x A & T

Also, we mention Weirdo Poetry go follow him on Substack!

Thanks for listening! This post is public so feel free to share it.

We’re beginning 2026 with reading as a practice to help us find stillness.A way to slow down, reflect, and listen inward.

If you’d like to begin with us, registration is open for our Let Go & Begin Winter Workshop: letgoandbegin.com

📅 Thursday, January 22⏰ 4–6pm PT | 7–9pm ET💻 Zoom

We’d love to see you there.

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Whether it be a towering stack on your night table like mine, its own pristine bookshelf in your library, or a haphazard list in the back of your planner, what you read next can be a hard choice. In this week’s episode, I let you in on my future choices, and then we get to see if I actually get to those books or if i get sidetracked by new shiny ones beckoning me from my local indie.

Let me know what’s on your TBR list, so I can add it to mine.

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Thanks for reading The Literary Sipper! The more people you tell, the more people will read.

As long as you’re reading.

Here are three Rom-Coms I do like:

* Bridget Jones Diary, Helen Fielding

* Watermelon, Marian Keyes

* The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion

And no, I have never seen Bridgerton.

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Valentine’s Day is coming and whether or not you celebrate or believe in the commercial nature of holidays, I am all for a reason to look at poetry about love. And if February makes me feel all the feels, then poetry in February is one way to escalate all of those feelings. Today, we look at three relatively modern ones. I mean within the last 20 years. We don’t need to go all the way back to Sappho or WH Auden to find the best romantic descriptions. Poetry lives and breathes as a reflection of our own times.

Here are the three I read:

Poem for My Love, June Jordan

Filling Spice Jars as Your Wife, Kai Coggins

The Hush of the Very Good, Todd Boss

What are your favorites?

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Well, here we are again. It’s cold out, the sun may or may not be shining, the holidays have finished, you may or may not have put away all of the decorations. So now what? People tell you it’s time for arbitrary resolutions and a push towards productivity. But the winter season says it’s time to slow down, make friends with the darkness, and look inward.

But you do you.

And if you want to do you with others, Tania (taniawalshyoga.com) and I are running our Winter Workshop on January 30, 2025 and registration is open at letgoandbegin.com.

We would love to see you there.

And for those who come for books, here are the three I have going at the moment:

* Yoga and Ayurveda, David Frawley

* I Have Some Questions For You, Rebecca Makkai

* Ghost Girl, Banana, Wiz Wharton

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Thanks for reading The Literary Sipper! This post is public so feel free to share it and let people know about me and the work I do.

Here are a few of the books I highlighted for you to check out:

* James by Percival Everett

* Dracula by Bram Stoker

* Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro

* The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich

* The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin

And a big thank you for all of you who listen. This is my 50th episode. And here’s to 50 more!

If you want to help out the podcast, please feel free to share, rate, and review where ever you listen.

And as always, let me know what you loved this past year and what your fist book of 2025 is!

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Thanks for reading The Literary Sipper! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Thanks for reading The Literary Sipper! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Get your last minute shopping done at the bookstore.

Live by the mantra: one book for you, one for me.

It’s what you want for Christmas anyway.

And whenever possible, shop local.

Merry Merry.

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In our Let Go and Begin workshops, Tania Walsh and I always start with the symbol of the doorway. Are you closing a door, opening a new one to a room you’ve never entered, or revisiting a dusty room that needs a good airing out?

This idea came to me after reading Donald Justice’s poem “Men at 40”. I loved the metaphor of the “softly closed door”. I felt incredible empathy for these men who now looked at their life’s choices and could see that they would no longer be able to take these roads that led to frontiers of the self or make the choices that would take them away from their life as it stood in the moment of mid-life. They did not slam them, or shut them emphatically, but with a whisper of a close, maybe the door didn’t even make the click to let him know that it was fully shut. I related to their suffering to the lost lives or hopes or dreams and I always equated those dreams with artistic ones. The idea of being a road musician, or a fine arts painter, or a nomad who made his living off of acting, writing, drawing.

I encourage you all to do the guided journaling questions included in this week’s episode and to, of course, follow us on Instagram to be kept apprised of our 2025 workshop dates.

Read the poem here.

Follow Let Go and Begin here.

Drop in on one of Tania’s yoga classes here.

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Thanks for reading The Literary Sipper! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work to bring all things creative to your inbox.

After the election, these three poems filled the void.

* Anne Waldman’s “Crack in the World”

* Maggie Smith’s “Good Bones”

* Nikki Grimes’ “You Still Dream”

What poems have you turned to this November?

