tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906Sat, 04 Apr 2026 20:29:20 +0000Sustenance for the socially conscioushttp://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)Blogger327125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-3136367329924304022Sun, 29 Jan 2017 19:46:00 +00002017-01-29T12:48:36.034-07:00 I’ve heard lots of great advice in the past week on how to help out in these troubling times. Here’s a quick rundown of what I’ve heard mentioned lately. Feel free to copy and paste and add your favorite local/national/world organizations to the list. #ActNow 5 Calls Gives you&nbsp;contacts and scripts&nbsp;so calling your representatives in Congress is quick and easy. #ActNow: Subscribe http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2017/01/how-to-actnow.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-6553591904674052305Sun, 22 Jan 2017 17:02:00 +00002017-01-22T10:08:53.799-07:00 Here in Denver, more than 100,000 people marched yesterday, and I was not one of them. Not because I hadn’t heard about the march. I’d been hearing about this event for weeks and knew a number of women who planned to march on January 21, many with family members and other friends. I knew similar marches were scheduled across the country, and I knew people who were planning to attend them as http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2017/01/why-i-didnt-march-yesterday.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-8680608764079708712Sun, 01 Feb 2015 06:02:00 +00002015-02-01T00:14:53.681-07:00 Thanks to the return of Lisa Kenney Meserve to her blog&nbsp;Eudaemonia, I was inspired earlier this month to try to blog on occasion once again. And thanks to Thien-Kim at FromLefttoRight.com, I also learned about the 2015 Diversity Reading Challenge hosted by Pam of UnconventionalLibrarian.com fame. Like&nbsp;WeNeedDiverseBooks&nbsp;led by YA author Ellen Oh, UnconventionalLibrarian http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2015/01/beyond-fiction-in-search-of-diverse.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-640547563555175825Thu, 17 Jul 2014 21:26:00 +00002014-07-17T15:30:30.186-06:00 As dramas along our borders are once again spotlighted by our media and social networks, books like Amor and Exile: True Stories of Love Across America’s Borders by Nathaniel Hoffman and Nicole Salgado offer critical insights into the lives of those who are impacted daily by our very complex immigration system. Described as a mash-up of a work written by a journalist (Hoffman, who writes http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2014/07/beyond-facts-amor-and-exile-by.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-2702177961369156548Sun, 23 Feb 2014 18:24:00 +00002014-02-23T21:00:05.921-07:00 Leave it to blogger extraordinaire Thien-Kim to provide a timely list of multicultural children’s books that focus on Mardi Gras and New Orleans. I’m most intrigued by On Mardi Gras Day&nbsp;by Fatima Shaik, which talks about how two children and their African-American community celebrate Mardi Gras. Though out of print, On Mardi Gras is available from third-party sellers on Amazon. Hopefully http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2014/02/beyond-fiction-multicultural-childrens.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-399094341705511688Thu, 14 Nov 2013 18:27:00 +00002013-11-14T11:32:05.982-07:00 I stayed up late last night to finish Julie Kibler’s intricately plotted debut novel, Calling Me Home. On one level, Calling Me Home (due out in paperback in January) tells the story of an elderly white woman who asks her black hair stylist and friend to drive her to a funeral in another state. During the lengthy road trip the main character’s full story is revealed via chapters that bring the http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2013/11/i-stayed-up-late-last-night-to-finish.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-4864846025731799572Sun, 10 Nov 2013 23:43:00 +00002013-11-10T16:53:32.863-07:00 I’ve been meaning to write about the My American Meltingpot blog written by author LoriTharps since author Carleen Brice mentioned it to me years ago. As soon as I read Lori’s heartfelt post about the movie 12 Years a Slave I knew I couldn’t put this post off any longer. &nbsp; Presented as “A Multi-Culti Mix of Identity Politics, Parenting &amp; Pop Culture,” My American Meltingpot was http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2013/11/beyond-fantastic-my-american-meltingpot.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-4898430139698955816Tue, 06 Aug 2013 03:58:00 +00002013-08-05T22:10:24.112-06:00 &nbsp; My first babysitting job was to watch a newborn for the foster family next door for a dollar an hour in the summer of 1977. I remember the year because I also remember I was eleven. Eleven and very proud to hold that baby—his name was Jimmy—and feel his tiny hand grab hold of&nbsp;my finger&nbsp;as though for dear life. I only watched him for a&nbsp;little while that day, but I’ll never http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2013/08/beyond-fun-camp-to-belong.