On March (2025) 🗓 — Lots of News!
Announcements, notes, and digest of what's been published.
It’s a little hard to round up March before it’s over, but I’m considering this coming Monday, the 31st, a bonus day for April. I’ll be writing a full recap of my trip to Lake Como for the Women in Food festival for the first official April Monday, and I have a lot of exciting events coming up—Earth Month is my month, apparently!
The Desk Book Club, This Sunday!
We will be discussing Black Food Geographies by Ashanté M. Reese at 1 p.m. EST. The Zoom link is available to paid subscribers in my notes on the book.
Dr. Reese will be joining us for the first half of the conversation, so bring your questions!
March Writing
“On Gentrification” / “From the Desk Recommends... the Tyranny of Treats” / “Ways of Working: Celebrating 5 Years of From the Desk...” / “The Monthly Menu: Lessons in Using What You’ve Got” / “On Copyediting” / “The Desk Book Club: ‘Black Food Geographies’ by Ashanté M. Reese” / “How Do You Eat? No. 3”
March Events
“An Intellectual Architecture: The Desk Salon Series Invites Carina del Valle Schorske” / “The Desk Book Club Discussion of ‘Black Food Geographies’ by Ashanté M. Reese” / “The Newsletter Workshop” (now a download)
March News
A piece for British Vogue on what has stuck with me from my no-buy year. This assignment came to me because the editor read my piece from last October titled “Where Fashion Meets Food.”
Forthcoming in April
I’ll be the keynote speaker for Lafayette College’s Earth Month event on April 15, visiting classes and having a fireside chat with Professor Benjamin R. Cohen. I’m really excited to visit Pennsylvania and meet the students, as well as professors.
On Sunday, April 19, I’ll be leading a panel that I curated for the New York Public Library’s World Literature & Arts Festival at the Mulberry Street branch called “The Future of Food? It’s in the Kitchen.” Cookbook authors Joe Yonan, Hetty Lui McKinnon, Lesley Enston, and Lukas Volger will discuss how home cooking can be the real future of food, and Lukas will be leading a recipe writing workshop! You can sign up to attend in person or virtually, all free.
On Tuesday, April 22, I’ll be in conversation at Farm to People on the significance of regional food systems to future resiliency. Hope to see folks at both of these!
Forthcoming Workshops
The Food Essay on April 1 and How to Create an Editorial Vision on April 8. I’ll be teaching from May through June in Boston University’s food studies program (a class called “The Food Essay”!) so these will be my last workshops for a while. Paid subscribers can find the discount code in the header, or email me.
Catch Up on the Salon Series
I want to make sure the Desk Salon Series conversations getting the full attention they deserve.
On April 6, I invite writer and editor Layla Schlack, and that conversation will be up soon. Upcoming editions include chef and author Pam Brunton on May 18, and author Jill Damatac in conversation with writer Bettina Makalintal on June 8. These all take place on Sundays at 1 p.m. EST. Signing up gets you the link one hour before start.
The idea for this series came to me because I’ve been enjoying the workshops and our weekly chat Salons so much, and I thought it would be really useful to bring the intellects and experiences of different writers to my extremely thoughtful audience. It’s also a way for me to sort of “podcast” without podcasting. I love getting to hear what questions readers are asking, because often they’re not ones that I would’ve come up with myself. I include the audio, video, and text transcript so that everyone can engage with their preferred format.
Paid subscribers get free access to the Salons using the code in the header. The conversations are paywalled, as well. Signing up for everyone else is $10.
“I Like Being Brutal”
A conversation with Dr. Anna Sulan Masing about identity, durian, and writing.
“A Flesh and Blood Portrait”
A conversation with Mayukh Sen about ‘Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood's First South Asian Star.’
“An Intellectual Architecture”
A conversation with writer Carina del Valle Schorske on research, profile writing, and voice.
March Snapshots
As always, food details to come in The Monthly Menu and travel details in my April 7 newsletter.
Love that you're doing programs on home cooking and regional food systems resilience! I got a lot of pushback on home cooking from food security activists 10 or so years ago--along the lines of the book Pressure Cooker--which of course makes sense that if you have no kitchen you can't cook! We used to talk about having community kitchens all over, such as in elementary schools with kitchen facilities, libraries, community centers, etc., where communal cooking could happen.
I'm still working on local resilience. It's a hard sell. There's theoretical interest, but the pressing food insecurity seems to keep people and local gov't from funding real structural change and support for small farmers, at least where I am. Plus, U.S. property rights system keeps aspiring small table crop farmers from getting onto farmland either as owners or with decent rental terms.