April's Spilled Milk
What I've been reading, doing, loving in April
Before getting into my month, I want to mention the Gaza Evacuation Fund Book Auction is starting tomorrow (May 3rd) until May 12th. You can participate here and bid on all sorts of items/services donated by creators, authors and literary agents!
See you there?
Spilled Milk is my monthly wrap up where I talk about some of my favourite things from the last month. Things I’m reading, enjoying, looking forward to—sort of anything floating my boat.
There’s a french saying that goes: “En avril, ne te découvre pas d’un fil.” Literally, it is a warning about staying bundled up in April because the cold weather sticks around. When considering my April, I am choosing a more creative interpretation of layering and broke the rule time and time again. Like an onion halved, ready to make you cry, my layers were on full display. More on that in a bit!
Here is an overview of how my month went:
I published a series of personal essays that were an exploration of memory and time. I’m proud of them, so sue me for mentioning them again! Also, my boyfriend did the illustrations for them and I love them!
In preparation for Challengers, I watched Wimbledon for the first time (tough to admit as a Dunst-head), and it was fantastic!?!?
Sabrina Carpenter……… Espresso…… No comment on the number of plays it has in my household.
Binged Baby Reindeer, and thought it was such a fantastic piece of art discussing the complexities of survivorhood. So happy to see all of its success.
I feel like racquet sports will be huge this summer, and I kicked off this thinking by playing pickleball. It’s so fun!
I had Cowboy Carter ON REPEAT! Currently obsessed with Bodyguard, YA YA, Riiverdance, Ameriican Requiem.
The following is a list of some more things I couldn’t get enough of.
What I Read and Loved
Housemates by
Housemates is a book that made me feel so much with so little, and I mean that as the highest praise! It was simply so real and honest.
The novel’s backdrop is America during the Tr*mp presidency and goes until the start of the pandemic. It manages to convey the melancholy of the time, but also lead with love and inspiration. We follow Bernie and Leah, a photographer and a writer who first meet as housemates, as they embark on a three-week long road trip to document their world as they see it. These characters are flawed, messy, queer, and this novel celebrates every piece of them.
I described this book to a friend as being about “the price of art,” and I stand by that. The price of art, not in the starving-for-their-art kind of way, but in the sense that it illustrates how art is made and how much of oneself is poured into it. This book was so inspiring, refreshing, and reminded me why I write.
Housemates comes out May 28th, and it is a must-read for the summer!!!
Don’t Leave Me This Way by Eric Sneathen
I sought out this book because it was described as a queer poetry collection that blends archival research with sexual fantasy. If there’s one thing I love, it’s an experimental piece of queer literature, and it did not disappoint.
Don’t Leave Me This Way is gripping, erotic, tender, and heartbreaking. The collection is inspired by Gaëtan Dugas, a French Canadian who was falsely named “Patient Zero” in the AIDS epidemic in North America. Reading this felt like connecting with queer elders, and getting a glimpse at their lives during a very difficult time in our history.
It’s a symphony of sex and bodies, but has a through-line of reverence and looming pain. I tabbed about 20 poems and read this in one sitting. Highly recommend!!
Here After by
When I went to see Amy speak at a launch event for this memoir, her open heart blew me away…. and then I read the book.
Here After documents her disjointed experience of unexpectedly becoming a young widow. It’s about love, it’s about loss, it’s about life. I’ve never read someone be so honest about grief, speaking about the good and bad in a way that paints the full picture of the space left by a person’s death.
This book will make you hold your loved ones close, and push you to live a fuller life. It’s a must read for those looking to slather their hearts in a healing balm.
Don’t Forget Me by Maggie Rogers
The new Maggie Rogers album is completely breathtaking. In this essay I will… No, but seriously, she made something so special and I want to discuss it.
Like most, my connection to Maggie Rogers started in 2016 when Pharrell sang her praises during an NYU workshop. It wasn’t until a faithful day in 2017 when I decided to skip her concert in Montreal (the only non-festival concert she’s ever performed here) that I became obsessed... I am not big on regret, but this regret has haunted me ever since.
Maggie Rogers has been a constant in my music rotation since her debut, and this new album is no different. It has the indescribable Lisa Loeb/Michelle Branch/Natalie Imbruglia quality of being able to make a gay teenage boy scream-sing the songs coming from the cassette player in his 1999 Toyota Tercel (too specific?). It sounds so 90s and early 2000s, but is also so current—timeless!
The Swiftian spoken word bridge in So Sick of Dreaming. It Was Coming All Along’s driving with the windows down essence. The build up into the chorus of If Now Was Then. The cinematic specificity of Never Going Home. The Kill’s lyrics and entrancing melody.
You kept my secrets and stole my weaknesses
In your white T-shirt, but I couldn't fill
The shoes you laid down for me from the ones that came before
I was all the way in, you were halfway out the door
Oh, I was an animal making my way up the hill
And you were going in for the kill
The writing on the album as a whole is inspired, and she wrote it all over the course of five days. I’ve seen some reviews mention this as a negative, like somehow there’s a minimum time requirement for art. But the album doesn’t feel hurried, it feels like it’s coming from someone experienced who knows how do to what they do, and does it well.
~Connection~
Sentimental section alert!!
I just came back from a writing retreat with my writing group in the mountains of Colorado. We’ve been meeting virtually on a quasi-weekly basis for the better part of a year, but this was the first time so many of us were in physical proximity.
Recently, I’ve been paying close attention to novel acknowledgements, on the lookout for mentions of writing groups. What I’ve found is a quiet truth of writing: it takes a village. It can feel like like an extremely lonely endeavour, but that just doesn’t work for me. I couldn’t have written a novel and a half without my writing group (and this is true for so many of your favourite writers).
Being read by these people I trust, workshopping their future works, pushing the “you’re ready to query” agenda, witnessing their creativity… There isn’t a word big enough to express what it feels like.
We shared moments of vulnerability, openness and honesty, stripping our layers to allow deeper connections to take shape. My village is going places, and I can’t wait to watch it happen.
Reading Goals Update
My non-fiction reads for the month were Here After by Amy Lin and Like Love by Maggie Nelson. So different, but both great!
My poetry collection read this month was Don’t Leave Me This Way by Eric Sneathen. As mentioned above, it was spectacular.
My Year With Baldwin continued with Giovanni’s Room, and I loved it just as much as the last time I read it.
That’s been my month!
Here’s a rapid fire of what else is on my radar:
Dua Lipa is releasing her new album! While the singles haven’t floored me, I’m still excited for what’s to come.
Challengers!!!! I haven’t watched yet, but I know I’m going to love. Zendaya and Josh O’Connor… Okay!
The new season of Hacks is coming out today! It’s such a fabulous show and I can’t wait to binge.
Putting a ton of random shit on my bags as demonstrated in this TikTok.
Alternatively, beating the shit out of my leather bags to give them a more lived-in look à la Victoria Paris by way of Jane Birkin.
I’m excited to read a lot of books that just released or are coming out soon (Exhibit, In Universes, Real Americans and The Ministry of Time are at the top of my list).
Until next time 🤠
“The price of art” - that is perfect I am stealing this for interviews and will credit you!!!
You+me, binging the new season of Hacks! 🥂