Exciting News and Updates!
Welcome to the current iteration of my very occasional newsletter. I’m giving Substack a try!
Throughout my life, whenever things have been hard or confusing or full of grief, I often turn to writing as a way to process my feelings. It is such a wonderful practice to get all that junk swirling around inside my head out onto the page, so that I can take account of it, decide what thoughts to keep, what stories to share, and what must be composted.
And because I love to cook and eat, I often write about food. Writing about food may seem silly in these tumultuous times, with existential threats around every corner. But food is actually an ideal entry point into the much larger subjects of who we are, where we come from, and how we wish to live. Writing about food inherently connects us to our emotions, our bodies, and our daily lives, as well as to our ancestors and environments.
If this sounds like something you’d like to explore, I will be teaching my online food memoir class with Atlas Obscura this December. It is a perfect gift for yourself—or to give to someone else!—as we close out this year. During this upcoming winter season, Writing the Food Memoir provides the time and space to rest, digest, and reflect. My classes are often described as a form of group therapy where we recall lost memories, contemplate our relationship with eating, and find joy in cooking again. And as an added bonus, if you sign up for my December class, you will get two months of my paid Substack for free!
Which leads me to my next exciting announcement. I’m giving Substack a try with my new paid newsletter Feed Me Figs.
Paid Subscribers will receive a series of “Food For Thought” writing prompts four times a year: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. These questions and meditations will help you deepen your relationship with food, and track changes in how you eat, think about yourself, and feed others throughout the seasons.
Beginning in December, Paid Subscribers will receive a series of holiday-specific writing prompts to help you stay present and grounded. I imagine many of you will be facing holiday meals with people who sit on the opposite side of the political spectrum or who trigger difficult feelings. The “Food for Thought” questions are like mini check-in exercises that encourage moments of self-reflection and release.
There's no shame in eating our feelings, but let’s also feel our feelings by writing about them!
Paid Subscribers will also receive advice about how to get your food writing published, notes on favorite food books and media, as well as interviews with chefs, artists, and thinkers that have inspired new ways of thinking in myself. Plus the occasional recipe that I find particularly delicious or resonant.
For the price of a fancy cup of coffee each month, Paid Subscribers to Feed Me Figs also get the satisfaction of knowing you are supporting my next book (more on that in a future update!). I am a slow reader, a slow thinker, and a slow writer. I like to percolate. I am so very grateful for your financial support, which allows me to take my time with my work—something that’s often difficult to do in our fast paced, order it today, receive it tomorrow, breathless culture of speed.
And remember if you sign up for my December Atlas Obscura class, you will receive two months of my paid Substack for free, with the Winter Food For Thought prompts sent out once a week to help you get through the holiday season and start the New Year off on solid ground.
Free subscribers will continue to get very occasional updates from me. You can upgrade to paid anytime. No one will be turned away for lack of funds, so if you feel like you would benefit from the food prompts and material I will be sharing, but don’t have the financial resources at the moment, please email me ginarae@substack.com and I will gift you a subscription.
Finally, I’m thrilled to announce that I will be launching a new self-directed food writing course in January 2025.
This course includes twenty-one days of prompts and exercises, delivered to your Inbox every morning. This course will take you on a journey to deepen your connection with yourself, your past, and your family. Not only will this course improve your writing about food, it will also give you a new way to process your emotions, dream into your food future, and check in with yourself—all in less than 20 minutes a day. You may even find that by the end of the course, you will have completely transformed your relationship with food and found new sources of nourishment.
What a great way to start off the year! It also makes a fantastic gift! Preorder this course now—launching in January of 2025.
And speaking of gift-giving season, a final announcement! You can now purchase a signed and personalized copy of Feasting Wild through my website. Perfect for the history buffs, food adventurers, and avid readers in your life. And if nothing else, the book looks beautiful on a coffee table or bookshelf.
Working on a writing project or book? Need editing help or a little extra support? Send me an email ginarae@substack.com to schedule a free 15 minute call to discuss your goals and see if we are a good fit to work together.
Sending lots of love from sunny Santa Fe,
Gina Rae
