I want to maintain this as a space for my work and project of ongoing public thinking. When doing some research to boast about myself for an application, I discovered that my work here has been regularly cited in people’s doctoral dissertations across disciplines for the last five years. That’s wild to me, and while I can’t write with that result in mind, it has proven to me that I’ve achieved something cool with this project and it’s worth it to keep going.

Get more people to join the book club and salons, as well as participate at the Discord. It’s difficult, but I really think it’s worthwhile—yet you can only find out how worthwhile if you jump in. How can I convince people to make that jump? Are there calendar tools I should implement to give people reminders? Both the Salon Series and the book club are going quarterly next year, and I’m hoping that inspires folks to make a point of showing up because there will be more fanfare and build-up.

Grow the free readership. Self-explanatory but difficult in a crowded landscape, especially as this project ages and no longer has a shiny new sheen on it. It used to be a machine that grew and effectively promoted itself; now I have to actively be that engine without driving myself mad.

Build the magazine’s reputation. It can be hard to get the word out and make people understand a free digital magazine in 2026, I’ve discovered: It’s not a newsletter; it’s not a print magazine—it’s a website. But when new issues are published, I share them via this newsletter and on Instagram, etc. Then you can peruse anywhere, as it’s a really mobile-friendly design.

Have the website professionally redesigned. While it is mobile-friendly, I would love to make it more functional and beautiful while retaining its text-first approach. 

Launch editorial and translation fellowships. My vision for the four issues in 2027 is to have editors and translators focused on four different languages bring five pieces of food writing into English. This will require at least $5000 per issue! I’d like to run the magazine in the future as a space of editorial and translation fellowships, where I can provide visibility and editorial support. This would allow me to focus on the bigger picture and the back end.

Make moves toward putting out a print object. This might be an anthology, a single-author text, or even a coffee table book. While I don’t want Tomato Tomato to be a print magazine because I want to pour any money into the writing and editing, I do want to work toward it being a publisher or publishing imprint of interesting, countercultural, literary food writing. A life goal! If you’re a publisher looking to partner with someone to create a food imprint that goes global and digs deep, I’m here.

The Food Essay relaunch is coming at the end of this month. I’m going to teach it three times in 2027—winter, spring, fall—with early bird pricing and classes capped at 15 people. I’ve restructured it to be more for working or hopeful writers rather than as academically inclined as it was when I taught it at Boston University. It’s still going to be five weeks, with four readings per week, and really rigorous discussion and attention to craft.

I’m teaching food memoir in BU’s gastronomy program, and I couldn’t be more excited. I immediately brainstormed a really great syllabus that I think will show students a range of approaches to what can be popularly understood as a pat, predictable genre.

I want to figure out my digital products. I’ve been uploading presentations and lecture text, but I think there’s something more interesting I could be doing with these that would be both more useful and more lucrative. What is it?