Let me know in the comments!

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Do you have friends who are ten years older than you?

What about ten years younger?

Diversity is also about age. Understanding the generations that bookend yours is more than just reading the myriad memes on the subject. It requires an open hear and a generous ear.

If we want to honor the classics and expand the canon, we need to broaden the audience.

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If you missed last week’s episode on Planning Your Day, here you go:

Micro Plan and Macro Plan.

Then be ready for it all to change in a moment.

Do your best and make sure to make room for your creative life.

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Here is the episode on planning your retreat!

Thanks for reading The Literary Sipper! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

When you select your next book, might I suggest you stray a bit from your preferred genre? Try some poetry, a thriller, historical fiction, memoir. Try something you don’t usually reach for. As the days get darker and shorter, we may find ourselves wanting the familiar, the cozy book that echoes the way we hope to spend our time. However, it may be a great time to get yourself tucked in with some tea, but let your brain go on an adventure.

Here are some links to some of the books I mention, the Libby App, and my fall reading guide:

* James by Percival Everett

* Bridget Jones’ Diary, Helen Fielding

* The Booker Prize Shortlist

* The Libby App

* The Fall Reading Guide

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Thanks for reading and listening to The Literary Sipper! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. And don’t forget to tell me what you’re reading.

While we all know that looking at art makes us feel something, we get caught up in figuring out the right meaning. What are we “supposed” to see becomes more important than what we are, in fact, seeing. Make sure to spend time looking, seeking, observing, connecting to the visual. It will help you make sense of the world, no matter what your preferred medium may be.

* Here is the link to the Colin Davidson Show “Silent Testimony”

* Here is the link to Alex Gray’s The Mission of Art

* Here is the link to the work of art that I am fixated on at the moment

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Learn to Re-TREAT yourself.

What would fill you up? Take time to think about it and then put it on your calendar.

Here is the link to the Writer’s Refuge on Whidbey Island for any of you who are looking for a Thoreau type experience. Close enough to the town to get a good meal, but remote enough to immerse yourself in the season.

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We still have room in our October 12 workshop! You can retreat for a couple of hours on a Saturday morning!

Here is the link!

Hope to see you there.

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Take your time to write a real, live, gorgeous, letter today. To someone. Anyone. Get a stamp. Mail it. Then do it again. And then, when you’re ready to read some gorgeous letters, try these on for size:

* EB White’s Letters

* van Gogh’s Letters

* O’Keefe and Stieglitz Letters

Here is a link to the Steinbeck letter I read and the Dostoevsky letter I didn’t.

And if you want to be extra sweet, write a review for my wherever you listen to this podcast.

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Get to those bookstores, people. It is time. Time for tea and time for books. My favorite time.

Let me know what you are reading. Let me know what you are sipping.

Here is the link to the Fall Reading Guide.

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Don’t let the stores fool you, you still HAVE TIME! Four more months remain until the new year. What were those resolutions you made around reading last year? Can you add something new to your fall reading? Can you play with when you read? What you are reading? How you are sharing your finds?

Let me know what goals you want to reignite as we move towards 2025.

And if you haven’t take a look at my Fall Reading Guide for inspiration.

And as always, let me know what you are reading!

I am reading Angie Kim’s Happiness Falls!

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Welcome back to The Literary Sipper!

I didn’t mean to take such a long summer break. But, alas, it is what it is. We had a lot of travel this summer and like many, my creative goals took a backseat.

I did plenty of reading and writing though, so we will touch on that in future episodes. As a former teacher, September feels like the new year anyway!

The goals this year are to deliver a weekly podcast for you and a bi-weekly Top 5 Sips to your inbox.

This week we are talking decluttering and I highly recommend Gretchen Rubin’s book Outer Order, Inner Calm if you haven’t already gotten it! I don’t mention it in the episode, but I think it is a great read to get started on any organizing project!

Talk soon!

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Thanks for listening to The Literary Sipper! Feel free to share this episode with your people. I would be ever so thankful. More reading, more writing, more creative things in the world.

What are your creative rituals? Do you light candles, only write in the morning, pair your dance practice with your afternoon coffee? How do you let your brain know that it is time to plant the seeds of your latest venture?

Do you have different rituals for exploration and other ones for polishing, editing, and the work of being an artist in the modern world: newsletters, mailing lists, wuery letters, connecting with fellow artists or your audience?

