#sandy ebner

The Necessity of Selfishness by Sandy Ebner

After Hours by Sandy Ebner

This month’s “After Hours” is a companion piece to an essay I wrote for Change Seven, called, “The Unexpected Beauty of Alzheimer’s,” which was written over two months ago. When I read that piece now, I see how much things have changed as my mother’s disease has progressed, and how much they will continue to change over the coming months.

There have been very few times…

There Once Was a Town by Sandy Ebner

There once was a town named Oak Alley. Populated almost exclusively with “one-percenters, (long before anyone ever heard of such a thing), Oak Alley was a town filled with perfectly behaved dogs, gurgling babies in strollers, and pretty people who strolled its tree-lined streets at a leisurely pace, all of them with a BMI of 25 or less. They sipped lattes during their mani-pedis, and drank…

Why Food Writing Matters: A Profile of John Thorne by Sandy Ebner

For most of us, food is a fascinating, and necessary, subject. Every day we talk about what to eat, how to eat it, where to eat it, and who to eat it with. That, combined with the advent of Food Network and social media, has helped to create an explosion of interest in food—aside from its obvious role in our basic survival. We post pictures of our food online. We download videos to help us fix…

Twice Loved by Sandy Ebner

The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on. – Carl Sandburg

When my mother got married for the second time, at the age of 68, my sisters and I were there to witness the event, as were two of my stepfather’s four children, who, along with their father, had flown from Mississippi to California for the ceremony. Two sets of siblings,…

Hatred Learned by Sandy Ebner

Truth. Every person of color whom I have ever met, have ever loved, or whom I will ever love, will likely have no use for any of this because all of it is very old news.

I’m thankful that I was brought up in an atmosphere of acceptance because it could just as easily have gone the other way. My father grew up in Livingston Parish, Louisiana, where racism is often overt, even today, over fifty…

I’m Not Supposed to Be Here and Neither Are You by Len Kuntz

REVIEWED BY SANDY EBNER

I’m Not Supposed to Be Here and Neither Are You by Len Kuntz

I’m Not Supposed to Be Here and Neither Are You by Len Kuntz | Unknown Press, 2016| ISBN: 978-0-996352-69-7 | 191 pages

Len Kuntz’s new story collection I’m Not Supposed to Be Here and Neither Are You is filled with great writing, but more than that it’s filled with unexpectedwriting, and at the end of the book I…

A Conversation with Frances Dinkelspiel by Sandy Ebner

Frances Dinkelspiel

Frances Dinkelspiel is an award-winning journalist who co-founded the local news site Berkeleyside. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, People magazine and elsewhere. Her first book Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California was a San Francisco Chroniclebestseller and was named a Best Book…

Some Thoughts on AWP by Sandy Ebner

AWP 2016, Los Angeles (Photo: Sandy Ebner)

Two weeks ago I spent three days in Los Angeles, at AWP, the yearly convention held by the Association of Writers & Writer’s Programs. Held in a different city each year, AWP is an opportunity for writers to step away from our laptops, if only for a short while, and to bond with other writers, hopefully learning a few things in the process. It also…