Beth Kephart
@bethkephart.bsky.social
Writer, paper artist, teacher, believer in the good that will one day overcome, National Book Award finalist, and a Substacker (The Hush and the Howl). Due in April 2025, Tomorrow Will Bring Sunday's News, with Tursulowe Press.
Reposted by Beth Kephart
When a writer tries to pass in the smartly dressed world. Love this. Another writer I know was on his way to a signing in a pale jacket. By the time he sat on the train it had a long black skid-mark. Reader, I married him. thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/my-dress-t... @bethkephart.bsky.social
My Dress Turned to Dust
and other news from my glamorous life
thehushandthehowl.substack.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:13 AM
When a writer tries to pass in the smartly dressed world. Love this. Another writer I know was on his way to a signing in a pale jacket. By the time he sat on the train it had a long black skid-mark. Reader, I married him. thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/my-dress-t... @bethkephart.bsky.social
On making paper with my life — thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/interlude
Interlude
on making paper with my life
thehushandthehowl.substack.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:22 PM
On making paper with my life — thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/interlude
Reposted by Beth Kephart
Post-developmental edit, I'm revising my second novel, which tackles end-of-life care in America. Grateful for these words from the magical @bethkephart.bsky.social: "I wholly endorse Nancy’s new work and deeply hope that it will find its way into the hands of many readers through the right press."
November 19, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Post-developmental edit, I'm revising my second novel, which tackles end-of-life care in America. Grateful for these words from the magical @bethkephart.bsky.social: "I wholly endorse Nancy’s new work and deeply hope that it will find its way into the hands of many readers through the right press."
What brings you joy? It is a question perpetually worth asking.
November 17, 2025 at 2:01 PM
What brings you joy? It is a question perpetually worth asking.
Thoughts on late-season marigolds and on missing those who have gone on. thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/marigolds
Marigolds
on blooms, frost, and remembrance
thehushandthehowl.substack.com
November 15, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Thoughts on late-season marigolds and on missing those who have gone on. thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/marigolds
Reposted by Beth Kephart
The child that grew up, frame by frame. The gradual arrival of witnesses (the stick-bird girl, glass apples, closet of baseball caps). The photo album time machine. The giant mystery of home, its accumulations and absences. @bethkephart.bsky.social thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/home #slowliving
Home
to the spaces that hold us when our children move on
thehushandthehowl.substack.com
November 11, 2025 at 8:07 AM
The child that grew up, frame by frame. The gradual arrival of witnesses (the stick-bird girl, glass apples, closet of baseball caps). The photo album time machine. The giant mystery of home, its accumulations and absences. @bethkephart.bsky.social thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/home #slowliving
On today's Substack, I celebrate another Wyeth—Ann—whose quiet watercolors became the subject of a book built with a daughter's love. #Wyethfamily #BrandywineRiverMuseum #watercolors #Philadelphiaartists thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/fresh-and-...
Fresh and Direct, Without Guile or Deception
the heart of our mattering
thehushandthehowl.substack.com
November 7, 2025 at 12:47 PM
On today's Substack, I celebrate another Wyeth—Ann—whose quiet watercolors became the subject of a book built with a daughter's love. #Wyethfamily #BrandywineRiverMuseum #watercolors #Philadelphiaartists thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/fresh-and-...
Making the case for joy in an upcoming workshop — brevity.wordpress.com/2025/11/04/j... #writingworkshops #joy #MaryOliver #KephartKeepers
Making the Case for Joy
By Beth Kephart “I drop to the sand,” Mary Oliver writes in “Owls,” as she traces a moment’s reverie. “… I am replete, supine, finished, filled to the last edges with an immobilizing happiness.” To…
brevity.wordpress.com
November 4, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Making the case for joy in an upcoming workshop — brevity.wordpress.com/2025/11/04/j... #writingworkshops #joy #MaryOliver #KephartKeepers
The art of the exchange at the local farmer's market. Remembering my mother. thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/the-art-of...