This week we get into the concept of rituals and of course if you haven’t investigated Mason Currey’s books or his Substack, here is your sign to do so.

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A deep dive into the summer reading guide I put out a couple of weeks ago. You can listen to me give spoiler free summaries for some of them and a rationale for how I organized the rest.

But what I really want are pictures of your tote bags full of books!

Currently Reading: Let Us Descend, Jesmyn Ward

Happy Summer everyone.

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My first attempt at making a video of this length…Lots to learn but here we go.

When in doubt, do it anyway.

Here is a brief intro to the book.

Your homework for next time:

* Look up the definition of Narcissism.

* Read Book 1, Chapters 1-7. In my book, it is pages 1-37.

* Leave me a comment or a question!

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I refer you to a one Mr. Jeff Tweedy in his wonderful book, How to Write One Song. In the very first page of the book, before he even gets to page one, chaper one. he writes:

“We have a choice — to be on the side of creation, or surrender to the powers that destroy.”

I can think of no better reminder than that.

You matter. Your art matters. Now get on with it.

x A

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I am not sure how you define classic literature. I am not sure how I define it anymore either. However, I know there are a slew of books I was supposed to read, but time, energy, degree requirements, diversions, and fill-in-the-blank reasons, I just didn’t get to. And when you’re daily writing and work centers on books, well, we all know that there is no such thing as the bottom of that TBR pile. That’s part of the beauty of walking into a bookshop or library, the notion that you will never get to read all of it, so read something new and something old, something your friend loves and something that looks pretty on a shelf. What I am encouraging you to do in this episode is stop for a minute, look backwards, and select something that you “missed” along the way.

“I'm a big believer in pairing classics with contemporary literature, so students have the opportunity to see that literature is not a cold, dead thing that happened once but instead a vibrant mode of storytelling that's been with us a long time - and will be with us, I hope, for a long time to come.”

—- John Green

In this moment, in this summer, in this year, does the story resonate with you? Will it remain a classic for the future? Does it live up to the hype?

Let me know what you choose. And let me know what you think.

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I have dug out my old annotated copy and we can do some reading, some writing, some thinking, and some drinking together as we investigate the narcissistic path of psychiatrist, Dick Diver, his wealthy wife Nicole, and also, the lush and dark prose of an American author whose own brand of genius is intricately tied to this main character.

Every Wednesday, I will release a video on the book, and I invite you to read along.

In the meantime, your homework is to track down a copy of the novel in whatever form floats your boat.

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There are so many to talk about since so many studios look to the best seller lists to glean their ideas when they are not making superhero movies based on comic books. I have barely touched the surface.

What are your favorites? What are the ones that are so bad, you still have secondhand embarrassment? And what book do you wish they would turn into a movie?

I want to know. I have a series of long flights coming up and need a playlist!

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In honor of National Library Week (last week anyway!) I wanted to talk about one of my happy places. Do you have your library card? Do you seek out the large city libraries on your vacations? Do you use the library for a quiet space, inspiration, research? Let me know. And if you haven’t read Susan Orlean’s The Library Book, I highly recommend it. It remains one of my all-time favorites.

I suggest you head over to your library today and bring home a big old stack.

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This is the eternal question: What do I do with all of my old journals, scraps of ideas, notebooks, and napkins? What if they hold the key to my best work and I am too blind, or too lazy to go through them all to find it? Well, this week we talk about: Intention.

And also, how are you using them now?

We also talk about the disappearing ephemera of writers, in general.

I mention “The Booksellers” a great documentary about the rare book deals in NYC. It was produced by Parker Posey, a Gen-X woman’s ride or die. I highly recommend.

In the meantime, take out one of those journals, find a particularly embarrassing page, and have compassion for that person trying to make sense of the world.

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What creative pursuit can offer you a second chance at being a beginner? Here are a couple of great links to check out about some of the people I mention on the podcast this week:

* An interview with Tom Waits about Songwriting.

* An interview with David Byrne about Art.

* Baryshnikov on Theater.

Enjoy and let me know what your pairings are.

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If you didn’t receive this book as a gift this year, go get it for yourself at your local independent. It’s worth it.

Here is a link if you need it.

If you did receive it as a gift, lucky you. You are loved. Read it and start practicing.

If you need a gift for someone, this is a good one

.

But the greatest gift you can give to yourself and to others is the time and space to be creative.

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Hi All,

I know it’s been awhile. But here I am, ready to encourage you, gently, always gently: Begin Again.

