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5 days 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 week 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 week 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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2 weeks 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.
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2 weeks ago | 
susanorlean.substack.com | Susan Orlean
Hey folks! Someone has created a fake account with my name and is spamming my followers with investment opportunities. I’ve contacted Substack to see how to get the account taken down. In the meantime, please ignore/delete/throw bricks at it, and I hope it’ll be dealt with soon.
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3 weeks ago | 
susanorlean.substack.com | Susan Orlean
When it comes to writing, I have performance anxiety. I know this seems strange; after all, I’ve been writing for decades, and by all measure I should feel a bit of swagger every time I sit down to start a piece. Practice makes perfect and all that, right? But each time it’s a bit of a challenge to convince myself that I’m going to pull it off.
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4 weeks ago | 
susanorlean.substack.com | Susan Orlean
My late ex-husband and I never talked about clothes—not mine, not his—except for once, when he told me, with obvious pain, that his parents never let him buy Levis or even Wrangler jeans, insisting that they were too expensive. They said he would have to make do with JC Penney’s house brand. I think the cost difference between Levis and the JC Penney jeans was only a few dollars, but they wouldn’t budge.
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1 month ago | 
susanorlean.substack.com | Susan Orlean
I got my book manuscript back from the copy editor the other day and now I’m reviewing her suggestions and changes. I’m one of those writers who thinks editing makes my work better, rather than the kind of writer who is sure my staggering brilliance is being quashed by the meddling of sadistic editors. If you tend to be more of the latter, well, enjoy your toxic narcissism! Seriously, I’ve had a run of mostly wonderful editors and copy editors over the years.
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1 month ago | 
susanorlean.substack.com | Susan Orlean
If you happen to be in Kenmore Square, come join me. I’m sitting at the bar at Blue Ribbon Brasserie, doing damage to a glass of Pinot Grigio, and savoring the lovely anonymity of a restaurant bar on a business trip. The business at hand is the Power of Narrative conference at Boston University, a first-class event that I last attended about twenty years ago in a heart-stopping, city-throttling, headline-making snowstorm.
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1 month ago | 
susanorlean.substack.com | Susan Orlean
I have no plans to turn this into a television recommendation column (well, I don’t think I will) but I haven’t stopped thinking about Adolescence since I watched it and it’s led me down a few interesting paths. Among other things, I’ve become a little obsessed with the Adolescence actors, whose performances are extraordinary. I want to see everything else they’ve been in.
