Dead Dad Girlies Unite

I'm going to write about death. Shocker, right?

I was recently in Vermont on residency at Prospect Street Writer’s House. It was my second time being in this magical place, and I finished the final draft of a memoir I’ve been working on for—wait for it—a bajillion years. (Okay, not a bajillion years, but it sure feels that way.)

But my book is done. Like, done done.

(There are, of course, more things to do: find an agent, send the book out on submission, hope to Jesus someone wants to buy it. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.)

For now, I’ve got to figure out what I’m going to write about now that my book is done. I’ve written about a bunch of different things: what it was like being a teacher during COVID, the terrors of postpartum anxiety, and why I poured Listerine on my vulva one time. (Yes, I’m not kidding.)

But as I was finishing my book, I realized I had’t published writing about death and grief as much as I thought I did. So let’s do something to change that.

Come on down!

My book is titled Dead Dad Girl, so if you’re a girlie like me whose lost their dad (or mom, or sibling, or grandparent, or best friend) this newsletter is for you. In it, I’ll be sharing a lot about me and my grief story, as well as how I use writing to try and make sense of it all.

Will some of it be sad? Well, duh.

But there will be lots of inspiration and feel-good stories, too, because if there’s one thing I’ve learned through all this, it’s this: our losses link us to one another much more than we imagine, and it’s through those connections that we find our communities, and eventually, some goddamn peace.

So let’s do this thing.

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