Jami Attenberg
Jami Attenberg
agents beauty believe curious estate growing industrial neighbors offense street
No offense to Bushwick, where all my neighbors greeted me on the street and there is a growing arts community and a curious beauty to its industrial zone, but Bushwick is no Williamsburg, even if the real estate agents would have you believe it is.
behind donald family french fried growing local looked mind office onion saw trump
When I was growing up in Chicago, my family and I used to go to a local chain, Hackney's, for burgers and their French fried onion loaf. I probably haven't been to one in 25 years, and yet, I once saw Donald Trump from behind in an office building and the first thing that flashed in my mind was his hair looked like that onion loaf.
buffalo community distinct growing jewish memories small
I have very distinct memories about growing up as part of what was then a very small Jewish community in Buffalo Grove, IL.
respects
There's something to be said for an author who clearly respects a reader.
decline
Sadly, e-mail has triggered the decline of the handwritten note; I have seen its near-disappearance in my lifetime.
Cooking skills aside, my mother is an exceptional nurturer.
anywhere near
I won't go anywhere near the new Times Square. It's seizure-inducing.
ate fat parents point themselves
I was fat because my parents were a little fat themselves at that point in their lives, and I ate what they ate.
I was fat because I lived in the Midwest in the 1970s, and everyone was a little fat then and only getting fatter.
color hide
For years I'd thought my color was black: deep, dark, thoughtful, mysterious. Black, you can hide behind. But now I know it is red.
dozen drove forth
For years I drove cross-country, back and forth a dozen times, sometimes on book tour, sometimes just to get lost and found.
men talk women
I don't know much about any of the Hasidim because the men won't talk to me because I'm a woman, and the women won't talk to me because, while I am Jewish, I'm not Hasidic.
act morning wake
I can act like a boy as much as I want, but when I wake up in the morning, I'm still a woman.
countless graduate literary pitch published pursue seemed send writers
I didn't go to graduate school, where all the important writers seemed to be getting their start. I didn't pursue getting published in literary magazines. I didn't even send out countless pitch letters and manuscripts to agents.