A mid-year check-in on what new 2026 publications I’ve read so far. Some of these you may have heard of & some haven’t received much attention, yet.

We’re celebrating 250 years of America this weekend, which is a period of time that strikes me as significant yet still renders us a child in the general scheme of the world. Isn’t that a funny duality?

This blog post is a reminder—to myself, as much as it is for you, my friend—that the well of creativity may run dry every now and then, but it is never gone for good.

I just got back from being out of town on an East Coast roadtrip! Wanna hear about the names I wrote down in my Commonplace book following a wander around an old cemetery?

This week I learned of Professor Brucher’s passing at the end of May. He was my academic advisor and an important figure in my undergrad experience. It only feels appropriate to take a moment and share a few words of my gratitude to him.

In this age of AI, everyone’s making it known where they stand, and an official teaching—called an encyclical—from Pope Leo XIV was released at the end of May. It’s given me some writerly thoughts & reminders.

With summer basically upon us, everyone’s coming out with their “Summer Reading Guide” or “Summer Reading Menu,” which is all fine and good. What I’ve put together for y’all as one of those possible avenues is a Summer Reading Matrix!

I recently celebrated my birthday, and it had me thinking about what I was doing last year to celebrate. Spoiler: it may have involved cruising on the Rhine. Let me tell you about it!

The world has been full of movies based on books lately. Perhaps too full? Plus, I put together a quiz for you to test your movie knowledge!

I’m celebrating Mother’s Day on the blog by having Mother Nerd herself here to share some thoughts on a reading life.

Since I re-read one of my favorite books this month, my mind’s been circling back again and again to this idea: reading may just be the distinguishing factor on a person’s path to greatness. I’m hardly the first person to speculate about this, but I believe it’s important to keep the idea relevant. 

Today, I’m writing for the folks who want to be writing, know they have the time and energy, yet aren’t. For whatever reason(s), you are stuck staring at a blank Word document. You’re spending more time looking out the window wracking your brain for an idea than you are scribbling sentences. You may even be doomscrolling because you’re that discouraged or unmotivated.

While this week has been a good and productive one, two rejections hit my inbox on Tuesday, and that’s not exactly what I consider optimal. Or encouraging. Or any other positive word you might want to plug in. Yet, as much as it stinks that two of my pieces haven’t found homes in the magazines I submitted them to, I know it’s okay.

In case you haven’t already started doing this, it’s time to shake off the hunker-down months and embrace the sunshine, rain storms, and fresh flowers. Even if you’re like me and simply adore the wintertime. You, as a writer, have your own spring cleaning to do, and it’s time to do it.

I’m thinking about change today, as the first quarter of 2026 is nearly past us, and it’s a great time to decide what effect the changes I implemented at the beginning of January have had on my productivity and creativity—and share some advice for anyone trying to implement changes of their own. 

I didn’t consciously decide to give myself time off from writing in the middle of the month, but it happened and I’m glad I let it.

March is the month of spring break and travels, so I want to share an abridged entry from a travel journal I kept during a trip to Hawaii in March of 2023.

Something I’ve loved seeing more and more of on social media (ironically enough) is people sharing their thoughts about returning to more analogue ways of living and enjoying life, and I’ve been trying to lean more into that over the last few years.

You know, it was Steinbeck’s birthday on the 27th. He would have been 124 years old, if that was a thing. To me, he’s a little bit timeless because, when I read his stories, the themes and emotions he’s given us connect as well now as they did at their time of publication.

When I was in college starting to take my writing more seriously, I held Pat Conroy up as the author I wanted to imitate. I thought if I could string together beautiful words and phrases like him, tell stories of such emotional-depth and poignancy, that I’d really be achieving something. So, I gave it a go. Tried to sound like Pat—but only ended up sounding like me. And you know what? Thank goodness for that.