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-5468395678451820282Thu, 01 Aug 2013 02:15:00 +00002013-08-05T22:00:43.037-06:00 Author Tiffany Catledge&nbsp;recently introduced herself via&nbsp;a Goodreads group on mixed-race literature. Her children’s book, Mixed Me: A Tale of a Girl who is Both Black and White, is a welcome addition to the still-limited list of available titles written specifically for children of mixed-race heritage. The little girl in&nbsp;Mixed Me&nbsp;addresses a number of potentially hurtful http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-uthor-tiffany-catledge-introduced.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-2114529848610792286Sat, 15 Jun 2013 21:43:00 +00002013-06-15T15:45:09.761-06:00 I recently attended a workshop at Lighthouse Writers Workshop here in Denver in which poet Mark Doty offered tips on how to “force a focus on the language.” My notes include the following gems: -What you know and don’t say energizes your work. -Allow your reader to experience a pressure or other outcome without knowing the reason. -Figure out the relation of the self with what’s being observed. http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2013/06/beyond-facts-firebird-memoir-by-mark.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-8076701502511639332Mon, 03 Jun 2013 03:23:00 +00002013-06-03T09:05:07.408-06:00 I was pleasantly surprised to read in a friend’s Facebook post last Friday that a new Cheerios ad featured a biracial family. “Seems odd that this should still catch one’s attention in 2013,” my high school buddy wrote, “which is a pretty clear indicator of how far we still have to go.” I agreed and moved on, completely oblivious to the fact that the ad was not only noticed by a lot of peoplehttp://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2013/06/beyond-fuming-whats-really-behind.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-4281734489917309643Thu, 18 Apr 2013 02:18:00 +00002013-04-17T20:34:27.227-06:00How fitting that I found myself reading an essay about upstate New York (“Let Me Tell You What It Means” by author Brock Clarke in a gem of an anthology Why We’re Here: New York Essayists on Living Upstate from Colgate University Press) while waiting in car line at my kids’ school today, a Denver day graced by what my husband and I call “Syracuse weather.” As a slate sky hung overhead and icy http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2013/04/beyond-finished-in-upstate-new-york.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-4124194173123883360Thu, 14 Feb 2013 02:42:00 +00002013-02-13T20:26:12.505-07:00 Colorado author and&nbsp;journalist Cathie Beck recently met with a lunch group I organize of local women authors, editors, and other talented literary types. Her discussion involved how she promoted her self-published memoir, Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship, so effectively online—and followed that up with immediate outreach to agents and publishers—that the book quickly got the attention of a top http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2013/02/beyond-friends-cheap-cabernet-by-cathie.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-2534802813009470078Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:37:00 +00002013-01-30T09:13:48.403-07:00At a recent birthday lunch with nine chatty sixth-grade girls I pretended not to overhear the following conversation: “My brother does the funniest Asian accent.” “Asian accent? Tell me what an Asian accent is.” “Uhhh.” “Really, what’s an Asian accent? I want to know.” Funny thing was, both these girls were of Asian descent, though most people would say only one “looked” Asian with straight http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2013/01/beyond-faces-usa-today-changing-faces.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-843694176813736712Wed, 17 Oct 2012 20:03:00 +00002012-10-17T14:20:58.211-06:00 Journalist, videographer, novelist, essayist, poet, and illustrator Nick Belardes is a busy guy with a big heart whose work has been published to wide acclaim online (including on Twitter, where he published the first literary Twitter novel) and in print. I met Nick at a Writing Away Retreat in Breckenridge last month. When he read at a retreat reading, I thought immediately of the early short http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2012/10/beyond-fundraising-helping-indie-press.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-1866691460234785140Mon, 17 Sep 2012 02:44:00 +00002012-09-17T09:38:28.557-06:00 Just before the start of summer and toward summer’s end this year I experienced two incredibly memorable events: the fifth annual Mixed Roots Film&nbsp;&amp; Literary Festival in Los Angeles in June and the September Writing Away Retreat in Breckenridge CO. Both took me away from home and out of my typical routine and introduced me to remarkably creative people from all walks of life. And while http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2012/09/beyond-friends-are-you-talking-to-me.