Oh, how I wish my dad was still here and we were celebrating his 86th birthday tonight with a chocolate cake. I miss him very much and I know many of you do as well. I am so grateful to him and to all of you who still love him and carry on his legacy in different ways. Happy #carlsaganday everyone!
It’s been 24 years and I still miss my dad very much. I know many of you do too. Somehow this December 20th it feels especially hard, maybe due to the nature of this strange and painful year. Today I’m going to try to find something of his to read or watch that I’ve never seen before and revel in gratitude that he left so much wisdom behind.
My paperback— complete with a gorgeous new cover and extras in the back— comes out tomorrow!!! #forsmallcreaturessuchaswe
I am just blown away by this incredible portrait @fellmina created to go with my interview in the new issue of @infiniteworldsmagazine 🧬✨💙 Thank you, Angela!!!
My book came out one year ago today in a world that seems like an unrecognizable dream where traveling around the country, meeting people, and shaking hands was safe and easy. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to every single person who has read For Small Creatures Such As We. And especially to those of you who reached out to me. (I know I still owe a lot of you emails, thank you for your patience! I haven’t forgotten). I cannot tell you how much I’m looking forward to participating in all sorts of rituals that involve being together in person again when it’s safe. ✨ #forsmallcreaturessuchaswe
Thank you, dear @amyrosoffdavis @samanthamurphyable & @lilyrabe #challengeaccepted. I am so lucky to have spent so much of my life surrounded by brilliant, wise, hilarious, brave, bold, supportive women, so I am following Lily’s lead and taking this opportunity to make a donation to an organization that supports women and girls: @thelovelandfoundation #womensupportingwomen #womanempowerment
My husband gave me this card yesterday for our wedding anniversary. If you read my book you know why this is just about the most romantic thing imaginable to me. There’s really nothing like the love of someone who gets you (even when you’re morbid and weird) ♥️ #forsmallcreaturessuchaswe
I know this day can be very hard for lots of reasons. But this is a picture of me with my brilliant mom, whom I adore. And also a portrait my sweet, funny daughter did of me at school with a tomato floating near by head because I love tomatoes very much. Happy Mother’s Day to anyone who tenderly nurtures any growing being 💛🍅
I know this day can be very hard for lots of reasons. But this is a picture of me with my brilliant mom, whom I adore. And also a portrait my sweet, funny daughter did of me at school with a tomato floating near by head because I love tomatoes very much. Happy Mother’s Day to anyone who tenderly nurtures any growing being 💛🍅
I have been looking at the stunning new images from Mars for days, thinking, of course, about what my dad’s reaction might have been. But also, about something my mother often says: “you cannot lie your way to Mars”. It really never ceases to amaze me how unflinchingly following the evidence wherever it leads can make our species’ wildest dreams a reality. #perseverance
Today calls for celebration (and believe me, at our house, we are!) but to everyone who has organized, volunteered, voted, called representatives, text banked, marched, worked for change, let’s keep going. There is still so much we must do to move toward that more perfect union. #inaugurationday 💙
Don’t get me wrong, I do really love summer. And there’s definitely a part of me that’s sad to see it fading away. But even more than summer, I love that the seasons change, that nothing stays the same forever, that the world keeps turning.
Ahh, the Before Times! This photo was taken in May 2019 at the extremely fun birthday party of my dear and brilliant friend of many years @rebeljunemarie. Recently, I got to interview her —over Zoom, of course— for the new issue of @whalebonemagazine. We talked about memory, writing her unforgettable new book #survivingthewhitegaze (which comes out in February), and more. Thank you, lovely Rebecca 💙 link in story.
She really fought the good fight in every way. May her memory be a blessing. And a call to action.
It’s been a very difficult year, but I’ve been lucky to spend it with these two hilarious, loving, Instagram-shy, silhouetted figures. Today, we three are marking the winter solstice, joyful in the knowledge that no matter what else happens the days will start getting longer. The light will return. The particular movement of our planet around our star is both completely reliable and profoundly beautiful. And, I think, cause for celebration. Amazing how much splendor a little axial tilt can provide. Happy solstice, my friends (no matter your hemisphere) 🌞🌌🌍✨
Every single thing I wanted for my birthday all at once.
There is something about this image, a cross section of the life of a leaf, that moves me. It’s so simple and poignant. I am thrilled that it happens to be the cover of the Korean edition of #forsmallcreaturessuchaswe, my very first foreign language translation 🌱
This beautiful work of art by @cedricsmithstudio makes me think of the heroic John Lewis and so many others who risked life and limb for this right. Don’t forget them today. #vote
Thank you so much to @willwrights for inviting me write an essay for the gorgeous new issue of @atmos, a magazine with a fantastic mission. And thank you to @stefanie_moshammer for bringing it to life with the most breathtaking images. (Link in story). #hello
This is my grandmother Pearl, my mother’s mother. She would be 101 today. She was kind of impossible, frankly, and an unreliable narrator. But she lived to travel and wore false eyelashes everyday. And there was much else about her I loved. Whenever anyone in our family would fly across the country she would say, “Sacajawea!” It was a way of celebrating how quickly we’re now able to cross this continent thanks to the magic (brought to you by science) of air travel. A way of highlighting how lucky we were that it wasn’t the grueling journey it had been in the first years of 19th Century. Later, after she was gone, I thought what a credit it was to her that she didn’t say “Lewis & Clark!” instead.
I wrote this essay about how inevitable history feels when we learn it, how hard it is later to the capture the shock of the events that change our world. I wanted to call it “The Spoilers of War” when I typed out the first draft five and a half years ago. But in another way I think I started writing it twenty years ago today… #thespoilersofwar #linkinstory @literaryhub
I am so excited to share a series of interviews with female scientists I had the pleasure of doing for @thevioletbook. The first two interviews are with South African chemist Dr. Tebello Nyokong and American Entomologist Dr. Michelle Trautwein. These and more to follow at Violet-Book.com (link in story). #thescientists
When I was a kid, my dad and I would sometimes leaf through the stamp collection he had amassed decades earlier in his own youth. Tiny old rectangles from around the world, all neatly organized, all revealing something important about the values and history of the nation that issued them. I thought of that this morning when I picked up these beauties at my local post office. The @uspostalservice is crucial, especially now as so many Americans must vote by mail in the midst of a pandemic. Dismantling the post office is voter suppression. See story for ideas on what how to help, (including buying awesome stamps 📬) #savethepostoffice #vote
Last night I was reading this lovely, clever book about democracy by @jilltwiss to my daughter. This morning I have a hopeful heart that its basic concept will hold true in America today, for my daughter’s sake and all the other little ones who are still too young to have their say but will live with the consequences of our decisions. 🗳🐌💙🤞
