My big takeaway from reporting this story is that it's not JUST about the Forest Service.
The closure of these stations threatens to upend a delicate system of mutually beneficial collaboration and resource sharing, and the impacts will ripple out far beyond the Forest Service itself.
Everyone with a culture newsletter that went out yesterday should get to reshare it today here.
At Scratch, we had a long chat about writers’ dwindling employment opportunities and whether we could even land retail gigs at this point. www.talkscratch.com/should-we-al...
We're hosting @robertmoor.com and @manjula.bsky.social at the Mill Valley Library one week from today to celebrate Rob's new book, In Trees: An Exploration. Join us! ptreyesbooks.com/event/2026-0...
Oops, it’s April 13! Monday!
I’m so looking forward to speaking with Robert Moor next week (April 14) at the (lovely, tree-bedecked) Mill Valley Public Library. Come out and talk trees with us, Bay Area! www.newsbreak.com/mill-valley-...
Congratulations, Rob! looking forward to next week .
Come out tonight to see/hear our senior editor @manjula.bsky.social with Suzanne Simard + @greenapplebooks.bsky.social
7pm, SF Botanical Garden, free to attend!
Remember when Buzz Bissinger revealed his wild af shopping addiction to designer leather goods in a Vanity Fair article?
Yeah, this @talkscratch.bsky.social interview with THE Angela Garbes is also about shopping, clothing, writing & addiction (but much better): www.talkscratch.com/angela-garbe...
thx Eva!
Also: Simard will be in conversation with @manjula.bsky.social in San Francisco this Thursday evening, April 2, talking about her new book "When the Forest Breathes: Renewal and Resilience in the Natural World." You can register for that here: greenapplebooks.com/event/2026-0...
come for the scandalous dek, stay for the warmhearted self-excavation and ESPRIT outlet shoutout! 👆
Screenshot from the Scratch interview with Angela Garbes, in which Angela and Manjula Martin discuss linen pants as an expression of midlife identity
A school photo is author Angela Garbes in 4th grade, rocking an abstract print ESPRIT sweatshirt
For this week’s Scratch, I interviewed icon Angela Garbes about her next book deal, retail therapy, addiction, and why midlife lady authors deserve expensive pants.
www.talkscratch.com/angela-garbe...
God this is brilliant
Today’s Scratch newsletter is a personal essay on being a Black critic at the end of arts criticism by @latriagraham.bsky.social. Come for the killer lede, stay for the dream deferred.
“Direct-to-consumer enterprises marketed by critic-proof institutions mean there is no need for the context of aesthetics or the theory of beauty. Place and memory become victims of algorithmic flattening.”
Who wants to see Dead Kennedys without Jello Biafra anyway? The future of punk rock is bright, diverse, and interesting as hell — head to the East Bay’s Doll Fest this weekend to see more than 20 bands leading the way. www.coyotemedia.org/doll-fest-oa...
In this week’s Scratch, the great @latriagraham.bsky.social looks back at the arts writing career she couldn’t have. What is lost when criticism disappears? What else — whom else — might we all become, if the arts were valued differently? www.talkscratch.com/the-job-i-wa...
This is a very good, very subtle novel that manages to be about things that a lot of writers think is too mundane to touch (when was the last time you read literary fiction where the protagonist had a regular job?) and other things that are too huge to grasp, like the hyperobject of fossil capital.
Scratch got a nice little write-up in @sf.gazetteer.co today. (Thanks, @cydhayes.bsky.social!) sf.gazetteer.co/a-beloved-ma...
When Manjula Martin first read the draft of an interview that appeared this week in her new newsletter 'Scratch,' she was moved to tears.
The topic? Freelancer taxes.
sf.gazetteer.co/a-beloved-ma...
Are you a freelancer? Do you have questions about taxes??This isn't a how-to guide, but it might help you get over that emotional wall many of us hit when it's time to figure out what we owe to the government after scrounging for our gig work pay in this economy www.talkscratch.com/self-employm...
A quote from our anonymous author/tax preparer: “So that's another conversation that I really try to have with people, which is to say, "This is work. It is meaningful work. You are doing labor. The fact that it's not being compensated right now doesn't mean it's not labor, and it doesn't mean you're not business-like."
A quote from our anonymous author/tax preparer: “Even in the eyes of the IRS, you are performing work in the attempt to earn money, which means that you are a business. This is why a lot of my tax appointments sometimes feel like therapy appointments, because there's also a lot of emotional labor, which is often my favorite part of the job, is getting to have those conversations with people.”
Widespread industry layoffs and unemployment mean that virtually every writer I know is either awash in 1099s or scrambling for work and likely has been for years. We hope this interview about taxes helps to reaffirm that your labor IS labor and that it matters. www.talkscratch.com/self-employm...
Freelancers of Bluesky, this week’s Scratch newsletter features a long talk with an anonymous author/tax preparer about how our system sets us up to feel extraordinary shame, stress, and guilt around taxes. (This post will always remain unpaywalled, because we think it’s that important.)
IT WON’T BE THE SAME WITHOUT YOJ PLEASE COME 😭❤️😭❤️
I swear every dystopian tech development is like "Hey, are you OK with being this much not-a-person in our eyes? How about this much? One or two? <clicking noises> OK, how about now—one or two?" like I'm at the devil's optometry office.
*taps internet microphone*
After months of work, a project i've been coordinating for @literaryhub.bsky.social in conjunction with @maris.bsky.social is now live ...
We've commissioned 13 reviews of books by LGBTQ folks not covered by the NYTBR under Pamela Paul ...
lithub.com/what-was-los...
It's rare for writers to talk about their advances (usually it's decontextualized like the nyt bestselling writer in the NYMag $$ feature yesterday). I'm so glad Scratch is reincarnated! This group convo about the masthead's money situations is very illuminating!! www.talkscratch.com/the-group-ch...
