Rebecca Brown is a novelist, short story writer, essayist, genius, art critic, teacher, and friend of squirrels.
Rebecca Brown is a novelist, short story writer, essayist, librettist, critic, teacher, and friend of squirrels. Courtesy of Rebecca Brown

Good morning.

It's Saturday, April 11, and it's beautiful out, but we can't even go to the park.

What to do? The only thing to do is stay home and read. Or play with the cats. Rebecca Brown, a certified genius, tried to read to her cat Miss Busy, but, as you will see, Miss Busy wasn't having it.

Ooop!

Why does it cut off so quickly and so abruptly, you may ask?

The answer may nor may not involve (1) Rebecca's other cat Ryder entering the room, launching a series of indescribably offscreen events that also involved a spatula, a power strip, and a rubber chicken, (2) Rebecca's phone dying, (3) a mystery that cannot be explained.

But to keep reading the poem that Rebecca was reading to Miss Busy, click here and read it on the Poetry Foundation's website.

Miss Busy is not having it.
Miss Busy was not having it.

If you have nothing to read today, or even if you do and you want something better, you should check out some of Rebecca's books—including but not limited to The Gifts of the Body (winner of a Lambda Literary Award), The Dogs (which prompted Mary Gaitskill to remark, "A dry, witty, graceful—if savage—gift"), The End of Youth (stories and essays), Excerpts from a Family Medical Dictionary (which the Seattle Times said "lays open the fragile nature of the flesh"), The Last Time I Saw You (Utne said it "pulses with desires that cannot be attained"), and Not Heaven, Somewhere Else ("Reading the whole thing in one sitting—which I highly recommend—you really feel this move from extreme darkness and desperation to light," Rich Smith wrote).

Or, for free, you can read her writing in The Stranger. Read her writing about paintings. Read her writing about opera. Read her writing about Flannery O'Connor. Read her piece about the Sorrento maybe being haunted by Alice B. Toklas. Read her essays about spring and summer and fall and winter. Read her piece about volunteering for the overnight shift at a homeless shelter.

Thank you so much for reading to us today, Rebecca.

Have a glorious Saturday reading Rebecca's writing, everyone.

Sorry this was so not amusing for you, Miss Busy.


* *

Previously in this series:


Betty Wetters message to the city on April 9.
Betty Wetter's message to the city on April 9.

Amanda Morgans message to the city on April 8.
Amanda Morgan's message to the city on April 8.

Nancy Guppys message to the city on April 7.
Nancy Guppy's message to the city on April 7.

Jonathan Bisss message to the city on April 6.
Jonathan Biss's message to the city on April 6.

Chris Jeffriess message to the city on April 5.
Chris Jeffries's message to the city on April 5.

Lesley Hazletons message to the city on April 4.
Lesley Hazleton's message to the city on April 4.

John Rodericks message to the city on April 3.
John Roderick's message to the city on April 3.

Bill Cartys message to the city on April 2.
Bill Carty's message to the city on April 2.

Price Suddarths message to the city on April 1.
Price Suddarth's message to the city on April 1.

Kary Waysons message to the city on March 31.
Kary Wayson's message to the city on March 31.

Ellen Forneys message to the city on March 30.
Ellen Forney's message to the city on March 30.

Major Scaless message to the city on March 29.
Major Scales's message to the city on March 29.

E. J. Kohs message to the city on March 28.
E. J. Koh's message to the city on March 28.

Ken Jenningss message to the city on March 27.
Ken Jennings's message to the city on March 27.

Demarre McGills message to the city on March 26.
Demarre McGill's message to the city on March 26.

Lynn Sheltons Message to the City on March 25th.
Lynn Shelton's Message to the City on March 25th.

Timothy White Eagles message to the city on March 24.
Timothy White Eagle's message to the city on March 24.

Cookie Coutures message to the city on March 23.
Cookie Couture's message to the city on March 23.

Sarah Rudinoffs message to the city on March 22.
Sarah Rudinoff's message to the city on March 22.

John Osebolds message to the city on March 21.
John Osebold's message to the city on March 21.


Ben Gibbards message to the city on March 21.
Ben Gibbard's message to the city on March 20.

Nathan Chans message to the city on March 19.
Nathan Chan's message to the city on March 19.