The Art of Buying
in remembrance
thehushandthehowl.substack.com
November 1, 2025 at 11:18 AM
The art of the exchange at the local farmer's market. Remembering my mother. thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/the-art-of...
We're grateful to be joining the Chester County Guild for this weekend's fine art show. I've made some brand-new marbled cards for the occasion. #ChesterCountyGuild #artshows #marbledpaper #handmadecards #finearts #BindArts
October 29, 2025 at 7:36 PM
We're grateful to be joining the Chester County Guild for this weekend's fine art show. I've made some brand-new marbled cards for the occasion. #ChesterCountyGuild #artshows #marbledpaper #handmadecards #finearts #BindArts
Beyond grateful for this honor. To #paper. To #DardHunter. To #Philadelphia. And to the #PattisFamilyFoundation. #writingcommunity #Philadelphiawritingcommunity
October 28, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Beyond grateful for this honor. To #paper. To #DardHunter. To #Philadelphia. And to the #PattisFamilyFoundation. #writingcommunity #Philadelphiawritingcommunity
I'll be talking about my city in my city. I hope to see you there. #Philadelphia #Philadelphiawriters #Philadelphiahistory #SchuylkillRIver #1918Philadelphia #writingcommunity
October 27, 2025 at 9:52 PM
I'll be talking about my city in my city. I hope to see you there. #Philadelphia #Philadelphiawriters #Philadelphiahistory #SchuylkillRIver #1918Philadelphia #writingcommunity
Love indie books, like Hothouse Bloom by Austyn Wohlers from @hubcitypress.bsky.social, which I found to be immersive, profound, gorgeously strange, and ultimately disruptive to ideals of solitude. #indiebooks #AustynWohlers #writingcommunity
October 27, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Love indie books, like Hothouse Bloom by Austyn Wohlers from @hubcitypress.bsky.social, which I found to be immersive, profound, gorgeously strange, and ultimately disruptive to ideals of solitude. #indiebooks #AustynWohlers #writingcommunity
Indie books are the best, like Not Long Ago Persons Found, by J. Richard Osborn at Bellevue Literary Press, an astonishingly propulsive, throbbingly unnerving, forensically fascinating debut novel that startles the reader with its sly clock management and demands to be read in a single sitting.
October 27, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Indie books are the best, like Not Long Ago Persons Found, by J. Richard Osborn at Bellevue Literary Press, an astonishingly propulsive, throbbingly unnerving, forensically fascinating debut novel that startles the reader with its sly clock management and demands to be read in a single sitting.
As energetic as it is energizing, Sunshine Girl by @nancytownsley.bsky.social features an endearing cast of foibled characters, a percolating plot, and enduring lessons in forgiveness. What might have divided the characters ultimately unites them, a novelistic twist we might wish for us all.
October 27, 2025 at 5:52 PM
As energetic as it is energizing, Sunshine Girl by @nancytownsley.bsky.social features an endearing cast of foibled characters, a percolating plot, and enduring lessons in forgiveness. What might have divided the characters ultimately unites them, a novelistic twist we might wish for us all.
Reposted by Beth Kephart
Are 'quiet' books really that quiet? And what do we mean by that? @bethkephart.bsky.social thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/is-quiet-a... #writingcommunity #books #slowliving #lovereading #skybooks
Is "Quiet" a Bad Word in the Land of Literature? Should It Be?
in celebration of the books that take their time, including Fonseca and Love Forms
thehushandthehowl.substack.com
October 23, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Are 'quiet' books really that quiet? And what do we mean by that? @bethkephart.bsky.social thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/is-quiet-a... #writingcommunity #books #slowliving #lovereading #skybooks
Brand new and but of course: Thought pockets (giant and regular sized) into which you (or your kids) might tuck some thoughts.
October 21, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Brand new and but of course: Thought pockets (giant and regular sized) into which you (or your kids) might tuck some thoughts.
