Beauty, inspiration and entertainment from Spring 2023
Henry Miller, Carl Jung, Cullen Thomas, Meghan Daum, Aristotle, Samuel R. Delany, The Emerald, Giri / Haji, Count Me In
Most of what I do when I’m not writing is outside—like on this recent short backpacking trip to Preston Peak in the Klamath/Siskiyou wilderness in northwestern California—but there are some things that I’d like to share from time to time.
Three books really worth reading
📖 The Happiest Man Alive: A Biography of Henry Miller, by Mary V. Dearborn — an outstanding biography of a writer that has been a major inspiration to me.
📖 Man and His Symbols, C.G. Jung’s classic introduction to Jungian psychology. I’d avoided going straight to the source with Jung for a long time, having incorrectly assumed that the writing would be dense and unapproachable. To the contrary—at least in this work, his intention was to reach the lay reader, and so if you’re curious about Jung, don’t hesitate! I also recommend Practical Jung by Harry A. Wilmer.
📖 Brother One Cell: An American Coming of Age In South Korea’s Prisons, by Cullen Thomas — a beautifully written and compelling memoir by one of my favorite writing teachers.
Four pieces on Substack
TV, films, a couple of podcasts and articles
How Samuel R. Delany Reimagined Sci-Fi, Sex, and the City in The New Yorker
Aristotle’s Rules for Living Well; An Ancient Guide to the Good Life, in The New Yorker
My own writing from the past couple of months
I’ve been publishing a chapter of memoir a week, along with a few other pieces and interviews with fellow writers. I won’t include the full list here, because it’s all in the archives, but here are a few highlights.
Waking up Running
I didn’t start running until my forties. I could never see myself as one of those cringing, tense joggers frowning their awful, sad, tight runner’s frowns—the faces I would laugh at as I rolled by on my skateboard when I was just thirteen, thinking I’ll never be that guy,
How to eat the question when someone asks "What's next?"—or anything else, for that matter.
At nine am on the morning of March 5, 2015, I was standing outside the hangar of a small airstrip in Cloverdale, California, my few employees gathered around me. The hills were a lush spring green, and the day had begun clear and bright, the air still crisp but warming quick…
A conversation about men writing memoir with Bowen Dwelle and Lyle McKeany
Lyle McKeany is the writer behind Just Enough to Get Me in Trouble as well as a creative coach, and Bowen Dwelle writes DECIDE NOTHING, which includes his serialized memoir in progress An Ordinary Disaster, about a man learning to listen to himself.
You can find all the past editions of these monthly roundups here.
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