If you work in the nonprofit universe, then you know: late summer/early fall is deadline season, and it usually keeps on rolling into the New Year. Requests for proposals abound. The competition for money is hot: reports are due, it’s the season of giving (Giving Tuesday anyone?), there’s probably a board meeting thrown in there for good measure and likely an event or two… Since this is the work I do, you can imagine that I have been very, very busy. Thus, it has been a minute since I said anything at all here, and while I am sure I have a lot to say about all the nonprofit work bottlenecking relentlessly into the last quarter of every year, I will not digress from the task at hand: Shouting out my incredibly talented writer/creator friends, because you must read all their books.
In my 20s, whenever I was reading a book, I made it a point to simultaneously read the author’s biography (or autobiography) if they had one. The biographies would give me added insight into their books, and I especially enjoyed learning about their contemporaries—those other creators and thinkers who were their friends and acquaintances when they were alive. Frank O’Hara, for example, had connections with Edward Gorey, John Ashbery, Amiri Baraka, Joan Mitchell—musicians, painters, dancers, poets—and so many others. All those influences and relationships came out in, and enhanced, his work. This is the same, I think, for all creators. We are in constant conversation with the books we read and the people we talk to. And back then, when I was a fledlging poet writing very bad poems in coffee shops all around the San Francisco Bay Area, I would think to myself: I wonder if one day I will have a circle of incredibly talented friends who are all creating—our work speaking to each others’ work...
Well, flash forward 30 years, and I do! And what’s so amazing is the range of work—from nonfiction to memoir to poetry to comics. I want to share their work with you (in no particular order, other than when their books finally arrived in the mail!) because everybody needs some reading recommendations every once in a while that are NOT from some algorithm-group-mentality-AI bot. Variety is the spice of life, after all.
I met Pati Navalta, extraordinary human, at a nonprofit where we both once worked a decade and a half ago. This is her memoir about being a teenager in Vallejo, Calif. in the 80s, when all four of her granparents came to the US from the Philippines to help take care of her and her brother. So funny. So sweet. Such. Good. Writing. Get lost in this one! By the way, Pati is an ACE media consultant, and also has another book, and a foundation!
Farnaz and I overlapped by a year in the Mills College MFA program in poetry. I don’t really use this term often, if ever—but Farnaz is a beautiful poet. And I am overjoyed to see her full-length book in print! My favorite thing about these poems is their sound—both the descriptions, and the words themselves, when you say them. Which reminds me: catch her reading them if you can.
Susan Beneville is my friend who I sometimes get to use a chain saw with, to cut down trees that have fallen in the yard, and also to play Gloomhaven. I learn more about storytelling from Susan in two minutes of talking than I did in two years at Mills. Writing good comics is next level storytelling, because you don’t have the luxury of space. Every word must be deliberate, and working to full effect. Get your copy while you can…they KEEP. SELLING. OUT! Catch extras at her substack.
Ok. The truth here is: I haven’t read this book yet because it JUST came out, and my copy has not yet arrived. Any day now, though…But I’ll tell you what: I read some excerpts and Minh-Ha might very well be the smartest human being I know. She’ll get you thinking of things you’ve never thought about before, and will do it with incredible clarity, and a sense of humor. I also met Minh-Ha at Mills, and of the folks in this roundup, she is the only one who ever saw the inside of the house I grew up in. I feel like we ate apple pie there. Something. Anyway, you should book Minh-Ha to come speak to your class, group, conference, etc.
This book’s not out yet either, but I’ve gotten to listen to several chapters of the audiobook. Oh…YOU WANT THAT AUDIOBOOK. Spy Daughter, Queer Girl is Leslie’s memoir about growing up with a father who was in the CIA. I know, right!? It was a long time coming, this book, and to see it in print is a testament to perseverence. I’m so happy for Leslie Absher! Who, by the way, I also know because of Mills, but not because we went there at the same time, but because I knew someone who was going there when she was going there and we got all connected up because that’s how the lesbian universe unfolds. Join her mailing list for updates on the upcoming tour!
Funny, writing this I realize what a key roll Mills College played in these relationships. Too bad they sold themselves to Northeastern. :(
