Monday, March 30, 2026

95. Essays, part II

The other day I shared a multi-part list of essays from Summer Brennan's Substack "A Writer's Notebook" and her weeklong "essay camp." Here are the rest of the essays she recommends.

Day 4

"Passing Mary Oliver at Dawn," by Summer Brennan, 764 words, 3-minute read
"A Woman's Work: Home Economics," by Carolita Johnson, 1,075 words, 5 minutes
"Natural Intelligence," by Maria Popova, 1,538 words, 6 minutes
"The Face That Replicates," by Katy Kelleher, 2,620 words, 10 minutes
"The Heaviest Pain in the World," by Rob Delaney, 4,240 words, 17 minutes
"Chicxulub," by T. Coraghessan Boyle (a short story), 4,374 words, 18 minutes
"Dreamers in Broad Daylight: Ten Conversations," by Leslie Jamison, 7,271 words, 29 minutes
"The Reenchanted World," by Karl Ove Knausgaard, 10,766 words, 43 minutes
"Ugly, Bitter, and True," by Suzanne Rivecca, about 16,000 words, 1 hour 10 minutes
"Bluets," by Maggie Nelson, about 28,000 words, 2 hours

Day 5

"A Word for Autumn," by A. A. Milne, 892 words, 4 minutes
"Living Like Weasels," by Annie Dillard, 1,585 words, 6 minutes
"On Self-Respect," by Joan Didion, 1,826 words, 7 minutes
"Uncanny the Winging That Comes from Certain Husks," by Joy Williams, 2,251 words, 9 minutes
"Scent Makes a Place," by Katy Kelleher, 2,700 words, 11 minutes
"Frog," by Anne Fadiman, 6,019 words, 24 minutes
"When I Met the Pope," by Patricia Lockwood, 6,604 words, 26 minutes
"Shipping Out, by David Foster Wallace, about 20,000 words, 1 hour 20 minutes

And that's it! Plenty of reading material, most of which I've never encountered. 


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