Introducing, my child

And now’s about the time every evening when I start noticing how many times I’ve burned myself today.

The other day in baking class an Eagles song came on and I stupidly blurted out, “I wrote an essay about that song once.” Lady I was halfway speaking to responds, “why?” And if that isn’t the way most of the non-writer world views writers idk what is. bendinggenres.com/dont-let-the...

There is someone with my same name in the Pacific Northwest who has made a significant and expensive order at a fancy pie shop. Am I also living there? Are the timelines crossed? Is it the name that makes us this way?

I wrote over 10,000 words for work this month and baked my arse off at school. Going to rest and try to get caught up on zine orders this weekend.

I haven’t shared a ton about pastry school here. It feels a little like speaking into the void tbh but I learned how to make bagels today. It was the best bagel I’ve ever had tbh.

I just saw Batman and The Lorax drive by in a Chrysler convertible. I hope they’re bout to get in some good trouble together.

Sometimes I get to write about fine art for my day job. It’s my fave.

I wish I knew the combined total # of cookies we’ve baked in my pastry class the past two weeks. Holy shirtballs!

Going to school FT (2 classes = 20 hours/week) & copywriting my ass off might burn me out completely but I got enough fuel from the shock on my mostly Gen Z classmates’ faces after I told them I’m 48 will keep me going for at least a little while.

Road buddies waiting on a piece of my 🥐

In better news, the blurbs coming in for There Is News Along the Ohio River, (forthcoming from @riverriverbooks.bsky.social February ‘26) are making me cry in a good way. Unlike sobbing in my car after pastry school yesterday when a teenager corrected how I was holding my knife to cut brownies FFS.

Stone Circle Replay Wednesday poem: "That Christmas I Ate Moonshine Cherries and Became a Fortune Teller" by Beth Gilstrap (@bettysueblue.bsky.social) stonecirclereview.com/that-christm...

I’m having a hard time dealing with the grief over never being good enough for academia & letting go of that dream. I’ve worked so hard for so long and it’s just…hard not to see all of it as pointless.

Want more poetry? Contributor @bettysueblue.bsky.social published a prose poem from her new book THERE IS NEWS ALONG THE OHIO RIVER (launching Feb 2026 from @riverriverbooks.bsky.social) in @pitheadchapel.bsky.social: buff.ly/DbCZShE

I’m looking to collaborate on some in-person and virtual events to promote my new book, a hybrid flash CNF coll. about my time in Louisville 2020-2022, “There Is News Along the Ohio River” coming Feb ‘26 from @riverriverbooks.bsky.social. If you or your bookshop are near the river, let’s talk.

Check it out…we should be ready to print starting this weekend.

Quarter 2, Week 1, Baking 101. Pastry class starts Monday. Always silly. Love baking w my friend from culinary 105, Mailani. Exhausted & overwhelmed but still having fun. We made: blueberry muffins, sweet corn muffins, & zucchini nut bread. Next week it’s biscuits & scones.

Check it out…we should be ready to print starting this weekend.

I’m looking to collaborate on some in-person and virtual events to promote my new book, a hybrid flash CNF coll. about my time in Louisville 2020-2022, “There Is News Along the Ohio River” coming Feb ‘26 from @riverriverbooks.bsky.social. If you or your bookshop are near the river, let’s talk.

Orders for @blacklilyzine.bsky.social issue 3 are now open! See details below.

Y'all I'm in this and so excited to read it! Find info here for ordering. There's a feminist ekphrastic poem from me ✨ can you guess about which artist???

If you can support and buy a copy of this zine, please do. Thankful to have a photo appearing in this issue. (And what a stunning cover image!)

Orders for @blacklilyzine.bsky.social issue 3 are now open! See details below.

Me & most women I know around my age (in the U.S.) are wondering right now: is it perimenopause/is it an autoimmune disease/have I finally lost the last of my marbles/is it late stage capitalism under a fascist regime/does it matter bc doctors will tell me bloodwork is normal/or all of the above?!

Y’all, I think the frog is now the symbol of the resistance and I know folx who grew up (*coughs genxers & millennials) w Jim Henson’s work are fucking ready. My 1st tattoo quotes The Rainbow Connection ffs.

