Meghan Daum's Blog

I'm very excited to be included in this new anthology, TRUE TALES OF LUST AND LOVE, inspired by Anna David's celebrated spoken word series. Buy the book and, if you're in L.A., come see me, along with Laura House, Vanessa Marshall, and Janie Haddad Tompkins on JANUARY 16 at 7:30 at M Bar.

Does Kate Middleton visit Urban Baby? The arrival of the royal infant and reports that Kate and William plan to be more like "regular parents" than past generations of monarchs moved me to write up this little squib.

The Awl was kind enough to publish it. Some got the joke, while others seemed to think I'd assumed some kind of royal gossip beat. Either way, imagining Kate as a mommy blogger was a fun diversion.

Kate Middleton: Royal Sanctimummy?

So lucky to be at the amazing artists' residency Yaddo this month, where I can work on my book while gazing out onto pastoral splendor. Also cannot check the internet. If it didn't look like 1891 around here I'd think it was 1991.

This is my room. I feel like a character on Downton Abbey. Where is my lady's maid? My hair looks like crap!

Just back from a fun four days in Wisconsin, where I was honored to be a guest of Lawrence University. On campus in Appleton, I did a reading, met with students, and hung with some cool professors whose seemingly happy and content lives made me question my life choices, which is what always seems to happen when I visit midwestern universities.

Then I was squired up to Door County to spend the weekend at Lawrence's exhilarating Bjorklunden estate, right on the shore of Lake Michigan. I taught...

The February 20 party in Hollywood celebrating the launch of the Emily Books release of the electronic version of My Misspent Youth was a great success except . . . Emily forgot to turn on her tape recorder during the Q&A session! So she twisted my arm into recontructing it for the Emily Books Tumblr and I finally got around to doing it. Topics discussed include: shiksas, death, redemption narratives, Christian book clubs, and much more. Read it here.

Big news!

I'm thrilled to announce that my 2001 essay collection My Misspent Youth will soon (and finally) be available as an e-book. It will be featured as the Feburary selection of the online bookclub/electronic imprint Emily Books. Visit the Emily Books site for ordering information.

If you're in the Los Angeles area, come to the kickoff event, An Evening of My Misspent Youth, on Wednesday, February 20 at M Bar in Hollywood. I will be "lightly interviewed" by Emily Books founder Emily Gou...

I'm supposed to be writing a new book (and I am; I really am!) but in addition to the LA Times column I still sometimes get sidetracked by magazine assignments I can't resist and/or ideas that I must express right away lest the cultural moment pass. So in case you missed them (and considering that they range from The New Yorker blog to Redbook, you probaby missed some of them) here are a few recent examples.

Is Elizabeth Wurtzel Hannah Horvath's cautionary tale? My take on Wurtzel's much-disc...

I love Paul Gilmartin's podcast The Mental Illnes Happy Hour. It's like listening in on the therapy sessions of comedians and other funny, interesting people except the sessions usually last more than "the 50 minute hour" and the therapist is also funny and interesting.

Last year Paul invited me to do an interview. It was a lot of fun but in my typical fashion I kind of kept it under the radar so no one I knew would hear it. However, my mother-in-law recently told me she'd heard it so I figur...

For most of the year I'm more than happy with my decision not to have kids. But then the holidays come around and I want to send out cards and realize I can't because somehow this has turned into a thing that only parents are allowed to do.

It didn't used to be this way. It used to be that people just sent regular cards and if they wanted to stick in a snapshot or some school portraits of their kids that was a perfectly fine option. But it wasn't standard. It wasn't de rigueur. It wasn't the...