learning

new essay at salon

March 28, 2020

I’m thrilled to have an essay up at Salon today. For all the families who suddenly find themselves home with their kids. I keep seeing them on social media: The “school schedules” written on kitchen whiteboards, shared proudly by parents newly tasked with home-schooling in the face of a pandemic. Those whiteboards make my heart […]

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#suddenlyhomeschooling

March 18, 2020

Hello! See that photo there? That was our first day homeschooling. More than 22 years ago. If you’ve come here via Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or who knows where, welcome. Especially if you’re a parent who suddenly finds yourself home with your kids and that’s not where you planned to be. Please let me […]

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the liminal space of the college application essay

January 27, 2020

I’ve spent the last month or so helping T with his college application essays. It’s a little hard to believe. Ten years ago his brother was applying to film school, and I was writing about The College Application Monster. Six years ago I talked and talked with his sister about her essays, including the Common […]

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ten years on the wonder farm

July 18, 2018

Wonder Farm is ten years old today! I hope you’ll indulge me in some reminiscing. And then maybe you’ll wish a happy birthday in the comments–I’m giving away books to bribe you! one. I first hit publish on July 18, 2008. Like everyone, I want to be Soule Mama. I dabble […]

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where the sparks fly

March 22, 2018

She’s four. Sewing for the first time. It’s August 19, 1999, which I know because I happened to write about this day in my Mother’s Journal. She has insisted on sewing “with a real needle.” Together we decide on a felt pillow for her baby doll, Cookie. She chooses purple cloth, purple thread, her favorite. That night […]

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life as a lyric essay

September 20, 2017

My daughter sits beside me, writing madly in her journal, the red journal she bought yesterday at the New York Public Library on 5th Avenue. I made her go inside with me after breakfast, after I flew in from California on a red eye because it’s inexcusable to live in Manhattan without having been in […]

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lost and found

April 10, 2017

I had a beloved coffee cup. Tall and handle-free, white with tiny red flowers and a silicone sleeve. A small chip at the lip. If you know me in real life, you have surely seen it in my grip at one point or another, as I used it constantly and not just for coffee. If […]

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