AAN is reporting that our very own Bethany Jean Clement is featured in Da Capo’s Best Food Writing 2009 anthology. Her story “The Beauty of the Beast” was chosen for the book, which comes out this fall. Here is the first paragraph of the piece:
My grandmother raised Angus cattle east of the mountains, outside Sunnyside. We often went over on weekends. We mended fence, and we took the cattle from pretty pastures out to prettier sagebrush and back in the ancient International Harvester truck, which I learned how to drive at a very young age. When we branded—heating the branding iron to red-hot over a fire in the corral, guiding the cattle through a labyrinth of fences with more yells than whipping, squeezing them tight one at a time in the metal-barred chute—my job was to clip off the fur on their sides in a square so my dad or brother could apply the iron. It smelled pretty bad, and the cow would bellow mightily, its eyes rolling back in its head. Then, released, it would forget instantly, walking away calm and docile.
Clement’s review of Shoofly Pie Co. was featured in last year’s Best Food Writing anthology, which means she has been one of the best food writers in America for TWO YEARS RUNNING. Congratulations to Ms. Clement for her twofer, and yay for all us peons who get to read her work for free on a daily basis.
Felicitations!
Congrats and everything but this just reminded me that Shoofly Pie is mediocre.
Good on you, Bethany!
Congratulations. But, um, what does branding cattle have to do with food (except in the most roundabout way, of course)?
Congratulations!
@4 Read the article.
This is great news, Bethany. I have admired your food writing for quite some time.
Thanks, everybody! You are very sweet.
Excellent. I love it when nice things happen for nice people, fer fuck’s sake.
Bitch needs to eat a whole meal before she can be considered a top food writer.
The inspiration:
“Cheese is the soul of the soil. It is the purest and most romantic link between humans and the earth.” Pierre Androuet.
The challenge:
GK Chesterton: “The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.”
Voila: http://www.tastingtoeternity.com.
This book is a poetic view of 30 of the best loved French cheeses with an additional two odes to cheese. Recipes, wine pairing, three short stories and an educational section complete the book.
A unique and amusing Christmas present for all food lovers
Enjoy