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1 week ago | 
susanorlean.substack.com | Susan Orlean
Last week was a weird one. Just being in Los Angeles was weird. The news made it sound as if the city was convulsed with violence, descending into chaos. I got lots of worried texts from friends, and had to assure them that this was, ahem, fake news in the most part.
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3 weeks ago | 
susanorlean.substack.com | Susan Orlean
I wanted to write a Pride-adjacent post in honor of Pride Month and also to register my horror at the prospect of un-naming the USS Harvey Milk. For crying out loud, can you believe that one? The pettiness, the anti-woke signaling… stop me before I burst a valve. On a happier note, I went to a screening the other night of the new National Geographic documentary Sally, which is a fantastic film about astronaut Sally Ride.
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3 weeks ago | 
flipboard.com | Susan Orlean
Former racehorse deemed too quirky to rehome now happy at centre helping people, a horse whose extreme bucking led to wire being found in his forehead – and other things the horse world is talking aboutHorse & Hound’s daily debrief, brought to you every weekday Former racehorse excelling in second-chance home An 18-year-old former racehorse has found …
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3 weeks ago | 
gardenandgun.com | Susan Orlean
Arts & CultureThe Virginia tradition connects generations of Saltwater Cowboys, the descendants of Misty herself, and two islands where wildness reigns Brooks Leonard is a fifth-generation saltwater cowboy. Last summer, he was close to three feet tall, fond of crackers, and on the thrilling cusp of turning three years old.
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4 weeks ago | 
susanorlean.substack.com | Susan Orlean
Happy Friday, everyone, at the end of a holiday week during which I couldn’t remember the day of the week (the curse of Monday holidays), which followed a week when I returned from an overseas trip on Monday, which meant not only being mixed up about the day of the week but being jet-lagged. I’m still writing 2024 on my checks, too. Ok, enough: Thank you for listening to me whine. Wordy Bird is a reader-supported publication.
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1 month ago | 
susanorlean.substack.com | Susan Orlean
I fancy myself an unflappable speaker. I give lectures and talks all the time, and I simply don’t get rattled by it. I think I’m just missing that gene, or hormone, or nerve system that gets jiggled by standing in front of a group of people; thank goodness, since being a writer these days demands at least a little bit of public performance.
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1 month ago | 
susanorlean.substack.com | Susan Orlean
I’m in Buffalo, New York, to give a talk at the annual fundraiser for the Buffalo & Erie County library system. On my flight here, I read that Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress for the past ten years and the first accredited librarian, first African American, and first woman to hold the post, had been booted out of her job by Donald Trump with no explanation and nothing more than a curt email telling her to clear her desk. I met Dr. Hayden a few years ago.
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1 month ago | 
susanorlean.substack.com | Susan Orlean
We love us some galleys...aka ARCs or Advance Reading Copies -- judging on which term you use helps establish how long you've been in book publishing. :)
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1 month ago | 
susanorlean.substack.com | Susan Orlean
I got the horrible news yesterday that my friend Jill Sobule had died. You may recognize her name: She was a singer/songwriter who first popped into the public eye with her song “I Kissed a Girl” and continued producing lively, lovely music for decades. She was a person for whom the word “delightful” was invented. She was goofy, smart, playful, humble, generous. She wrote the theme song for my podcast “Crybabies” and it was just brilliant.
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1 month ago | 
susanorlean.substack.com | Susan Orlean
Spring in Los Angeles begins around January 1st, or at least it feels that way. Oddly, though, it’s been chilly lately—the cold snap timed exactly to the minute of when I bundled up my wool sweaters and packed them in mothproof bags for their long summery slumber. It got so cold that I had to fish a few out to use during this last unseasonable spell. Wordy Bird is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