When the earth and the birds strengthen our bonds. A piece called "Neighbors." thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/neighbors
Neighbors
a war, two gardens, and, finally, peace: a hope-tale from long ago
thehushandthehowl.substack.com
October 20, 2025 at 12:18 PM
When the earth and the birds strengthen our bonds. A piece called "Neighbors." thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/neighbors
Reposted by Beth Kephart
I love this. The encyclopedia as a narrative structure - and a singular imaginative world. A reminder, too, of the joy of creativity. @bethkephart.bsky.social thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/this-encyc... #lifewriting #creativenonfiction #skywriters
This Encyclopedia Will Organize Your Life
consider surprise as a place to begin
thehushandthehowl.substack.com
October 19, 2025 at 10:36 AM
I love this. The encyclopedia as a narrative structure - and a singular imaginative world. A reminder, too, of the joy of creativity. @bethkephart.bsky.social thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/this-encyc... #lifewriting #creativenonfiction #skywriters
Perhaps we should begin our beginnings by imagining an encyclopedia of our lives. thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/this-encyc...
This Encyclopedia Will Organize Your Life
consider surprise as a place to begin
thehushandthehowl.substack.com
October 17, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Perhaps we should begin our beginnings by imagining an encyclopedia of our lives. thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/this-encyc...
In sharing my new novel with the dear book club members of Pennswood Village, I experienced an otherworldly embrace. That story in today's @oldstermag.bsky.social oldster.substack.com/p/zooming-wi... #Philadelphia #novel #bookclubs #retirementvillages #writingcommunity #SariBotton #PeggyMandell
Zooming with the Readers of Pennswood Village
Author Beth Kephart pays a virtual visit to writer Margaret Mandell's retirement village.
oldster.substack.com
October 13, 2025 at 12:39 PM
In sharing my new novel with the dear book club members of Pennswood Village, I experienced an otherworldly embrace. That story in today's @oldstermag.bsky.social oldster.substack.com/p/zooming-wi... #Philadelphia #novel #bookclubs #retirementvillages #writingcommunity #SariBotton #PeggyMandell
How lucky am I to be joining the great paper expert Helen Hiebert for her Paper Year. I’ll be teaching, in a single session, home as memory and literature and prose, and also the ways in which paper and color can help tell our story. This is Helen. #paperart helenhiebertstudio.com/the-paper-ye...
October 12, 2025 at 12:16 PM
How lucky am I to be joining the great paper expert Helen Hiebert for her Paper Year. I’ll be teaching, in a single session, home as memory and literature and prose, and also the ways in which paper and color can help tell our story. This is Helen. #paperart helenhiebertstudio.com/the-paper-ye...
Thoughts on writing toward our ghosts, on today's Substack. #writingcommunity #memoir #craftessay thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/on-writing...
On Writing the Haunted: A Craft Essay
What do our ghosts wish us to make of their lives—and of our own? With Ocean Vuong, Olivia Laing, Doireann Ni Ghriofa, Judith Kitchen, and J. R. Moehringer
thehushandthehowl.substack.com
October 11, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Thoughts on writing toward our ghosts, on today's Substack. #writingcommunity #memoir #craftessay thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/on-writing...
Philadelphia area writers and Penn alum — an upcoming event that I'm looking forward to. #writingcommunity #Philadelphiawriters #UniversityofPennsylvania #KellyWritersHouse
October 10, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Philadelphia area writers and Penn alum — an upcoming event that I'm looking forward to. #writingcommunity #Philadelphiawriters #UniversityofPennsylvania #KellyWritersHouse
We seek the universal in our art. I think that is a political act, a gesture of civic possibility. My thoughts here. #writingcommunity #universal #civicart thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/the-univer...
The Universal Is a Binding Agent
not a technique, not a plan, but a discovery that un-strangers strangers
thehushandthehowl.substack.com
October 8, 2025 at 12:54 PM
We seek the universal in our art. I think that is a political act, a gesture of civic possibility. My thoughts here. #writingcommunity #universal #civicart thehushandthehowl.substack.com/p/the-univer...