Elissa Altman
@elissaaltman.bsky.social
Author of Permission (3/25), Motherland, Poor Man’s Feast, Treyf, many essays. Author, teacher, editor, musician. Ever hopeful. 🕊️🏳️🌈🇺🇸🇨🇦🇬🇧🇺🇦🇪🇺
Poormansfeast.substack.com
Poormansfeast.substack.com
My mother, Rita Hammer, passed away peacefully on Wednesday evening, October 29th, at Regional Hospice in Danbury, Connecticut, after a short illness. Susan and I have no words.
www.legacy.com/legacy/rita-...
www.legacy.com/legacy/rita-...
Rita Hammer Obituary October 29, 2025 - Legacy.com
View Rita Hammer's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.
www.legacy.com
October 31, 2025 at 2:03 PM
My mother, Rita Hammer, passed away peacefully on Wednesday evening, October 29th, at Regional Hospice in Danbury, Connecticut, after a short illness. Susan and I have no words.
www.legacy.com/legacy/rita-...
www.legacy.com/legacy/rita-...
Christians, my ass.
October 28, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Christians, my ass.
Time has suspended as we sit with my mother in hospice, and wait.
In the Bardo with My Mother
On grief both personal and public
open.substack.com
October 27, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Time has suspended as we sit with my mother in hospice, and wait.
Amidst all the strife surrounding my mom being in hospice, I hadn’t seen this. Thank you @longreads.com for choosing my @bittersouth.bsky.social essay, My 24 Guitars, as a Longreads Pick 💕
My 24 Guitars - Longreads
"Music was hazardous in my family, yet I couldn't help playing—even in my sleep."
longreads.com
October 27, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Amidst all the strife surrounding my mom being in hospice, I hadn’t seen this. Thank you @longreads.com for choosing my @bittersouth.bsky.social essay, My 24 Guitars, as a Longreads Pick 💕
Reposted by Elissa Altman
I want more people to care that SNAP benefits are being cut off on November 1. 40% of SNAP beneficiaries are children. This is callous and vile.
October 22, 2025 at 12:33 AM
I want more people to care that SNAP benefits are being cut off on November 1. 40% of SNAP beneficiaries are children. This is callous and vile.
She is 90 years old today.
October 22, 2025 at 10:21 AM
She is 90 years old today.
From the website of the in-facility doctor where my mother was in skilled nursing care until yesterday. I would have scratched out his name but then I thought: why bother?
I’m looking at you @bcdreyer.social
I’m looking at you @bcdreyer.social
October 16, 2025 at 2:47 PM
From the website of the in-facility doctor where my mother was in skilled nursing care until yesterday. I would have scratched out his name but then I thought: why bother?
I’m looking at you @bcdreyer.social
I’m looking at you @bcdreyer.social
We admitted we were powerless over our algorithms
and our lives had become unmanagable
open.substack.com
October 14, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Let the great world spin, to quote Colum McCann. There is grief all around us all the time now, from Manchester to Gaza, from Chicago and Danbury to the facility where my mother sits, waiting.
the distraction of grief.
On Sustenance and Safety in a Time of Horror
open.substack.com
October 3, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Let the great world spin, to quote Colum McCann. There is grief all around us all the time now, from Manchester to Gaza, from Chicago and Danbury to the facility where my mother sits, waiting.
Sleep well, everyone.
The Hossbach memorandum (1937)
The Hossbach memorandum - a summary of a 1937 meeting between Hitler, ministers and military commanders, where war plans were discussed.
alphahistory.com
September 26, 2025 at 2:57 AM
Sleep well, everyone.
Children, google “Pinochet.”
September 25, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Children, google “Pinochet.”
Flu shot done.
Yay science.
Yay science.
September 24, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Flu shot done.
Yay science.
Yay science.
"Memoirists bear a creative responsibility to the story they are trying to tell, to the characters who appear in it (including themselves, as narrator), and to the craft it takes to get there."
Writing about the dead, with a few craft words on Elizabeth Gibert’s All the Way to the River.
Writing about the dead, with a few craft words on Elizabeth Gibert’s All the Way to the River.
The Permission Workbook: Writing About the Dead
Is it ever okay? Also, some craft thoughts on Elizabeth Gilbert's All the Way to the River
open.substack.com
September 24, 2025 at 1:33 PM
"Memoirists bear a creative responsibility to the story they are trying to tell, to the characters who appear in it (including themselves, as narrator), and to the craft it takes to get there."
Writing about the dead, with a few craft words on Elizabeth Gibert’s All the Way to the River.
Writing about the dead, with a few craft words on Elizabeth Gibert’s All the Way to the River.
