What is Assembling Remnants?

A reintroduction.

Last week, I gained over 300 new free subscribers. I also changed the name of my newsletter (again). Whether you’ve been here from the beginning (for over three years!) or whether you only recently subscribed, I humbly ask you to read today’s newsletter in its entirety.

Many of my new subscribers came here because of my essay “You Have Such a Pretty Face,” which was published in Jessica DeFino’s newsletter, The Unpublishable. I am so grateful to have you all here. I didn’t expect such a profound response to my work, but I think I should have. The essay is about how diet and beauty culture destroyed my mother and nearly destroyed me. Turns out, I’m not the only one who’s struggled with this lineage. This is unsurprising to me. Although I’ve often felt completely alone and isolated, literature has taught me that all experiences are shared, in one way or another.

That’s one of the reasons I became a writer, and one of the reasons I started this newsletter. Back in winter of 2000, I called…