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Melissa Valentine was born and raised in Oakland, CA. Her nonfiction has appeared in Guernica, Jezebel, and Apogee among others. Valentine is a graduate of the MFA program at Mills College, and she is currently an executive editor at Callisto Media. Her memoir The Names of All the Flowers, published by The Feminist Press, was the 2019 winner of the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize. Valentine lives in Brooklyn, NY.

The post Non-Fiction by Non-Men: Melissa Valentine appeared first on E.B. Bartels.

This past month I’ve been reading a lot about the small businesses closing in and around Harvard Square, such as Black Ink, as outside developers drive up rent to unsustainable rates. Therefore, this month, I’d like to take a moment to remind you all to support small and local businesses as you do your gift shopping this holiday season (F*CK AM*ZON). Some of my favorite places, in addition to Black Ink, for unique and whimsical gifts are Ward Maps, Nomad, Joie de Vivre, Magpie, and Loyal Supply Co. Rebekah Brooks is magnificent for vintage jewelry, and I love Raspberry Beret and The Garment District for vintage clothing. For delicious edible gifts, check out Honeycomb Creamery and Curio Spice Co., for all your toy and game needs go to Henry Bear’s Park, Comicazi, and Pandemonium, and if you want to paint your own gifts, go to Made By Me.

And, obviously, I am obsessed with independent bookstores. This past month I went to so many fantastic author events, all courtesy of your favorite local bookstores. So please, please, PLEASE consider ordering your book presents (because books make the best presents, right?) this holiday season from your local independent bookstores as opposed to the evil empire (F*CK AM*ZON). Some of my favorite bookstores include:

• Newtonville Books in Newton, MA
• Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA
• Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, MA
• Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, MA
• Papercuts J.P. in Boston, MA
• Book Ends in Winchester, MA
• Trident Booksellers in Boston, MA
• More Than Words in Boston, MA
• Blue Bunny Books in Dedham, MA
• The Silver Unicorn Bookstore in Acton, MA
• Wellesley Books in Wellesley, MA
• The Concord Bookshop in Concord, MA
• Belmont Books in Belmont, MA
• I AM Books in Boston, MA
• McNally Jackson in Manhattan & Brooklyn, NY
• Astoria Bookshop in Queens, NY
• Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, NY
• The Strand in Manhattan, NY
• Barrett Bookstore in Darien, CT
• Elliott Bay Books in Seattle, WA
• Powell’s in Portland, OR
• Book & Bar in Portsmouth, NH
• Green Hand Bookshop in Portland, ME
• Hello Hello Books in Rockland, ME

Please tell me some of your favorite independent bookstores and/or other favorite small businesses in the comments below. And happy holiday shopping!

The post Shop small this holiday season! appeared first on E.B. Bartels.

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Audrey Murray is a redhead from Boston who moved to China and became a standup comedian. The co-founder of Kung Fu Komedy, Audrey was named the funniest person in Shanghai by City Weekend magazine. Audrey is a staff writer for Reductress.com and a regular contributor at Medium.com; her writing has also appeared in McSweeney’s, LitHub, LARB, The Gothamist, Paste Magazine, Narratively, China Economic Review, Nowness, Architizer, and on the wall of her dad’s office. Audrey has appeared on NPR and The Comedy Center: Live from the Table; the Lost in America, Listen to This!, and Shanghai Comedy Corner podcasts; and on CNN, RTN, and ICS. She recently published her first memoir, Open Mic Night in Moscow. Follow her on Twitter at @ACMwrites.

The post Non-Fiction by Non-Men: Audrey Murray appeared first on E.B. Bartels.

For the full interview, see it on Fiction Advocate.
Published on May 14, 2019.

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Mira Jacob is the author and illustrator of Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations. Her critically acclaimed novel The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing was a Barnes & Noble Discover New Writers pick, shortlisted for India’s Tata First Literature Award, and long-listed for the Brooklyn Literary Eagles Prize. It was named one of the best books of 2014 by Kirkus Reviews, the Boston Globe, Goodreads, Bustle, and The Millions. Her writing and drawings have appeared in The New York Times, Electric Literature, Tin House, Literary Hub, Guernica, Vogue, the Telegraph, and Buzzfeed, and she has a drawn column on Shondaland. She currently teaches at The New School, and she is a founding faculty member of the MFA Program at Randolph College. She is the co-founder of Pete’s Reading Series in Brooklyn, where she spent 13 years bringing literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry to Williamsburg. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, documentary filmmaker Jed Rothstein, and their son.

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Diamond J. Sharp is a poet and essayist from Chicago. She has performed at Chicago’s Stage 773 and her work has been featured on Chicago Public Radio. She has been published in the New York Times Magazine, Vice, Pitchfork, Lenny, PANK, The Offing, Fjords, Winter Tangerine, JoINT Literary, Wellesley Review, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, BLACKBERRY and others. Sharp has been an editorial fellow at The Root, a features editor at Rookie, and a staff writer for Laundry Service. Her essay “Friends for Life” and her interview with Margo Jefferson were recently featured in Tavi Gevinson’s anthology Rookie on Love. A Callaloo fellow, Sharp has also attended the Wright/Hurston workshop, and is a member of the inaugural Poetry Foundation Incubator class. She has a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.F.A. from the Pratt Institute. Sharp lives in Brooklyn.

The post Non-Fiction by Non-Men: Diamond J. Sharp appeared first on E.B. Bartels.

For the full interview, see it on Fiction Advocate.
Published on April 9, 2018.

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Anya Yurchyshyn is the author of My Dead Parents: A Memoir, published by Crown in March 2018. Yurchyshyn received her MFA in fiction writing from Columbia University, and her work has appeared in Esquire, Oprah Magazine, N+1, Buzzfeed, Two Serious Ladies, Mod Art, Guernica, Elimae, and NOON. Yurchyshyn’s story “The Director” was included in Best Small Fictions of 2015. She lives in New York and teaches at Columbia.

On Wednesday, April 11, 2018 at 7pm, Anya Yurchyshyn and E.B. Bartels will be in conversation in an event at Newtonville Books in Newton, MA. If you are in the Boston area, come see Non-Fiction by Non-Men in real life!

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Mary Mann is the author of Yawn: Adventures in Boredom. Her essays and criticism have appeared in Smithsonian, The New York Times, The Believer, and The Los Angeles Review of Books, among other publications, and she holds an MFA from Columbia University’s writing program. Mann is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Fellowship and a 2015 CATWALK Art Residency, and she is the associate editor of the New York Times bestselling collection Women in Clothes. She is currently employed as a writing associate at The Cooper Union. Mann lives in New York with her fiancé, Grant, and dog, Maya.

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Giant retriever
crammed into smallest patch of
shade. It’s too damn hot.

The post Haiku for a Dog I Don’t Know, Part 22 appeared first on E.B. Bartels.

People care more for
pit bull than homeless owners:
“Does he need water?”

The post Haiku for a Dog I Don’t Know, Part 21 appeared first on E.B. Bartels.

Your owner holds you,
her teeth clenching a cup, as
she flies on skateboard.

The post Haiku for a Dog I Don’t Know, Part 20 appeared first on E.B. Bartels.