Making Moves + Let's Write About Snow
Sunday we awoke to a scene from Ezra Jack Keats’ eternal classic, “The Snowy Day.” I was cozy at a friend’s house in Maryland admiring the blanket of white over the copse of trees in her backyard.
In honor of the season’s first snow, tonight for “Drop In December” we’ll be discussing Natalie Lima’s flash easy “Snowbound.” Natalie is a close friend and a beloved writer. I taught this essay often to my college students who were themselves transitioning into new worlds far from what they’d known, and sometimes those worlds didn’t live up to the hype.
2.
The next day you sign the paperwork in your best cursive and slip it carefully into an envelope, as if it’s a winning lottery ticket. When you toss it into the mailbox, you think: This is too good to be true.
Over the summer, you buy a thick winter hat and gather all the books you own, from Harry Potter to Beloved. Each is a talisman, and you pack them gently into a suitcase, one by one. The day of your flight, your mami sobs uncontrollably at the airport, but you don’t cry at all.
You don’t cry because you’ve earned this. Because you’re poor, and you’re Latin, and your dad ran off with the neighbor, yet you still killed it on the SAT—you are clearly destined for greatness. You don’t cry because you are dying to leave your barrio, dying to leave that couch you sleep on. Because even though it’s scary, you know this fancy school is where you were always meant to be.
Tonight on Zoom we’ll chat about how to write longing and how to use the weather to provide atmosphere to your essay. If you haven’t already, subscribers can register for free using the button below. See you at 7P ET!
Writing For Fakers is Moving to Beehiiv!
My hope is that you don’t experience any funny business during this transition, but just in case ish goes wonky, I wanted to let you all know I’m moving “Writing For Fakers” from Substack to Beehiiv.
To be on the safe side, I advise that you add writingforfakers@mail.beehiiv.com to your safe sender list. And if you don’t receive another email from me over the course of the next week, check your spam and then reach out to me if there’s still an issue.
This move should be completed by the end of the week and my plan is to send out a big newsletter announcement on Friday (here’s a hint: 💌). Let me know in the comments what you think it is!