Jobs for Girls with Artistic Flair is now available at your local bookstore, at Bookshop.org, and all the usual big guys. It’s also an audiobook from Penguin Random House Audio, narrated by award-winning voice actor Jesse Vilinsky. If you’re interested in having me speak with your book club, high school or college class, or speak at an event, email …
I was recently invited to lead a writing workshop for high school students—maybe you’re one of them! If so, hi again!—which I called Bewitch Me: Sweeping the Reader Away. This topic came about when I started pondering “What is the single most useful thing I can offer these students in a short period of time?” and …
Let’s tinker in the guts of books! Welcome to Part 1 of a series called Gears & Ghosts, in which I cozy up with a stack of novels and figure out how they work, like a curious mechanic poking around various well designed haunted house rides. If you’re wondering why anyone would want to do this, …
A poet friend and I were comparing notes on the writing process recently—sublime fun for nerds. I’m mostly a novelist/essayist, but I secretly write poems sometimes (I guess it’s not a secret now), and I was curious how real poets revise their work. I say “real poets” in contrast to weirdos like me, whose poems …
Cover of “Across the Universe,” by John Lennon Vocals: June • Guitar: Rob • Chirping: local crickets I used to share music here regularly—just humble home recordings alongside little reflective essays—and I don’t know why I stopped. Pandemic, I guess? (77 weeks as a working-from-home mama? Revising my novel before sunrise, lesson planning at night?Chaotic mélange of …
tl;dr A few recent podcasts where I share some (hopefully useful) thoughts on writing, publishing, and the creative process. ✶ ✷ ✵ ✸ ✹ Hello, friends 🕺🏼 ✹✸✵✷✶ I’ve been aspiring to a hushed autumn. Social media silence. A daily round that turns down the volume on the (beautiful but busy) spring/summer. It occurred to me, …
tl;dr for the Quite Busy: I’m the author of a coming-of-age novel, just released in June. I’m doing some class visits this year, virtual and in person. If you’re interested, email june.gervais.writer@gmail.com. Dear Teachers and Educators, Hi there, and happy here-comes-another-school-year. I’m June: a writer, occasional teacher, mom trying to raise good humans, and author …
In the ‘80s (the time period of my novel, Jobs for Girls with Artistic Flair), tattoo shops in the U.S. were mostly male—and mostly white. It took a lot of tenacious, passionate artists to change that, and one of the very first was a Black woman named Jacci Gresham, who started tattooing in New Orleans …
That moment when you open your first box of hardcovers, sitting in the first female-owned tattoo shop in your county, in the company of two of the finest tattoo artists you know, who helped you with the research for the book and are thrilled for you; and your mom, to whom the book is dedicated, …
Delighted to say I have two new essays up this week—one at Lit Hub and one at Past Ten. Each tells the story of an uncanny coincidence. What a thrill to write for both of these publications! Lit Hub because jeez, it’s Lit Hub, that absolute behemoth of literary news/essays/criticism. Past Ten because it’s a …