Since 2016, I've made a "commitment" at the beginning of each year to read fifty books. And if you assumed that I put that word in quotes because I haven't managed to fulfill my promise to myself, you are correct. This year it's been particularly difficult for me to focus on reading whole books. Between … Continue reading Season of Reading
I came across a thread on Twitter the other day by a history teacher named Seth Cotlar that I can't stop thinking about. Here's how the thread begins: The conservative freak out about the 1619 Project (of which Cotton is just the latest example) is not about history. It's about memory; about what parts of … Continue reading Re-Creation of History
As a writer of creative nonfiction, it’s imperative that I think about my own role in anything I write. Am I a participant or an observer? Or am I writing from the “hazy territory between insider and outsider perspectives,” as Gabe Montesanti describes in her essay “Inside, Outside, In Between” (Creative Nonfiction, issue 72). This … Continue reading How Not To Write About Racism
There's something very satisfying about opening a box fill with copies of your own book. It's the culmination of many months of thinking and writing and worrying and revising. Now, here it is, a physical product ready to be sent out into the world. It's especially satisfying--and doubly scary--to also be the publisher of said … Continue reading It’s Here!
Thanks for asking. Lyrical and informative, An Adoptee Lexicon is a glossary of adoption terminology from the viewpoint of an adult adoptee. Contemplating religion, politics, science, and human rights, Karen Pickell, who was born and adopted in the late 1960s, intersperses personal commentary and snippets from her own experience with history and statistics pertaining to … Continue reading What’s It About?
Karen Pickell: Between 