Social — Lindsay Starck

Letters from Cairo

Lindsay Starck writer, professor, adventurer

In honor of Halloween, here's a piece I wrote for @crimereads on stories that can be categorized as "domestic horror." The essay opens with a pretty terrifying tale from the Brothers Grimm... Reader, beware!

https://crimereads.com/when-ho

If you're still searching for the perfect Halloween costume, look no further! Why not dress as the Kingman, a character from a charming new novel called Monsters We Have Made? All you need is a crown, which I myself fashioned out of paper for a spook

I just discovered that the Minneapolis Institute of Art gives tours based on books! The volunteer guide chooses objects and images that resonate with the book's themes, and you chat about these connections as you wander through the galleries together

Very excited about this event at the Stillwater Public Library tomorrow evening! Come out to hear four authors talk about their books, their writing processes, and their roads (mine was definitely long and winding) to publication. Hope to see you the

Went out paddling on Lake Nokomis last night (first photo), which reminded me of paddling on Lake Michigan (second photo), which reminded me of paddling on Lake Superior (third photo), which reminded me of Duluth, where I will be headed tomorrow for

I wrote a little piece about the stories we tell ourselves and the unreliability of memories and perceptions. It's full of book recommendations! You can find it here: https://electricliterature.com/8-books-that-question-the-reliability-of-memory/

Th

This weekend I got to spend some time at the lovely Bookstore at Fitger's in Duluth, chatting with passersby about Monsters We Have Made. I tried to coax potential customers to the table by using Cedar as bait (so cute! How can you not come close and

"The investigation into what makes a monster scary is explored in equal measure to what makes love scary." A thousand thanks, @indyweek, for such a thoughtful review of the novel. I'm pretty psyched to be heading down to Chapel Hill for an

I learned a lot while writing "The History of the Handshake," an essay that was published a few months ago in a very striking issue of Fourth Genre. The piece was inspired by a handshake that took place early in the pandemic, between Chris

For Chris's birthday, I gave him a surprise kayaking/camping trip to the Apostle Islands! Only, I forgot that we're not really campers. And we don't have any camping gear. But, we borrowed supplies from generous friends (thanks, @stine14 @kelkelkar @

A few of my favorite shots in the two months since Monsters came out! On-theme earrings from @potato_potpie, a couple of delicious book-cover cakes, the snowy launch-night party at @thebriarbar, book signings and sightings in bookshops, a visit to t

Here's my new short story about the plastics floating around inside our bodies! I'm so happy that the piece found a home in this beautiful issue of the Southern Review.

"Your Baby Is The Size Of..." was inspired by an article in the Guardi

If you're near Eau Claire, Wisconsin on May 17th, come to @dottersbooks and join @themrericrasmussen (fiction writer extraordinaire, founding editor of @barstow_and_grand) and me for a conversation about books and monsters and writing and writing mon

My mom told me that April 27th was national pinhole photography day! While this celebratory pinhole post is a little late, that feels acceptable for a form of photography that is most interesting when it's least instant. Chris got me this beautiful w

I want to make so many Earth Day posts that it's hard to choose just one of them! But I'll start with this: on a study abroad trip to the Netherlands a year ago, I learned from some Dutch urban planners that one third of all car trips in the United S

Here's my mom and me at the Milwaukee Public Library back in the 1980s! I hadn't written a book yet, but I enjoyed holding ones that other people had written. I'll be returning to my hometown this week to talk about my new novel, so if you're nearby

Registration is now open for the 12-Hour Writers Retreat hosted by the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild! I'll be the writer-in-residence, and I'm excited for a day that will include all the key steps of the writing process: generative prompts, free writ

Some favorite Friday morning things: a maple oat milk latte, a couple of toaster waffles, flowers still going strong since last week's launch, and three new books from three fantastic authors I'm looking forward to spending time with this weekend. If

Scenes from yesterday's snowfall. I call the items in this series: "March Madness," "Snow Falling on Cedar," "Carry a Big Stick," and "Puppy Love."

#minnesota #springtime #marchmadness #latespring #snow #redhe

There are a lot of difficult things, not pictured here-- the thousands of hours spent on pages that didn't make the final cut; the inbox full of rejections; the vulnerability of sending something you made out into the world to be judged by strangers.

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard, The Writing Life