Dalene and Paul Heck of Hecktic Travels we’re traveling in Phnom Penh when they witnessed a protest by garment workers. Police met the protestors with riot shields, rubber bullets, and then actual bullets. Dalene wrote about the protest and how she now vows to change as a consumer.
Here’s her powerful post-protest reflection:
Their plight is one common to this part of the world – one of being overworked in deplorable and unsafe garment factories while earning less than the minimum wage. The workers from this particular factory serve H&M, the Gap, and other global brands. They have already been protesting for months to no avail.
“We are embarrassed that you have seen this,” said those Cambodians we talked to about it later.
They were embarrassed? I was embarrassed –…
Read More >
This is the actual first sentence of a piece on TIME Magazine’s site:
There’s one kind of knitted good that you probably won’t find on Etsy: the kind that comes out a human vagina.
I’ve looked for the origins of clothing around the world, but, I have to admit, I never imagined clothes would originate THERE. And by there I mean vagina.
I’m not sure this is art that I get. Because I don’t get this at all. She just stuffs the yarn up there regardless of the time of month and pulls the strands out to knit. She still knits with her hands. She just uses her vagina for yarn spool storage. I don’t see the art, beauty, or vaginal respect that this is intended to inspire.
If you’re still curious,…
Read More >
When humor goes, there goes civilization. –Erma Bombeck
I’m excited to announce that I’m on the faculty at the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop (April 10-12). I’ve been to the conference twice as an attendee, and it is definitely one of my favorite conferences. The conference made me better as a writer, led to some major assignments, a book blurb from Senator Sherrod Brown, and, the best part, I made some real life friends, who are hilarious. That’s the great thing about a humor conference, the people who attend it are typically pretty darn funny.
I’m teaching one section…
Writing Nonfiction: Connecting People Through Stories
Kelsey Timmerman
Writers of creative nonfiction explore truths through verifiable facts, shaping the narrative using the same tools as writers of…
Read More >
It was Thanksgiving.
The more than 30 members and friends of my wife’s family bowed their heads to pray. They prayed for the food and for the gift of each other, and some others stuff. I have to admit I wasn’t paying that much attention.
I was looking up at my son Griffin who was sitting at a table playing by himself. Griffin is two so I worried that at any moment he would burp or fart or look at me and say, “you’re stinky!” Griffin is on the autism spectrum, and few things distract him from playing by himself. Griffin Land is his favorite place to…
Read More >
I’ve signed thousands of copies of my books over the past few years. I’ve also signed a few arms, shirts, posters, and even a Kindle once. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to folks wanting my scrawled signature in their books.
But since I love having autographed copies of books myself, and I’ve had a few recent requests for books for the holidays….
How to get an autographed copy of EATING or WEARING for Christmas!
Send me a copy of the book you want signed. Please include what you’d like me to write in the book and to whom I should address it. Also include the address where I should mail it. If you have the book sent directly from the book buyer, leave the address info in the comments section.
Mail…
Read More >
If you could address high school you, what would you say?
I had the opportunity to address students at Mississinawa Valley High School (from which I graduated in 1997) at their National Honor Society ceremony. I was never in NHS, but I’ve talked at two of their ceremonies. I think I’m a few decades away from wisdom, I much prefer to tell stories that teach students to see the world in a different light. But all I had was 10 minutes to talk, so there wasn’t a lot of room for stories, so I took a swing at a few life lessons.
I though it might be interesting to talk about my process of preparing a talk.
Step 1: Rough draft / outline
I free write what I want to say, writing my…
Read More >
Want me to visit your high school, university, or group? Let’s make it happen.
Falls really zip by for me. November wraps up a busy few months of speaking at high schools, universities, culinary schools, and libraries.
Here’s where I’ll be speaking in November:
11/7: Lock Haven University / International Education Week: 7PM at Price Hall (free and open to the public)
11/8 5:30 PM – South Bend, Indiana: Facing Project event: Voices of Teenage Girls
11/9 7:30 Michigan City Public Library – Writing Out Loud (free and open to the public)
11/11 Private High School
11/11 Purdue N. Central Westville, Indiana
11/16 Writers Center of Indiana: 2013 Gathering of Writers / Teaching a nonfiction workshop at 12:45
Truth, Justice, and the Creative Nonfiction Way
Works of creative nonfiction…
Read More >
I understand when people vote for their self-interest over the common good. However, it really makes me sad when people vote against both.
Today I believe I voted for both my self-interest and the common good. It’s nice when they line up like that.
There was only one item on the ballot. Muncie City schools are struggling and have to pass a referendum to increase property taxes to keep the buses running next year. I voted YES for the raise.
My self-interest
My taxes will go up somewhere between $70-$150/year at the most if it passes. If it doesn’t, I figure living in a school district that doesn’t offer busing will cause my home value to drop significantly more than that. Also, I’ll have a daughter in school next year, and where is…
Read More >
Just received this in an email: “your book really has inspired me to work in Human Rights, hopefully in the Department of Labor. I want to work in the Bureau of International Labor Affairs to make known the rights that workers deserve in the workplace.”
I hate when writers write that something is beyond words or indescribable, (you’re a writer dammit! Describe it!) but I seriously have no words for how emails like this make me feel. I suppose the immortal words of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles come the closest:
Bodacious!
Radical!
Cowabunga, dude!
There are times when I’m on some death bus in some forgotten country, far from my family, homesick, dirty, tired, and sick that I ask myself, “Why the hell do you do this, Kelsey?”
This email,…
Read More >
You probably haven’t hear of reverse trick-or-treating unless you are a hardcore engaged consumer. So let me show you how it works….
Little Jimmy dresses up like a zombie and goes door-to-door with his plastic pumpkin, just like any other little kid. But unlike any other kid Little Jimmy refuses to accept the chocolaty treats offered by his neighbors who went to the trouble of buying candy and handing it out to kids.
“No, thanks,” Little Jimmay says, “I have candy for YOU that wasn’t picked by a trafficked child laborer.”
At this point Little Jimmy hands over a piece of Fair Trade chocolate with a note outlining the child labor situation in West Africa.
This is a problem for two reasons:
1) Little Jimmy looks like a self-righteous little punk. This might be…
Read More >
