Em Dash Reading Series
June 20 - I was so, so thrilled to take part in the first installment of this reading series. The turnout was great for this selection of amazing writers. The folks at Lowlands were really engaged with the work, much of it from the readers’ published books and works-in-progress. All these writers have books that I’d quickly recommend.
Kelli, who ran the show, did a great job. Readings have a reputation to be stuffy and not unfairly. But Kelli is thoughtfully rethinking how events like this can be run and the results showed. Having DJ Sarah, comedy, and more readers made the selections easy to follow and supremely captivating, and the night ended with an extended hang that brought the community together (I don’t mean to sound sappy; that’s just how it felt!)
Follow Kelli on Instagram to find out when the next installment is scheduled!
Ironic Reports
June 1 — After circling each other for a while, it’s awesome to now be working with Andrew Leavitt, the founder of Ironic Reports. Ironic is the world’s first concierge event meteorology service—a super cool company that’s found a vital, untouched piece of the event and wedding planning space. Andrew’s extremely passionate about what he does, and it makes him a great client to work for.
Together, we’re putting together a book on how the weather can affect events and event planning. I’m also going to be helping Andrew overhaul his website copy, write blog posts, as well as take on other marketing strategy work.
New work up at The Rumpus
June 6 - I wrote about Samantha Harvey’s incredible space station novel Orbital for The Rumpus’s “Close Reads” column.
Close Reads is an essays column exploring a specific page, paragraph, or sentence from a book, film, piece of music, or other media. I looked at ham radio conversation between a lonely cosmonaut and a woman on earth, and what it teaches us about novel craft as well as the human condition.
Residencies
May 20 — This summer, I’ll be attending two writing residencies. One is a two-week, funded artist retreat in North Carolina from June 6-20 (plus a bit of fishing time afterward). The other is the historic Bread Loaf Writers Conference at Middlebury College in Vermont, taking place Aug 13-27 (TDB on the fishing).
I’m extremely exited for the time and space to work on my craft, to make progress on a project or two, and for the opportunity to commune with peers.
I won’t be accepting any freelance work while I’m away, but please reach out if there’s anything can do when I’m back. I’d be happy to hear from you!
Veri(zen)
April 10 — While at Verizon, my writing partner Kent Szlauderbach and I pitched an ad concept with the title you see above.
As mobile carriers competed for the same customers using the same splashy promos and free-phone giveaways, our idea was veer the opposite direction by showing how Verizon’s reliability, ease, and cost made it the only carrier that could give customers true peace of mind.
The idea was for a 30 second moment of zen that broke through the noise. And it’s exciting to see that Verizon picked up the concept and made it a reality. Check out the spot here.