Nancy Townsley
@nancytownsley
Retired newspaper journalist. Gramma who sews, walks, and writes. Author of SUNSHINE GIRL, Heliotrope Books, 2025, and CARSON McCLINTOCK IS NOT DEAD YET, forthcoming May 11, 2027 from Heliotrope.
@harrisondsmith.bsky.social, obituaries editor at @washingtonpost.com, chose my vignette about the venerable Steve Arndt for the paper's What We Remember feature. Our dear friend and writing partner is very much missed. 💚
The Washington Post's @maurajudkis.bsky.social writes about the rescheduled (and now-defamed) White House Correspondents Dinner. Saddens me to my core that "enemies of the people" guy was given a mic at this event, proving that the sword is, at least last night, mightier than the pen. ☹️
Watching The Dust Bowl by Ken Burns over the last few evenings really put things into perspective for me. My god, what those people went through. Sure, it was "their fault" it happened in the first place, but at least back then the government actually tried to help. Five stars for illumination.
What do you do when you're awake at 3 o'clock in the morning? You write a poem about one of your children. They're never not your children, even at almost thirty-eight. 💚 Link 👉: nancytownsley.substack.com/p/middle-child
I can personally vouch for PDX as a gorgeous and efficient airport. ✈️ Well done, Rose City! 🌹
Nigerian-born, Los Angeles-based artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby painted this gorgeous portrait of Barack and Michelle Obama for display at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, which will officially open to the public this Friday on Juneteenth. 💙
House on tree-lined street in Northwest Portland, Oregon, flag-draped and festooned for June. Happy Pride. Love is love. 🌈 ❤️ Of course.
I sewed this dress for a longtime friend to wear at her upcoming book launch. Her novel is set in the 1930s and there is an apple orchard involved.
Former Oregon Sen. Bob Packwood, whose long history of predatory behavior toward women (and an attempted coverup) ended his political career, has died at age 93. “It is my duty to resign,” he said—imagine that!—on the senate floor in 1995. Question: why was he dressed like Mr. Rogers in this photo?
"Live your life so people keep gathering in your honor long after you're gone," a writing friend said of the beautiful soul who connected and cared for us. Well done, dear Steve Arndt. Oceans of love pass through your words to all of us and back again. We'll keep on being Arndtuous. Thank you. 💚
I started watching 60 Minutes in the early '80s, when Morley Safer, Lesley Stahl, Ed Bradley, Mike Wallace, and Andy Rooney were on. Sharyn Alfonsi and Anderson Cooper recently left CBS. Now Scott Pelley sums up the destruction of an American journalism institution: "The waste is heartbreaking."
Daughter Kelly on a trail near her home in Colorado with her youngest, Saul, and her guitar on her back during an end-of-school-year day trip for her Saplings outdoor learning group (kindergarten to eighth grade). Just look at the joy, strength, and agency in this photo. Her passion is immense. ✨
Well, this is super cool in a not-expected-but-thoroughly-appreciated kind of way. On a whim a month ago, I sent @agawande.bsky.social a card via snail mail inviting him to join me at a book event after my new novel comes out next year, and today he emailed me this response. Very kind of him!
Excited to participate in this event Friday morning at U of O in Eugene, Oregon. Our panel is called "First Things First: The Role of Regional Journalism in Civic Participation." I'm reading Margaret Sullivan's book GHOSTING THE NEWS: LOCAL JOURNALISM AND THE CRISIS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY to prepare.
Happy Earth Day! 🌎 Today my journalist novel 📚 has been in the world for a whole year! Eliza asks that you celebrate SUNSHINE GIRL with a cupcake, a party hat 🥳 and a trip to your favorite local bookseller (or two or three) on Independent Bookstore Day this Saturday, April 25!
Hip-hip-hooray to a small, gutsy indie press in New York! In a let's-do-this-thing-again mutual appreciation and trust pact, Heliotrope Books and publisher Naomi Rosenblatt have said yes to my second novel. I’m stoked to announce that CARSON McCLINTOCK IS NOT DEAD YET is forthcoming in May 2027!
Looking forward to a new episode of Coffee and Grief next Thursday, April 2 on Zoom. I'll be sharing a piece about my mother and Alzheimer's. Join us at 7 p.m. Pacific? Registration link: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
We saw Fran Lebowitz (yes, THAT Fran Lebowitz!) in Astoria last night, and it was everything. open.substack.com/pub/nancytow...
When you Google something, you get an automatic disclaimer that says "AI can make mistakes, so double-check responses." Note how that can go terribly, fatally wrong. Our military, using AI, may have inadvertently targeted children at Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab, Iran.
So this seems important as the GOP uses the Clintons to distract from Trump's many-tentacled ties to Epstein and his horror show. Via @hcrichardson.bsky.social yesterday.
This is how you do it. Now let's see the US to do its duty on the Epstein horror show.
Written in 1935. Shelf life approximately ninety years. RIP, WaPo.