My dad turns 50 today! He left Bulgaria at age twenty six, only a few months younger than I am now. This is a photo of us at Fashion Island in SoCal. My family’s not big on Thanksgiving, but I’m happy to be heading down south next week to spend the holiday with them.

Big swaths of my life are in transition right now. Last night Tomio introduced me to Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (I KNOW I’M LATE) and I loved Kimmy’s, “You can stand anything for 10 seconds.” Phew. Very much. Okay.

P.S. I most definitely did turn in my thesis last week. A few days after I submitted the manuscript, I went to the Humane Society to pet kittens. Then I found out that a portion of my thesis (#futurebook) is forthcoming in phoebe! Crazy wonderful.

P.P.S. Happy happy birthday, dad. So much of my writing would not be possible without you.

https://bookmarks.reviews/

When I was a kid, my favorite thing about visiting the library or bookstore was inching closer to my dream of reading every book worth reading in the world. To that ambition, I’m excited to spend some time post-MFA reading what attracts me. And this website somehow makes me feel better about reading contemporary writers, of whom I am usually jealous. I don’t feel better because of tepid reviews their books may receive, but because it’s exciting to see so many new books I want to read. Pretty great.

(Speaking of reading, catch me on Goodreads.)