In the latest episode of her thought-provoking series, Public Intellectual, the amazing Jessa Crispin and I hash out various material messes, including pandemic hoarding and whether divorce is an advanced form of decluttering (!). Thanks to Jessa for having me on the show and for a great convo. Find the episode at the link above… Continue reading »
Archives for Reading and Writing
September Song
“We’re not even halfway through the month yet, but September has been quite a ride so far. Amazingly enough, even in the midst of the fire-ravaged, virus-plagued hellscape of late summer 2020, I have a couple of launches to be happy about, and I am hella grateful.” The new issue of my newsletter is out,… Continue reading »
“Discomfort can be really useful to a writer”
Q: What did you see as the right blend of personal family experiences and more general descriptions as you wrote the book? A: I’m trained as a journalist, and working with such deeply personal material scared me at first. But my family’s experiences with clutter inspired me to write the book in the first place,… Continue reading »
Let’s blame the Victorians
Thanks to Literary Hub for running this CLUTTER excerpt in which I suggest we blame the Victorians (at least partly—don’t @ me, Victorianists!) for our contemporary problem with excess stuff. This chapter was a lot of fun to research, BTW—I loved reading about 19th-century material culture. Enjoy!
Pub day!
It’s a big day here: CLUTTER: AN UNTIDY HISTORY is out in the world! I can’t wait for you to read it. As you can see, Irene and Allie are pretty excited too. Don’t let them have all the fun. Order your own copy now! (PSA: If you order a copy directly from Belt, you’ll… Continue reading »