Bay Area friends:
Join me tonight at Book Passage in Corte Madera at 6 pm for a conversation about Permission, and the stories we are and aren’t “allowed” to tell—now more then ever.
Rumor is that there will be a Lamott sighting….
Join me tonight at Book Passage in Corte Madera at 6 pm for a conversation about Permission, and the stories we are and aren’t “allowed” to tell—now more then ever.
Rumor is that there will be a Lamott sighting….
September 18, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Bay Area friends:
Join me tonight at Book Passage in Corte Madera at 6 pm for a conversation about Permission, and the stories we are and aren’t “allowed” to tell—now more then ever.
Rumor is that there will be a Lamott sighting….
Join me tonight at Book Passage in Corte Madera at 6 pm for a conversation about Permission, and the stories we are and aren’t “allowed” to tell—now more then ever.
Rumor is that there will be a Lamott sighting….
A brief note on how tariffs are going to impact authors: a large majority of illustrated books (cookbooks, children’s books, text books, etc) are produced overseas.
If you’re a cookbook author and your gorgeous book about Italian food is coming off press in China…..good luck.
If you’re a cookbook author and your gorgeous book about Italian food is coming off press in China…..good luck.
August 29, 2025 at 3:28 PM
A brief note on how tariffs are going to impact authors: a large majority of illustrated books (cookbooks, children’s books, text books, etc) are produced overseas.
If you’re a cookbook author and your gorgeous book about Italian food is coming off press in China…..good luck.
If you’re a cookbook author and your gorgeous book about Italian food is coming off press in China…..good luck.
The Diary of Anne Frank? Removed from public library shelves in Florida?
And these morons simultaneously use anti-semitism against universities?
And these morons simultaneously use anti-semitism against universities?
August 26, 2025 at 11:44 PM
The Diary of Anne Frank? Removed from public library shelves in Florida?
And these morons simultaneously use anti-semitism against universities?
And these morons simultaneously use anti-semitism against universities?
With grateful thanks to @longreads.com ❤️
"I longed for guitars in a way that was obsessive, demanding of my focus, addictive like the chase for a better high: one would never be enough."
@elissaaltman.bsky.social @bittersouth.bsky.social
bittersoutherner.com/issue-no-11/...
@elissaaltman.bsky.social @bittersouth.bsky.social
bittersoutherner.com/issue-no-11/...
My 24 Guitars — THE BITTER SOUTHERNER
Music was hazardous in my family, yet I couldn’t help playing — even in my sleep.
bittersoutherner.com
August 19, 2025 at 3:41 PM
With grateful thanks to @longreads.com ❤️
My essay in @bittersouth.bsky.social about the 24 guitars I’ve owned since I was 4, and the cross-hatching of lust, sorrow, and music.
My 24 Guitars — THE BITTER SOUTHERNER
Music was hazardous in my family, yet I couldn’t help playing — even in my sleep.
bittersoutherner.com
August 19, 2025 at 3:40 PM
My essay in @bittersouth.bsky.social about the 24 guitars I’ve owned since I was 4, and the cross-hatching of lust, sorrow, and music.
I am physically ill.
August 8, 2025 at 2:57 AM
I am physically ill.
45 minutes to get to an elderly person’s apt in NYC? Really????
@nyfd.bsky.social
@nyfd.bsky.social
August 6, 2025 at 7:35 PM
45 minutes to get to an elderly person’s apt in NYC? Really????
@nyfd.bsky.social
@nyfd.bsky.social
Fergus is helping me write my next book.
July 29, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Fergus is helping me write my next book.
To you nice folks who told me I was crazy when I said that voter registration lists were next, FU.
Also: take one afternoon and read William Shirlee’s Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, volume 1.
Also: take one afternoon and read William Shirlee’s Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, volume 1.
NEW: New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan (R) has declined a request from the U.S. Department of Justice to turn over the state’s full statewide voter registration list, citing state law and cybersecurity concerns. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
New Hampshire Defies DOJ Push for Voter Data
Read more here.
www.democracydocket.com
July 29, 2025 at 2:29 AM
To you nice folks who told me I was crazy when I said that voter registration lists were next, FU.
Also: take one afternoon and read William Shirlee’s Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, volume 1.
Also: take one afternoon and read William Shirlee’s Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, volume 1.
Dinner last night: Hetty McKinnon’s pad Thai salad—so good.
July 26, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Dinner last night: Hetty McKinnon’s pad Thai salad—so good.
I tried to cook healthy the other night but manicotti showed up.
July 23, 2025 at 10:27 AM
I tried to cook healthy the other night but manicotti showed up.