Backwords Press: Visit Our Weekly Blog

BACKWORDS blog explores the intersection between presence and history. The blog is a platform that honors the moment of encounter that any one person experiences—with art, literature, music, performance, or place. Often, reflections fit multiple categories—the opposite of a news program or style blog, BACKWORDS is not preoccupied with immediacy. An event does not need to be current to be relevant, nor does a memory need to be close to its origins to hold its potency.

Featured Posts

2020 and The One Where We All Try to Stay Sane

2020 and The One Where We All Try to Stay Sane

Tunnel Vision: Preparing to Hike the Pacific Crest Trail

Tunnel Vision: Preparing to Hike the Pacific Crest Trail

Giverny, This Way

Giverny, This Way

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!

My First Foray Into The Wonderful Wallowas

My First Foray Into The Wonderful Wallowas

Spice and Rain

Spice and Rain

Traveling with Less

Traveling with Less

Antibiotics and Balinese Dance, A Winning Combination

Antibiotics and Balinese Dance, A Winning Combination

Let's Confuse Each Other In German: How I Turned 30 in Paris

Let's Confuse Each Other In German: How I Turned 30 in Paris

Recent Posts

2020 and The One Where We All Try to Stay Sane

Giverny, This Way

Giverny, This Way

Art and its appreciation is an ever-evolving interest of mine, so when it comes to the work and life of a prolific artist like Claude Monet, I still feel a very novice level of understanding. He’s one of the omnipresent impressionist greats, of course, but I still feel like my knowledge is surface level. Like that of wandering through a museum and only reading the placards. Gift shop recognition. What you see is what you get. This past summer I was lucky enough to be in one o

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!

It’s been a hot minute since Ginger and I have posted, and this month we’d like to do something a little different: a joint post about what we’ve been up to, what we’ve been reading, seeing, listening to, and daydreaming about. A mix of all our guiding subjects. Winter is always a big time for me to travel for work, which usually means adding on some extra days or destinations for a little fun too. This last November I was in Denver for both – a week of meetings and events in

Spice and Rain

Spice and Rain

Let’s talk about the Spice Girls, shall we? This past June, the premiere girl band of the 90s reunited for a 13-show UK tour, which amassed a whopping $78 million, and I was lucky enough to witness it in all its glory. While traveling to London and Paris for my 30th birthday, I noticed I was returning home just one day shy of the Spice Girls’ London shows, at the end of their tour. Luckily, they had another show in Bristol two days before I was flying home, and there were sti

Traveling with Less

Traveling with Less

I’ve written before about taking a book with me around the world but unlike the last time, I actually read a bit of this one everywhere I took it – and it didn’t take years to finish. Less (awarded the Pulitzer prize in 2018) by Andrew Sean Greer, has been the perfect companion for me since I bought it while traveling in New York City last January. The story of Less is about a man doing what I think is the best thing you can when it comes to avoiding your feelings: travel. An

Let's Confuse Each Other In German: How I Turned 30 in Paris

Let's Confuse Each Other In German: How I Turned 30 in Paris

I knew how I wanted to turn 30 long before the time arrived. What started as an inclination to do something big, a feeling, and a desire to celebrate and have a better thirtieth than my mother, eventually became a full fledged plan. From the time my mother turned 30 herself, I’d heard the story of how she was gifted a driveway lined with black candles and a package of adult diapers from her friends. I desired...adventure over somewhat cruel gag gifts. And oddly, to be alone.

A Brown Betty and a Family Pothole: Thieves and Potters

A Brown Betty and a Family Pothole: Thieves and Potters

I’ve been thinking a lot about family art lately and the many forms it can take. The objects and art our families pass on. Paintings, sculptures, tapestries, collections, depression era glasswares, special little trinkets, the plates my family only used for special occasions. The things we inherit. Heirlooms. Things both sentimental and potentially valuable. For instance, I’ve been told that one day I’ll be getting my great grandmother’s fancy full-service china set. That, to

Twenty Four Hours in Russell, New Zealand

Twenty Four Hours in Russell, New Zealand

In November, 2018, I took one of the best trips of my life. Now let me tell you how it ended. After a miserable layover in Shanghai, a day at the world famous Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and over ten days of flying, busing, and driving all over New Zealand I found myself with a major head cold and a growing fear of going back to “real life.” After a semi-late night out dancing in Auckland, my friend Lucas and I packed up the rental car and headed North, to the Bay of Islan

Used to Be Mine

Used to Be Mine

On a frigid New York City evening in January, I realized a hidden dream of mine – hearing Sara Bareilles perform her song, “She Used to Be Mine,” live. I say hidden only because I am that person who only remembers how incredible it is to see their favorite performers live when it’s actually happening. I’m not often the kind to plan months ahead of time to catch a show; it’s the procrastinator in me. World travel? Yes. Concert? No. But this past January I was lucky enough to b

