast

For real though if you are one of the many incredibly talented people laid off during Vox Media's recent choice to impale itself on a series of rakes and you have been mulling a nonfiction book proposal, I'd welcome hearing about it. My contact info is on the WME Books website

I'm so mad the Eater layoffs are coming at the exact moment we most need a cultural history of sub sandwiches

Obvious, not-hard Qs would have been: Should the House take up the Senate-passed DC funding fix so the city has $1bn more to spend? Will you nominate more judges in D.C. superior courts, which are understaffed, leading to slower processing of cases and cases dropped altogether?

DC statehood is now an imperative. No more dicking around. Next Dem majority, get it done immediately.

Today I took my kids to this and a Washington Post journalist there asked us "So is this the first birthday party you have attended for a turtle?" 11/10 no notes unironically I think the Post should learn into hyperlocal coverage thank you for your service Michael www.nps.gov/planyourvisi...

A "find my iPhone" option that EITHER plays a loud sound OR alerts you that the phone slipped out of a pocket in your sleeping toddler's room but not both

When my two-year-old farts and instead of saying excuse me she announces "A TOOT!" with a level of jubilance beyond imagining That's comedy baby

Happy birthday, Juliet Capulet. You continue to inspire me to support robust public health measures and a thriving postal service.

my new piece in @thenation.com, up now. no trigger alert: no eddie cantor references in this one. www.thenation.com/article/cult...

Not to be controversial but 95 degrees is too many degrees for 5pm

Proposal that we collectively stop using "seminal" in non-semen-related contexts

You say journalism is dead. I say the Washington Post profiled a nudist retreat in West Virginia and managed to find a man named Dewey Butts III.

One thing about having lived in Korea before grad school is appreciating where TT could plausibly mean both crying and "tenure track"

[To the tune of "Mustang Sally"] Mustard Salmon

Move over, Hot Girl Summer, this year we all have BABESIOSIS FEVER. Scram, Main Character Energy --2025 is all about ALPHA-GAL SYNDROME #ticktock #sic #butalsosick #likesosick

A website where I put in my kids' sizes and the school uniform colors/requirements and it tells me the cheapest place that has all the things in stock

babe this is the womb!!!! you're describing the womb right now

DC thunderstorm is wild for real

Few stronger Big Doofus indicators than caring about another adult's teenaged SAT scores

[My brain whenever it's asked to enter a One Time Password] YOU DOWN WITH OTP? (YEAH YOU KNOW ME) YOU DOWN WITH OTP? (YEAH YOU KNOW ME) WHO'S DOWN WITH OTP? (ALL THE HOMIES)