“My bicycle’s name is Gertrude Stein, short for ‘Gertrude Stein, my personal Argot’ (because I keep needing to replace parts on it) and shortened, often, to Gertie. Perhaps that is the first thing I can recommend when you are stuck: name your bike. Develop a close personal friendship with it. The second thing I can recommend is riding it. But not just any bike ride—a bike ride with a turn you love. By my apartment in Portland, Oregon, there exists a Y intersection that isn’t very busy. It is my biggest, most delicious turn. I can swing out into the middle of the road, turn the bike with my shifting weight alone, the barest tilt on the handle bars, and then an immediate left onto the greenway, a swivel shaped like an ‘s.’ Nothing sharp or harsh about it. Grace in body leads to grace in sentence. This works in any weather, even the rain, but it is currently petal season and sometimes I throw my hand in the air to brush the trees and a sea of soft pink rains down on me. 10/10, highly recommend.”
—A. E. Osworth, author of We Are Watching Eliza Bright (Grand Central Publishing, 2021)
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Author: jkashiwabara