Sarah Layden

Pics of Melissa, Sarah, and book cover with wild-eyed doll

Saturday at Indy Reads Books, 5:30 p.m.! I'm so excited to have a conversation with Melissa Fraterrigo about her excellent and necessary book, The Perils of Girlhood. This memoir-in-essays floored me. Come join us.

Pics of Melissa, Sarah, and book cover with wild-eyed doll

Saturday at Indy Reads Books, 5:30 p.m.! I'm so excited to have a conversation with Melissa Fraterrigo about her excellent and necessary book, The Perils of Girlhood. This memoir-in-essays floored me. Come join us.

Adorable dog with collar and crooked way of sitting.

What a great name for a dog. Her maybe-cousin Rosie came to us from Indy Animal Care Services.

So cool about Non-Stalgia, and I feel like Covid-times added to the anxiety (for me anyway.) Hope we cross paths again!

Thanks for being there! Ooh, would love to compare notes, esp. because it looks like my dog is somehow in your profile pic.

So great to chat with Dave Lindquist about Proof: A Midwest Lit Fest, happening today at the Harrison Center. My love of notebooks and eavesdropping are undeniable.
(And: I've been following Dave's music and arts reporting since the '90s, so this was especially fun for me.)

I Asked ChatGPT For A Skin Care Regime, And Now My Pores Are Invading Saint-Tropez Maybe it’s the algorithm. Maybe it’s me.

New at Slackjaw!
medium.com/slackjaw/i-a...

I Asked ChatGPT For A Skin Care Regime, And Now My Pores Are Invading Saint-Tropez Maybe it’s the algorithm. Maybe it’s me.

New at Slackjaw!
medium.com/slackjaw/i-a...

Me, every time I open this website: <whispers> "banksy"

09/27/2025 Gathering of Writers - Indiana Writers Center Dates: Saturday, September 27, 2025 Time: 8:25 am – 4:30 pm Location: Indiana State Library Cost: Nonmembers: $200; Writer/Reader Members: $137; Teacher, St ...

Session & bio for Saturday's Gathering of Writers
"No Joke: Satire and Humor that Surprises"...Sarah Layden's satire appears in McSweeney’s, WaPo, Salon, The Belladonna, Points in Case, and elsewhere, but not The New Yorker’s Shouts and Murmurs. 🙃
www.indianawriters.org/product/gath...

Upcoming Fall events:
9/19: Medium Day
9/27: Gathering of Writers
10/10-10/11: Proof: A Midwest Lit Fest
10/16-10/18: Lit Youngstown
Details here: sarahlayden.com?page_id=138

Join me for Medium Day 2025: Time Management for Writers Writers! Fellow clock-watchers and schedule-scramblers! You might find yourself looking for a reset when it comes to time management. I’m…

This Friday, 9/19! Register for a free daylong writing event at
Medium. I'm speaking on time management for writers, 11:30 AM EDT. medium.com/@sarahlayden...

Boston! Recs for things to do on Saturday night?

Update: Writing badly eventually leads to writing goodly

This just in: It's entirely possible to meet yr own arbitrary word count goals if you're willing to write badly. And I'm doing it, baby! #ReviseLater #WIP #workinprogress #book #sabbatical

Mountains with sun splashes, a river valley, blue sky with clouds creating pattens on the rocks

Last week's view on the Inca Trail, en route to Machu Picchu

Indy people! At 6pm I’ll be chatting with Barbara Shoup about her new book, ABOUT GRACE, at Dream Palace Books downtown. Come by!

“It takes you from day to night, and from perimenopause to menopause.” By Sarah Layden

Full piece: thebelladonnacomedy.com/midlife-invi...

Unfriend Me Now “The belongingness hypothesis suggests that humans have a fundamental need to form and maintain meaningful social bonds. Yet two contradictory impulses seem to guide associative behaviors: the need…

Who knew there was a psychology behind invited unfriending on social media? (A group of psychologists, apparently.) My new humor piece, "Unfriend Me Now," is live at Muse & Fury Lit
museandfurylit.com/2025/05/13/u...

Every so often! :)

AP sues 3 Trump administration officials, citing freedom of speech The Associated Press is suing three Trump administration officials over access to presidential events.

AP sues 3 Trump administration officials, citing freedom of speech
apnews.com/article/ap-l...

Like #SNL50 and Sally O’Malley, I’m fifty (and a day)! I can also kick, stretch, and kick, and really shoulda stretched before that first kick.

I'm teaching an in-person fiction workshop for Indiana Writers Center this spring, which will be a blend of exercises, instruction, and critique. If you're looking for accountability, support, and feedback, check it out & consider registering!

www.indianawriters.org/product/layd...

what?!

Happy Black History Month! To quote brilliant anthropologist & writer Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960): "If you are silent about your pain, they'll kill you and say you enjoyed it." Rec'd: Their Eyes Were Watching God; Barracoon; Alice Walker's 1975 essay, "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston."

Congratulations, Stephanie!! Also: hi! 👋 🎉🙌

Regretsy: "Exceedingly remorseful" you took part in that insurrection? There's an app for that Were you "caught up in the moment" that time you stormed the U.S. Capitol? Forgiveness might be just clicks away!

I haven’t forgotten #January6
www.salon.com/2021/11/20/r...