Diary

From the Department of Self-Promotion
As all twenty-first century authors know, writing a book is now just a small part of publishing. The real work comes once the book is out. Here’s an

The Decluttering Syndrome
OK, it’s January, the month of New Year’s resolutions, so I thought I’d take the plunge and read Marie Kondo’s bestselling book: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

Can You Judge a Book by Its Cover?
In this case, I hope so. The cover of My Brilliant Friends, which I love, was designed by Lisa Hamm, at Columbia University Press. The artist Jojo Karlin

MLA, 2019, Encore
I was thrilled to receive this photo of four of my wonderful students and former students. I love seeing them posed with their copy of My Brilliant Friends

MLA, Chicago 2019
Jennifer Crewe, my savvy editor and the head of Columbia University Press sent me this snapshot of the Press booth at this year’s book exhibit. Unfortunately, the poster

Ladies Who Lunch
A few weeks ago, I was having lunch with my (brilliant) friend Peggy Waller at Nix, a sublime vegetarian restaurant near Union Square. I showed her the one

Anniversaries
December 31, 2018. The seventh anniversary of my cancer diagnosis. I’m as surprised still to be alive as I am to be relying on my spiffy, purple walking stick […]

Countdown to Publication
I’m now in possession of a single copy of my beautiful book. According to Amazon My Brilliant Friends will be available as of January 1, 2019, which is, I think, an elegant way to start the New Year.

Welcome. Some musings on my current preoccupations with the worlds of illness and the worlds of books, the vicissitudes of living with cancer and the need now, in my eighties, to imagine what new writing might be.