Hope you’re all having a great start to 2013. I’m ensconced at a writers’ residence in upstate New York and the break from Manhattan is doing my work wonders. As much as I love the city, sometimes a girl needs some trees and deer and snow to clear her head – and I’ve got all three in spades here.

There might be no better way to start a new year for a writer than with a piece in The NY Times so I present to you this brief love letter to Redfern, a neighborhood in Sydney that I absolutely adore. I spent a lot of time there over the summer, uncovering awesome new restaurants, bars, and galleries – not to mention drinking countless perfect coffees that have possibly ruined for good the American stuff for me.

Happy 2013 – and happy writing