What is a Wordy Bird?
I was a chattery child, and sometimes my mother reached full Susie saturation and would suggest that I take a break. “You don’t always have to be such a wordy bird!” she’d say. I would obey—briefly at least—but it was hard. In no time I’d start up again, undaunted. And here I am, all these years later, still chattering, still the wordy bird.
I’m excited to have you here! I plan on writing about all the things that interest me and I hope will interest you, too. I’m going to pay some extra attention to fashion (in my own particular way) because it’s something I love thinking and talking about and don’t get to do it as much as I’d like. I’ve written about fashion in the past—I was a contributor to Vogue for many years, and I did a number of fashion pieces for the New Yorker, including profiles of Bill Blass and Jean-Paul Gaultier. My fashion stories here are going to be more musings and inquiries and you don’t have to care anything about clothes to jump in.
I’m also going to muse about writing, and scratch the itch I always have to be a bit instructive about it—I feel writers have a lot to learn from each other, and this will be a great chance to do that.
The world at large is always serving up something magical and interesting that I can’t resist writing about—a new foal at the neighbors’ house, maybe?—so I’m open to whatever those serendipities may be and will deliver on it.
I mostly plan on being good company. I hope you’ll join me! And if you pay for a subscription, you’ll get all the nice things. Please do!
In case you landed here by accident:
Let me introduce myself! I’m the author of nine books, including The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup; My Kind of Place; Saturday Night; and On Animals. In 1999, I published The Orchid Thief, a narrative about orchid poachers in Florida, which was made into the Academy Award-winning film "Adaptation” starring Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep. Yes, I was played by Meryl Streep; yes, it was weird. My book, Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend won the Ohioana Book Award and the Richard Wall Memorial Award, and is being adapted for the screen by the amazing Nick Hornby. In 2018, I published The Library Book, about the arson fire at the Los Angeles Public Library. It won the California Book Award and the Marfield Prize and was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal. I’m adapting it for television with director/writer James Ponsoldt. I’m now working on a memoir, tentatively titled True Story, and I’ll keep you posted as that moves forward.
I’ve been a staff writer for the New Yorker since 1992, and I’ve also contributed to Vogue, Rolling Stone, Outside, and Esquire. I’ve written about taxidermy, umbrellas, origami, chickens, and a wide range of other subjects. I wrote for the second season of HBO’s How To With John Wilson and was nominated for an Emmy for the episode “How to Appreciate Wine”. I was a 2003 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow. Ok, is that enough data? Too much, maybe? Sorry, I was told you’re supposed to brag a bunch on the About page.
Never miss a Wordy Bird update—every new post is sent directly to your email inbox. For a spam-free, ad-free reading experience, plus audio and community features, get the Substack app.
Some details from the folks in our accounting office (that is, me):
If you’re on the free list for Wordy Bird, you’ll get access to two or three posts each month. You’ll be able to comment occasionally on the posts, too.
If you are a paid subscriber, you’ll get all the goodies. Of course, you’ll receive all of my posts. I’m likely to keep most of the posts about writing exclusively for paid subscribers, so if you especially want to get those, please leap over the paywall and sign up for a paid subscription. Then you will also have the ability to comment and to interact when I do Q&As. I’m also cooking up some fancy add-ons that will include Zoom talks down the line for paid subscribers. Stay posted!
Join the crew
Be part of a community of people who will be reading this newsletter! Make friends! Make noise in the comments section, and get ready for some Q&A action! And please support my work with a subscription. Thank you!
To learn more about the tech platform that powers this publication, visit Substack.com.