Charlecote Park

Charlecote Park

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about connection, and ways to improve my own. Particularly with people in person. I work mostly from home, and can sometimes get too good at my own routine, my own rhythm of communication through social media, email, and texting. When it comes time to actually have a natural conversation, with immediate, unedited and meme-less responses, it can get more stressful than I’d like. As the weather goes from Fall to Winter, this question feels more i

Falling for Florence and Jonathan

Falling for Florence and Jonathan

I’m not a podcast person. I have had more conversations about them than I can count, recommendation after recommendation pouring in, about which one to listen to next, or to try. “Trust me, you’ll love this one!” But let me just tell you: I’m not gonna fucking listen to it. I try and try but never make it past the five-minute mark. I can’t listen to audiobooks either. I don’t know if I’m too ADD, but they almost always bore me or I just end up tuning them out. All that change

Andrew Wyeth: an American Artist Everybody Knows(?)

Andrew Wyeth: an American Artist Everybody Knows(?)

There I was, in the MoMA for the first time ever and sick to my stomach, trying to use the art as a visual antacid. It was November two years ago, and my family and I were in New York City for a couple of days before flying to Florida to go on a week-long cruise for my brother’s 30th birthday. But before the beaches and warm weather, I found myself staring at original Van Goghs and other omnipresent artists in a world-class museum. While sluggishly scanning the rooms, I remem

Delightfully/Disappointingly Crazy

Spending Time in "Jacob's Room"

Spending Time in "Jacob's Room"

The first time I opened Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf I was 22 and on a plane to Las Vegas. I was going on a (mostly) impromptu weekend trip with 2 close college friends. I read some of Jacob on the plane, maybe 10 pages on the short flight heading south, and was less than hooked. The life of Virginia Woolf and her novel Mrs. Dalloway have been central to my favorite-things lists for as long as I can remember. I can never get enough of the brilliant and complex author, or th

Call Me By Your Synergy, Call Me By Your Name

Call Me By Your Synergy, Call Me By Your Name

For me, world-building is one of the greatest aspects of reading, but the images we translate with our own minds don’t always match what’s on the page. A person's life, what they’ve experienced up until whatever it is that they’re reading, impacts how the story plays out for them. I think that’s why film adaptations of a novel can attract such high levels of scrutiny – how does the page match the screen match your mind? This past Fall, in anticipation of the eagerly awaited f

Making a Habit of Standing When Love Walks into the Room, or The Price of (Long-Distance) Salt

Making a Habit of Standing When Love Walks into the Room, or The Price of (Long-Distance) Salt

I started reading Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt to get a boy to fall in love with me. I know, I know. It was as naive as it sounds, but my intentions were good. We had known (of) each other through the lens of the internet for several years before dating; through Tumblr, Instagram, and Snapchat. When internet-talking became texting every day, became Skyping as often as possible, I started to think of other ways to stay connected. I started seeing past the 3,088 miles

This Way to Longleat

This Way to Longleat

“Either I will find a way, or I will make one.” – Sir Philip Sidney It was the third time we’d passed the small picture of a castle on a green road sign. It seemed to follow us around each roundabout we used that day. This way to Longleat. We were at the beginning of a planned-down-to-the-minute, 18-day road trip of southern England and Wales – but we were ahead of schedule. We’d already strolled through the history of Highclere Castle that morning (the place used for the TV

Wandering Through the Symphony

Wandering Through the Symphony

I’m making a habit of going to the symphony alone. It’s equal parts bad planning and an impulse decision, but this November, three hours before show time, I decided to attend the Oregon Symphony – again. I love a good excuse to dress up and struggle to tie a tie, even though part of the beauty in going to a symphony performance in Portland is that half the audience will be dressed to the nines, and the other half will be wearing flannel and beanies. It’s a beautiful mix. This

Goodbye Backwords Press: A Personal Note from Jenny

Goodbye Backwords Press: A Personal Note from Jenny

Photo Credit: Molly Choma When Phillip first suggested that we each write our “goodbyes,” I agreed. But as Phillip and Matty both submitted their drafts, I had yet to write mine. Not because it was too sad, necessarily, but because I had already moved through my feelings about it. The end has been long and slow. It’s a testament to our process. In the same generous way that Backwords Press carried those poems we have carried each other as business partners and most importantl

Goodbye Backwords Press: A Personal Note from Phillip

Goodbye Backwords Press: A Personal Note from Phillip

I don’t know what to say about something that has already been talked about so much behind the scenes. It feels like when you’ve over-rehearsed for a presentation and then can’t present, or readied a speech in your mind and then fall silent with an audience. But it’s important to us, to me, to share more than a formal announcement letter – some heart enmeshed in the business details. The main thing I’d like to express is gratitude to everyone involved – more than the sadness

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