August 26, 2026

Writes Grace Yaconelli '26 for Bomb Magazine: 

"I first met Anne Lamott when I was thirteen, beside the fireplace of my family home. She was a close friend of my dad’s, and we were having a simple dinner of salad and soup. I was so shy that I could barely speak, but I remember the way she looked at me with warmth, genuine curiosity, and humor. This carries through to her writing. It’s part of why I’ve always felt drawn to her, why I felt an easy heart-connection despite our limited time face-to-face. That’s the atmosphere she invites. In the seven years since that night, I have read her acclaimed Bird by Bird (my faithful companion through adolescence), Almost Everything: Notes on Hope, and most recently Somehow: Thoughts on Love (Riverhead, 2024). Through these books, it feels as though I have been sharing late-night conversations with her for a long while. On our Zoom call—she in the San Francisco Bay Area, myself in Jalisco, Mexico—this sense of ease was affirmed. With occasional interruptions from her beloved cat and abundant laughter, we eventually found ourselves sitting in one room together."