In Cleveland, the first 30 pages of so many novels. Susan Miller’s tweets. The Book of Difficult Fruit, Kate Lebo. Girlhood, Melissa Febos. The Office of Historical Corrections, Danielle Evans. E-mails from my landlord about the mice. Milk Blood Heat, Dantiel Moniz. The 2000s Made Me Gay, Grace Perry. Cheat Day, Liv Stratman. “Girl Janitor and the Knot,” Erica Peplin. The Souvenir Museum, Elizabeth McCracken. “Bump,” Morgan Thomas.
At the Grand Canyon, in a shoddily pitched tent, while eating beef jerky: Objects of Desire, Clare Sestanovich.
In San Francisco, on my friend’s couch, other people’s nun books: Lauren Groff’s Matrix, Alice McDermott’s The Ninth Hour, Sylvia Townsend Warner’s The Corner that Held Them. Don DeLillo’s short story “The Angel Esmeralda.”
In a Hampton Inn and Suites, quarantined because Covid positive: Susan Miller’s Astrology Zone. “Ghosting,” Nicky Gonzalez. Text messages from my friends. An e-mail from the niece of the nun who taught me macroeconomics. The dedication pages of Eve’s Hollywood, Eve Babitz.
In North Carolina, at karaoke, the lyrics to “I Miss You,” Blink 182; “Bodies,” Drowning Pool; “Running Up That Hill,” Kate Bush.
In Wisconsin, the Google Book preview to The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron. A friend’s novel draft. A lot of opinions about Sally Rooney. How to Wrestle a Girl, Venita Blackburn. A galley of Brown Girls, Daphne Palasi Andreades. Something New Under the Sun, Alexandra Kleeman. “You’ve Heard This One Before,” Andrea Long Chu. “Illuminate I Could: On Lucille Clifton,” Tracy K. Smith. The Life of the Mind, Christine Smallwood. Bob Durst updates. “Her Kind,” Naomi Jackson. Fight Night, Miriam Toews. “Kapernick,” Sasha Debevec McKenney. Google results for “hamstring tear after the splits.”
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