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-9195704444124313584Sat, 21 Jul 2012 04:03:00 +00002012-09-04T13:02:38.048-06:00 How ironic that I sought solace today by finally finishing THE EDUCATION OF LITTLE TREE by Forrest Carter. This&nbsp;engaging story allowed me to escape to the mountains of Tennessee at various times over the past month. I’d understood from the back cover that it was autobiographical, a fact that led me to tears earlier this week during one especially heartbreaking scene involving the http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2012/07/beyond-fiction-education-of-little-tree.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-5655446674171075269Sat, 24 Mar 2012 05:51:00 +00002012-03-24T09:40:06.224-06:00<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2012/03/beyond-fiction-bakers-daughter-by-sarah.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-3664995565836597739Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:28:00 +00002012-10-22T10:11:44.769-06:00Deborah Jiang Stein is a rock star. Just read her new memoir, EVEN TOUGH GIRLS WEAR TUTUS, and check out her non-profit, The unPrison Project, and you’ll understand what I mean. Born heroin-addicted to an incarcerated mother in the Alderson Federal Prison for Women in West Virginia, Deborah spent her first year of life behind bars. Literally. She shared her mother’s prison cell, even going to “http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2012/01/beyond-facts-even-tough-girls-wear.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-534499070905226458Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:45:00 +00002011-11-01T09:50:56.858-06:00<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2011/11/beyond-fiction-little-bride-by-anna.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-8772001172511279790Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:49:00 +00002011-10-29T09:22:40.519-06:00Poet and best-selling memoirist (THE LIARS’ CLUB, CHERRY, LIT) Mary Karr was recently in Denver for a Lighthouse Writers Workshop Writer’s Studio weekend that included an interview and Q&amp;A, an after-dinner pep talk and fundraising push (“Pony up and ride, y’all”) for Lighthouse, then a Sunday morning seminar. Each event was packed with local writers and Mary Karr fans, some of whom were http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2011/10/beyond-fly-by-decoding-mary-karr.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-2921808030543155951Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:25:00 +00002011-10-20T13:44:42.389-06:00It’s been a while. A while since I’ve written a blog post, a while since I’ve thought back to the darkest day of December 1988. With the death of Gadhafi, I’m back in Hartford CT, hearing over the phone from a close friend that a boy from Hartford, a Syracuse student we’d known at school who’d gone to London to study for a semester, has been killed in the bombing of Pan Am 103.Today’s news also http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2011/10/beyond-form-elegies-1995.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-8887275152154956780Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:55:00 +00002011-03-07T11:29:57.635-07:00 One of my recent stories for MixedAndHappy.com focused on the story of Michael Fosberg, whose memoir, Incognito: An American Odyssey of Race and Self-Discovery, was recently published. The basics of Michael’s story—as told in his book and in the one-man play, also called Incognito, he’s been performing for 10 years—are pretty powerful: His mother, a daughter of Armenian immigrants, married a http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2011/03/beyond-facts-incognito-american-odyssey.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-2247709109490087574Thu, 03 Mar 2011 23:19:00 +00002011-03-03T16:23:43.184-07:00Back in the days before Facebook, I found blogging to be the best on-line way to get to know others who love to write and to learn from (and about) them on an on-going basis. Bloggers are writers, regardless of their topics of choice, and when writing is combined with a passion and a little bit of polish, it can’t help but shine. Author Meg Waite Clayton in her role as host of the SheWrites http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2011/03/beyond-fun-she-writers-blogger-ball.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15672906.post-6496125330127896998Sat, 19 Feb 2011 18:02:00 +00002011-02-19T11:39:24.257-07:00I’m happy to announce I’m now a weekly columnist at MixedAndHappy.com, a site I profiled last spring. My M&amp;H columns will highlight resources of special interest to M&amp;H readers, many of whom have young mixed-race families.Founded by supermom Suzy Richardson, MixedAndHappy.com is growing into a dynamic community of readers from all over the world and now writers located across the country http://sustenancescout.blogspot.com/2011/02/beyond-finesse-sister-mixedandhappycom.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sustenance Scout)5