Prepping cherry tomatoes for slow roasting & a very important novel epiphany & a few lines of dialogue arrived. Love it when that happens. Can’t wait til I have time to work on it again.

John Waters is going to be the keynote speaker at AWP?! Yasss! Might actually go to that if I’m not reading at an offsite.

It’s been a minute since I’ve published anything so I’m super honored & grateful to have one piece from my forthcoming hybrid/flash CNF collection, There Is News Along the Ohio River (@riverriverbooks Feb’26) out today @pitheadchapel.bsky.social pitheadchapel.com/volume-14-is...

And check out this beautiful & beautifully disturbing prose poem by @bettysueblue.bsky.social in @pitheadchapel.bsky.social : pitheadchapel.com/xi/

“The shower floods the kitchen. Slugs come through outlets to mate on the walls and the mess of it is revelation. The voice of ancestors saying, No, love, no.” Beth Gilstrap (@bettysueblue.bsky.social) in the new @pitheadchapel.bsky.social! pitheadchapel.com/xi/

It’s been a minute since I’ve published anything so I’m super honored & grateful to have one piece from my forthcoming hybrid/flash CNF collection, There Is News Along the Ohio River (@riverriverbooks Feb’26) out today @pitheadchapel.bsky.social pitheadchapel.com/volume-14-is...

Got notice that I don’t have to pay student loans while I’m back in school. Think I’ll just stay in school til I’m ☠️. Can’t get me then.

Hurricanes make the prettiest sunsets. Grateful Imelda is turning east.

This evening was the annual lighting of Glen. Welcome, back buddy. It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

Me rereading my own book for the first time in awhile to approve final edits: this is DEVASTATING who wrote it?!

The proof of @blacklilyzine Issue 3 has been sent out to our contributors. While we’re all making sure everything is as it should be, check out this killer TOC.

I don't think most people in this country understand that Helene was WNC's Katrina. No one who's ever lived anywhere close or visited this area ever expected a fucking hurricane to hit the mountains like this.

Hurricane snacks, extra water, wine & full tank of gas acquired in case Imelda happens but dear universe, how bout giving us N & S Carolinians a break this time?!

Me rereading my own book for the first time in awhile to approve final edits: this is DEVASTATING who wrote it?!

It’s blurb request time for There Is News Along the Ohio River, a hybrid flash CNF collection forthcoming from @riverriverbooks in February. It’s a quick & I hope, impactful read about my life & life in general at the Kentucky/Indiana border/ Louisville from 2020-2022. Details below. HMU.

@blacklilyzine.bsky.social Issue 3 update & coming soon, I swear!

Happiest of joint publication days to FIELD NOTES by E.G. Cunningham and ENCOUNTERS FOR THE LIVING AND THE DEAD by Jameela F. Dallis! 🎉🎉🎉 We could not be prouder of our fall titles and their authors. Congratulations, Liz and Jameela! riverriverbooks.org/store @egcunningham.bsky.social

I’m not sure Chef knows he’s opened a can of worms in asking me to write 1,000 words on Anthony Bourdain. I’ve never mentioned him in class. Maybe it’s the semicolon tattoo on my wrist. 1,300 words later, I suspect I’m at the start of a much longer personal essay I’ve been avoiding since his death.

Three more pieces from There Is News Along the Ohio River (forthcoming Feb ‘26 from @riverriverbooks.bsky.social) got picked up! The world is terrible but this week the things I’ve made (both word and food-related) have gotten some love.

Since there have been too many documented instances of ICE murdering people in the street or illegally grabbing or beating US citizens the Trump regime has an innovative solution; you can no longer film ICE and fuck your first amendment, buddy.

Seeing FT/TT jobs I’m more than qualified for & reminding myself that academia didn’t want me and that process is terrible for my mental health.

Today in culinary school I got to punch a big bowl of cabbage for fermenting and it was a good day for said task. As is every day. On account of my rage.

One of the unpublished pieces from my forthcoming hybrid/flash CNF book (@riverriverbooks.bsky.social) got picked up. I haven’t sent work out in awhile. I haven’t been able to work on any of MY writing for awhile. This country is a right wing fascist hellscape I’d like to leave so idk how to feel.