Archive - Meditations on Kinship

Art & Kinship: Laila Lalami's The Dream Hotel

The Ancestor Trouble newsletter has a new name, Meditations on Kinship. In this installment: Laila Lalami's gripping The Dream Hotel and what it owes to…

Mar 11 •

December 2024

Reading recommendations from coldland

Louise Erdrich's The Sentence. Robin Wall Kimmerer's The Serviceberry. Essays from Susan Dominus, Sarah Smarsh, Hector Tobar, Nina St. Pierre, and more…

Dec 7, 2024 •

November 2024

Cities are also nature, the Earth reminds us

Under ordinary circumstances, living across the street from the woodlands of Forest Park in New York City is a balm. Right now, though, the trees are…

Nov 15, 2024 •

October 2024

Staying connected & present in these times

Oct 12, 2024 •

September 2024

Art & Kinship: Marie Mutsuki Mockett's The Tree Doctor

I first encountered Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s work in her engaging, quietly profound, and beautifully and wryly observed Letter From a Japanese…

Sep 16, 2024 •

August 2024

Taking T for Jesus

My new Baffler essay, on the transphobic evangelicals hawking hormones, and also developments closer to home; also, books, events, and links of note.

Aug 21, 2024 •

March 2024

Art & Kinship: Garrard Conley's All the World Beside

I met Garrard Conley at a dinner in Boston years ago.

Mar 30, 2024 •

Art & Kinship: Emily Raboteau's Lessons For Survival

Emotional recurrences in families have fascinated me as long as I can remember.

Mar 12, 2024 •

February 2024

Family stories we (tell ourselves we) can't tell

Feb 3, 2024 •

November 2023

Wishes amid the Thinning Veil

My sister took this photo of our mom and me in May 1998, in Asheville, after our granny (our mom’s mom) died.

Nov 2, 2023 •

September 2023

No care plan outside of the Rapture

Sep 26, 2023 •

August 2023

So many ancestor links

Aug 29, 2023 •

#nojs-banner { position: fixed; bottom: 0; left: 0; padding: 16px 16px 16px 32px; width: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; background: red; color: white; font-family: -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 13px; line-height: 13px; } #nojs-banner a { color: inherit; text-decoration: underline; } This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts