Ann Friedman - Half-caffed and fully missing out

A heads up for my fellow writers: Jade Chang and I are hosting one more retreat in 2023. Join us in Los Angeles, Oct 7-8, where we'll focus on… your ideas! They are the heart of any project, and we have a clear-cut, proven strategy for evolving your writing ideas so that they are more urgent, more actionable, more exciting. These two days are a perfect way for writers of all experience levels to re-invigorate their practice and set themselves up to put some serious words on the page this winter.

Space is limited because we're keeping it intimate, so don't wait. When you register before Tuesday, you get $100 off. We'd love to see you there!

And if you can't make it, join our list to hear about the next one. We are likely to host both online and in-person retreats next year. Ok, enough with my marketing jazz-hands, let's get on to the links...

On the joys of eating plants, the persistence of (some) meat, and acknowledging the emotions behind food: Writing fellow Paige Curtis on Alicia Kennedy's new book, No Meat Required. As a 20-year almost-vegetarian who does not feel super militant about it, I'm very excited for this book. Here's an excerpt.

Perry Bacon, Jr. wishes there were a church for "nones," a place for the unaffiliated to find community and fellowship without the baggage of a larger religious organization.

Women are always the wrong age in the workplace, writes Kelli María Korducki. 

“I saw that borders were affecting love stories everywhere." Antero Garcia interviews Anna Lekas Miller about her book, Love Across Borders. The first part of the interview is here.

"There is no coordinated pulse of the crowd, just individual people shuffling around." Mitch Therieau on the soundtrack of CVS. (I admit that I clicked this because the title references Passionate Kisses, one of my favorite songs of all time. Lucinda version preferred, but I'll take Mary Chapin Carpenter, too.) 

Former writing fellow Shanti Escalante-De Mattei has a fascinating profile of Pasha Setrova, a preeminent designer of ball-jointed dolls.

The cover of the UNC student newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel on Wednesday. Sometimes art and journalism intersect, and this is such a devastating example: It's the specific in the universal, the universal in the specific, the fear and sadness that "straightforward" facts can hold.

There is a reason I saw this front page everywhere on the internet this week. A majority of Americans have likely sent or received a text like this. (I sent my first "i saw the news—are you ok?" messages more than a decade ago.) Gun violence is both unbelievable and mundane. Everytown has a list of actions you can take.