It’s impossible to sum up what a wonderful autumn it’s been for me and my weird little book popping around the country from Dallas to Grand Rapids to Chicago to Memphis to Minneapolis to Monticello to New Haven to West Hollywood to San Diego and then home to MS for Jackson and Natchez. Both my husbands (past and present) posed with the book. I got to read my epilogue (which is a letter to my ex-husband about my daughter) with both my daugher and ex-husband in the same room. Jeff Chu made me dinner. Tristan made me one of the best gin and tonics I’ve ever had. My family showed up at every place—my parents, my aunts and uncles, my cousins, my brothers and their partners and friends. My husband surprised me by showing up unexpected at Magers & Quinn. My heroes from Boystown literally flew in from Brooklyn to surprise me at Roscoe Books in Chicago. I got to see beloved old students and old friends and meet new friends. My book club posed with fake beards and my in-laws did too! I got to talk to actual human geniuses like J.D. Isip, Jeff Chu, Lisa Ann Cockrel, Lisa Kröger‍, Chris Stedman, Ryan Berg, Bronson Lemer, Samuel Ernest, Charles Jensen, Katie Manning, Robbie Maakestad, David Miller, and Jennifer Gates Boone. I ate delicious food. I had so many beautiful conversations. I CRIED. I snort-laughed. I sported my fabulous Camper Shoes (in honor of Nicholas Hurley, my hero and my book’s hero) across the country. No words big or good enough for how much this time has meant to me. ‍

Dallas was an absolute delight!!!

An introductory blog (about a story set on the Feast of Epiphany written on the Feast of Epiphany about epiphanies in memoir) about the connections between my book and James Joyce’s gorgeous short story, “The Dead,” and our shared proclivity for a certain “cinematic” orientation to our storytelling.

Delicious potato stacks I adored before social media even existed.

Before I attended Chicago’s Halloween on Halsted parade in 2003 dressed as Liza Minnelli (pictured here), I made this “usually picked up pre-made from your local produce section to bring to a Super Bowl party when you have no time” dip. It’s easy, and a bit silly (because I did most of it wrong the night I made it for this photo shoot). But I brought this dip to my friend Spiker’s (pictured with me here paying homage to Boystown’s own Miss Foozie), partly because it’s hearty and salty, and I knew we’d likely be drinking sweet cocktails later that night (I was correct). I think of this picture often because this was taken RIGHT before my whole life started to change in ways I had no way of anticipating. And there’s just sweet, smily Liza there, just giddy to be in her favorite place with her kind friends.

Re-enter a long-ago November in 1997 when I studied for my Philosophy Exam with my friend Amanda at Amerigo in Ridgeland, MS. Shrimp Scampi on Angel Hair.

“I arrange the toasts on our prettiest pewter platter. I place a sprig of rosemary on either end. I cut two apricots, wholly out of season but hungered for, into rose-gold slices…”

Kelly Foster Lundquist (that’s me), Beard: A Memoir (forthcoming, Eerdmans)