Did you download this list at the beginning of the year and promptly forget about it? Did the new sunny days inspire something in you to pull it out? Great. Now pick one. Don’t worry about which one. Don’t overthink it. Just start somewhere. Any one of them should be the momentum you need to get going on this creative journey.

Here is the link to the list in case you misplaced it.

And here are some words of encouragement from our dear friend Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.”

Keep growing, friends.

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I certainly hope your 2024 reading list is off to a great start! All the books I mention are listed on my Substack. Here is the link in case you missed it!

Also, I am still currently reading The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese and The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. What are you reading? What was your first book of 2024?

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Here are links to some of the books and things I mention in this episode:

* Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Being

* The Hate You Give, Angie Thomas

* The Midnight Library, Matt Haig

* Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien

* The Nix, Nathan Hill

* The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger

* Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi

* A great article on Ethan Hawke’s Hamlet

* Ready Player One, Ernest Cline

* Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin

* Letters to a Young Athlete, Chris Bosh

* Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA Champion

* Neil Gaiman’s Instagram

* Stephen King’s Instagram

By the way, the younger one won his game, and my older son loved The Stand and is now reading Billy Summers. He told me yesterday that I would love it too.

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Well, Tis the Season to be shopping. Fa la la la la. For some of the people on your list, books make the perfect gift. For those who listen, it is also an excuse to go to the bookstore. I subscribe to the one for me, one for you book shopping mantra. Here are some links to the ones I mention in this week’s episode:

* Accidentally Wes Anderson

* The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, Roald Dahl

* Bad Dads

* The Story Teller, Dave Grohl

* Acid for the Children, Flea

* Life, Keith Richards

* Girl in a Band: A Memoir, Kim Gordon

* Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, Carrie Brownstein

* Shakey, Jimmy McDonough

* Waging Heavy Peace, Neil Young

* The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band, Motley Crue

* Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin

* Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver

* The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett

* The Polar Express, Chris Van Allsburg

* The Percy Jackson Series, Rick Riordan

* Ramona and her Father, Beverly Cleary

* Nooroongji

* Bricks and Mortar

When you’re done shopping, make sure to pour yourself a glass, I recommend the pinot noir from Cartograph, make a cozy fire, and crack open that new book. You know, the one you got for yourself.

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In this week’s episode, we discuss the three books I’m thankful for (right now, anyway). Like most lists, they are subject to change with the season, the mood, and the moment you ask me to remember them. So here are a few links to the books I mention, in case you are in need of some new books for the rest of the year to finish out 2023 with a bang.

* Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll: This edition from the Rifle Paper Co. is particularly stunning.

* Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald, an honorable mention.

* 1001 Arabian Nights, Children’s Illustrated Version

* Walrus and the Carpenter in Seattle

* Daily Rituals: Women at Work, Mason Currey. He is also on Substack as Subtle Maneuvers.

* Frida, with the fabulous Salma Hayek

* Nolan Green, artist, here on Substack as Of Sound andFury

* Katherine Anne Porter, PBS American Masters

* Mortal Acts, Mortal Words, Galway Kinnell. This is a first edition copy. Of course, you can find a reprint.

* The Book of Nightmares, Galway Kinnell

* Wait, Galway Kinnell

Keep Writing.

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As artists, we long to be in the flow state for as long as possible, but sometimes we can feel like we’re wandering among the trees aimlessly. Yes, it’s beautiful, covered in snow, crunchy branches under our feet, songbirds in our ears, but we have to find the way out at some point. For many artists, goal setting can be painful. This week’s episode talks about the how and why goal setting is important and hard.

I don’t have a lot of links this week, so here are some notable books on creating and of course the link to my website if you find yourself in need of a coach.

Keep doing good work.

x. A

* My Coaching Website

* The Artists Way, Julia Cameron

* Fearless Creating, Eric Maisel

* Daily Rituals, Mason Currey

* Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg

* Share Your Work, Austin Kleon

This week's episode is a starter kit to recognizing the role of body work in your creative life. There are a lot of names thrown around, book titles offered, and even a Walt Whitman poem at the end. But above all, honor your body the way you do your muses. Without it, you couldn't make anything.

Here are some links to the people, books and poems I mention:

* Susan Sontag

* Marie Curie

* Nikki Giovanni

* Hayden Dunham

* Frida Kahlo

* The Body Keeps The Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD

* Alvin Ailey Dance

* I sing the body electric, Walt Whitman

Treasure your breath and keep doing the good work.

