1. Poetry: No U by Chris Ritter and The Stand by Diane Seuss on Rattle, Watching My Daughter Before Her Prom and At the Center of the Garden and May You Be Happy by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, You Reading This, Be Ready by William Stafford and Queen of Collapse by Hadara Bar-Nadav on The Slowdown with Maggie Smith, Step Outside by James Crews, This Poem Is a Revolution by Julie Barton, Because It Is Spring by Janice Falls on Heart Poems, My Son Rests His Cheek on the Wrecked Car by Lory Bedikian, taproot ** by Maya Stein, and Witness by Susan Haifleigh.

2. Speaking of poetry, Noah Kahan just released his new album, and as I expected, it’s gorgeous, so so so good. He also has a new documentary, Noah Kahan: Out of Body, and did a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR, both worth a watch. He jokes a lot about how sad his music is, and during a recent appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, when Jimmy asked him to describe the new release, the vibe, Noah responded, “it’s pretty sad…if something’s going wrong in your life and it’s raining, I recommend.” Noah finds music in the mess, and what he makes with it is medicine, and if you see me driving around town with my windows rolled down sing-yelling lyrics from Stick Season (one of my favorite songs), don’t worry — I’m fine.

3. A Writer’s Ode to the Small-Town Girls Who Left, and Those Who Stayed on The New York Times. (gift link) “A new book by Jayne Anne Phillips, a Pulitzer-winning novelist, recalling her childhood is a bittersweet triumph.”

4. Isabel Klee’s new memoir explores the realities of dog rescue. “Dogs, Boys, And Other Things I’ve Cried About.”

5. Good stuff from Elissa Altman on Poor Man’s Feast: On Gentle Food (“Quiet Cooking for Noisy Times [RECIPES]”) and From the Archives: is cruelty addictive? (“Humans, psychopathology, and the sadistic urge”) and Grief, Deception, and Why I Garden (“The problems of revelation after someone dies”).

6. Good stuff from Suleika Jaouad: My First Home (“Fitting my grand delusions into a tiny farmhouse”) and A Short Love Story (“On showing up fully for what can’t last”).

7. What Are We Doing Here, Anyway? by Jami Attenberg on Craft Talk. “An important thing we need to understand about generative AI is that it is based on the stolen work of authors… Additionally, I am extremely concerned that the more people use AI, the more they are going to let their brains go to shit. Oh yeah, and also generative AI is an absolute nightmare for our environment.”

8. Loa (2012 – 2026) from Chuck Wendig on Terrible Minds. Good girl, Loa. 🐾💔

9. Good stuff from Britchida on Play is the Opposite of Survival Mode: Unafraid and Is it okay for me to change?

10. Shadows only exists because of light from Jasmine on The Tiny Joy Project. “Why some things only look overwhelming for a moment.”

11. A different mode of travel by Laura Lentz on Writing at Red Lights. “I’m not sure when it began or how long my father hid my mother’s dementia from us, but there were clues along the way that her world was getting smaller.” *sob*

12. Don’t begrudge yourself happiness, sweet friend by Jenny Lawson.

13. Meeting Him Where He Is by Elizabeth Kleinfeld. “On Alzheimer’s, a 12-year silence, a psychedelic journey, and learning to let my father be exactly who he is.”

14. How to Feel Better: 10 Gentle Ways to Support Your Health from Courtney Carver on Be More With Less.

15. Good stuff on The Guardian: ‘Subtle but powerful form of self-validation’: how to start journaling (“There is no wrong way to journal, say experts, and putting pen to paper can help with mental health and clarify thoughts and feelings”) and How do I respond to my friends when they criticize their own weight and looks? (“These negative comments about bodies and faces permeate society and could lead to some tough talks with friends”).

16. A Real Person. “Lena Moses-Schmitt navigates complex, evolving relationships with the aging vessels that carry us throughout our lives in this original graphic narrative about scars, cars, and bodies.”

17. Brad Neely on Embracing Errors When Making Art. “I like art that preserves the rough edges of the person.”

18. Winners of the GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2026. “A collection of some of this year’s winning and honored photographs. Nearly 9,000 entries were submitted to organizers by member photographers from 15 countries.”

19. Cascade Red Foxes Are Notoriously Reclusive. So How Did This Photographer Capture These Stunning Images of the Endangered Species? “Even the scientists who study the animals rarely see them except on camera. But Gretchen Kay Stuart spent a season documenting them up close.”

20. Photo contest finalists tell stories of the planet’s natural wonders and the people who study them. “The Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability’s annual competition recognizes images capturing natural beauty, researchers in action, and important topics in sustainability research.”

21. The 10 Most Influential Social Good Companies of 2026. “This year, TIME editors launch the TIME100 Companies: Industry Leaders lists, an expansion of the TIME100 Most Influential Companies issue that dives deeper into 20 sectors to look at the companies shaping their industries. These are the 10 most influential companies in social good of 2026.”

22. Psychology says the single biggest predictor of happiness isn’t income, relationships, or health – it’s the ability to be present in an ordinary moment without wishing it were something else. **Spoiler Alert** “The single biggest predictor of how happy you are at any given moment isn’t your income, your relationship status, your health, your career, or the city you live in. It’s whether your mind is focused on what you’re doing right now or wandering somewhere else.”

23. 17 Scientifically Proven Ways to Relieve Stress Quickly.

24. 31 Inspiring May Journal Prompts (+Ideas).

25. Alternative Ways To Measure The Quality of Your Life. “Maybe we’ve been framing everything with the wrong questions. Maybe instead of thinking about our lives in broad strokes, we should give more weight to the details — to the small things, the routines, the daily treasures that we can only see when we’ve learned how to look for them. Maybe we shouldn’t only be asking ourselves what we like about our life when it’s going well. Maybe we need to start asking what makes our lives Good™️ even when they’re not going well — when we’re sad, stuck, reeling from grief.”

26. Unstuck: How to Find Your Words. “Discover how writing can nurture emotional well-being, release raw feelings, and cultivate inner clarity through free-flowing, unedited expression.”

27. Mindfulness and the Rise of Analog Living. “Exhausted with the pervasive, relentless nature of our digital lives, many people are hungry for presence, savoring, and slowing down—which is ushering in a renewed interest in analog activities.”