Literary City Guide | Macau, China

Street food vendor in Macau, China. Photo by Duo Chen. 

Four years ago, Duo Chen moved to Macau, China to study business, and she hasn't left. To get your bearings, you'll find Macau on a small peninsula across the bay from Hong Kong, filled with a mix of both European and Chinese influences (until 1999, Macau was a Portuguese territory).

A cluster of sprawling casinos has nicknamed Macau the "Las Vegas of Asia," but this town is more than extravagant malls and a sparkly skyline thanks to quirky stationary stores, food festivals, and a coffee shop that serves Portuguese egg tarts locals have called little drops of heaven.

Stop by to visit Macau! 

What I'm Reading | June 2015

Aside from a mostly gloomy month in Los Angeles weather-wise, June shaped up to be filled with some good things like dinner parties with old colleagues, tomatoes from the farmer's market (see above), a new Whole Foods that opened in my neighborhood, donut eating, and magazine launching.

I've also downloaded Kindle samples of all the books Terry Tempest Williams has ever written, and can't decide which one to read next. (I read When Women Were Birds last year and I'm hooked on her writing.) It's a good problem to have, and one I'll be pondering between the hours of 4 am and 6 am, when my pregnancy-induced insomnia seems to be at its peak.

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Not all mothers are great cooks. 

The power of the long walk. 

Juan Felipe Herrera is the new US Poet Laureate.

A cheese historian is a real job, and he knows why Swiss cheese has holes. 

The gift of a mother's library.

Have you tried this revision method? I haven't done it since college. Also, the seven things writers need to make a living. 

The 15 best writing blogs. 

The moods and recipes of Nigel Slater.

Stubborn gladness.

How to read a menu like a food critic.

Don't follow your passion, follow your contribution. 

A road map for eradicating world hunger.

How to make blackberry rhubarb pie.

The art of neighboring. 

Should you stick to the recipe?

Literary City Guide | Bellingham, WA

“It was the rough edge of the world, where the trees came smack down to the stones. The shore looked to Ada as if the corner of the continent had gotten torn off right here, sometime near yesterday, and the dark trees kept on growing, like nothing happened. The ocean just filled in the tear and settled down.”

— Annie Dillard, The Living

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Photo by Hannah Streetman

North of Seattle, almost at the Canadian border, is Bellingham. This coastal city in Washington is filled to the brim with literary finds, like bookstores with floor to ceiling stacks of books, and unique takes on coffee, like a honey rose latte.

Hannah is finishing her B.A. in Creative Writing, and takes us on a tour of her adopted city in today's newest addition to literary city guides. 

Stop by to welcome Bellingham!