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This week we are talking about how creative pursuits can sometimes leave us with an emotional hangover: that hollowed out feeling like we have given over so much of ourselves how can we ever hope to fill up again. I assure you, dear artist, you will.

Here are some links to some of the things I talked about this week.

Pete Holmes on Zach Braff’s Podcast

Pete Holmes’ You Made it Weird Podcast

Dr. Huberman and the sun in the morning

Joseph Campbell’s A Hero with A Thousand Faces

See you next week.

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We are so lucky to live during a time when the myth of the artist emerging fully formed has been debunked. The artist is a person, just like you, who has made the choice to fill their space and time seeking the common core of our humanity.

Here are some links to things I talked about this week you may want to check out:

* DaVinci’s Sketches at the Metropolitan (I said it was the ‘90’s but it looks like it was 2003!)

* Letters from EB White (1st edition)

* Teachers and Writers Collective Workshops

* Colum McCann

* NYPL Stacks

* Jack Kerouac baseball cards

* William Blake’s watercolors

* Judy Blume’s Master Class

* David Sedaris Readings

* Patti Smith’s Substack

* Artist/Mother Podcast

* NASA’s Genius Study

* Louise Glück’s poem “Afterword”

Keep doing your good work.

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Sometime you need a kickstart into living a more creative life. Here are three small things you can do this month to help. If you need more ideas, head over to my Substack posts, and there is a free printable of 20 creative prompts for October. I will leave that link below along with some others to things I mention in this week’s podcast.

Keep writing. Keep making stuff.

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Here are the links for the week:

* October Creative Prompts

* Episode #16: The Literary Sipper Asks Should I Take That Class?

* Nooranji: The BEST bookstore

* The Article on Translation I mention

* A Modern Work in Translation you may like

* A Classical Work in Translation you may like

* Gretchen Rubin’s Book on Senses

* The Sense Quiz

* Judy Blume’s Master Class

* The Donald Justice poem

* The Emerson Quote in its original text

In this episode, we talk about the fear we have about our own voice. We talk about the cringey feelings when we first hear our recorded voice and the trouble that translating our own voices through our art can bring up.

Here are links to some of the things I mention that you may like too:

* The Simply Julia Cookbook

* The Brothers Koren Voice Gurus!!

* Roseanne Cash’s book

* The Scientist, Coldplay

Keep using your voice to usher more art into the world.

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In this episode I mention a few things you may want to check out:

* This William Blake Poem

* This Virginia Woolf Essay

* EB White’s Barn

* A Sign for your Space

* The episode on small moments to create

* Mason Currey’s Books

* Alexander Calder’s Studio

And as always if you would share, rate, text someone you know the link…all the things. I would love you even more.

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Thanks for listening to The Literary Sipper! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

What do you think? Should you take that class? Did you already sign up? Let me know!

Here are some links to things I mention in the episode:

* The PNWA (Pacific Northwest Writers Association)

* MasterClass

* Mindy Halleck, author

* Charles Martin, author and translator

* 92nd Street Y

* The Story of Ferdinand, Munro Leaf

* Epictetus Quote

A continuing conversation regarding self-care. If you missed the Substack post on the topic, here it is.

I also mention a couple of other things in this podcast you may want to check out:

* The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

* Helen Frankenthaler, American Abstract Expressionist

* Show Your Work, Austin Kleon

Keep Writing. Make Stuff.

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Some of the books I mention:

* Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver

* Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies, Elizabeth Winkler

* I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy

* This Must be the Place, Maggie O’Farrell

* The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O’Farrell

* Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman

* Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner

The Bookstore in Vancouver you MUST check out!

* Nooroongji

Here are some links to the things I mention:

* my #asmallpoemaday challenge

* Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach

* The Irish Proverb

* My husband’s music

How we address failure and how we meet success is a choice. Our disappointment and desire in this realm demonstrates our attitude towards life. What if we shifted our mindset and allowed our shadows to indicate our obstacles and move toward them rather than away from them?

Here are links to some of the things I mention in case you’re interested.

“My Shadow” by RL Stevenson

Liz Phair’s return to Guyville this fall

Keep writing.

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Find the people who see you how you want to see yourself.

Here is a a link to the poem I reference as well:

Sybil by Julia Ward Howe

Helpful Links for today’s episode:

* The book: Zen Mind, Beginners Mind

* This Beautiful Article by Lauren Weinstein

Some helpful Links to explore:

The book Wintering by Katherine May

The poem "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" by Wallace Stevens

My blog post on A Morning Routine

Thank you for listening.

Keep writing,

x A