Jana M. Perkins, PhD
@janajm.com
🎙️ host, @womenofletters.org ✍️ conversations on work, writing, & professional success with the women shaping our cultural landscape 📍 croatian-canadian 🏳️🌈 in 🇭🇷 📸 mostly on insta these days: @janajm
Such a pleasure to be interviewed at @womenofletters.org about my weird career trajectory and working habits: womenofletters.org/alissa-wilki...
In conversation with Alissa Wilkinson on her career & WE TELL OURSELVES STORIES
In this interview, Alissa discusses realizing she wanted something other than the 9-to-5 corporate life, how she made the transition from freelance writer to full-time staff writer, the most valuable ...
womenofletters.org
Over the past few months, I have had the privilege of traveling across our country to share the story behind 107 Days. Here are a few of my reflections from the road:
Reflections from the Road
Gratitude, Community, and Continuing the Fight
kamalaharris.link
Going to need to create a new account to contain all of my commentary on the new Love Is Blind season
!! A dream opportunity to work with a dream team of writers
R. O. Kwon 권오경@rokwon.bsky.social · 8mo agowe’ve been working on this for months—introducing a new teaching collective ✨ starting 2/4, Fatimah Asghar, @ingridrojasc.bsky.social, & I will offer generative & workshop-based classes! In fiction, nonfiction, & poetry! theministryofwords.com
For @womenofletters.org, I had the great pleasure of talking with Anna Malaika Tubbs. We discuss her latest NYT-bestselling book, preparing for her viral TED Talk, her relationship to social media, what she’s working on now, & so much more. 📚💙 womenofletters.substack.com/p/anna-malaika-tubbs
Convinced the world would be better if everyone had to take 1-2 years of lit seminars like this one before graduating to full adulthood
S. Kramer@libraryephemera.bsky.social · 8mo agoCollege course on the English Novel from 1970. (Sorry @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social, no Middlemarch.)
Wow what a lovely review from my proofreader!!! wilcoxediting.com/articles/202...
Having It All by Corinne Low, PhD | Wilcox Editing
I’ve been talking about this book to anyone who will listen, ever since I had the chance to proofread it.
wilcoxediting.com
Jana M. Perkins, PhD@janajm.com · 8mo agoStill so moved every time I see a shoutout to our podcast out in the wild. This one from Erin, who worked on @corinnelow.com’s amazing book, meant a lot
Still so moved every time I see a shoutout to our podcast out in the wild. This one from Erin, who worked on @corinnelow.com’s amazing book, meant a lot
![A screenshot of text that reads: “into this world of data and ideas. As an economist and professor at Wharton, Corinne Low insists that no one-size-fits-all goal exists to describe happiness. Any self-help book that assumes people of all genders are aiming to maximize the same result, such as money or fame, will be inherently flawed, according to the author. Instead, Low advocates for calculating your own “personal utility function,” which accounts for both indirect means to fulfillment and direct fulfillment. If you love your job, for example, you might get indirect utility (wages) and direct utility (enjoyment) from it. Although no one is likely to pay you for spending time with your kids, the direct utility of doing so has value, nonetheless. We all get to make our own individual valuations in these matters, and Low provides the tools to do so. I don’t have a background in economics, but this idea seems to me like a refreshing take.
The author talks overtly about pushing back on business books like Lean In that advocate for women to take a certain approach to workplace leadership. She states this eloquently in the book, and also on an interview on the Women of Letters podcast, which I enjoyed. There isn’t any data, she says, that illustrates the efficacy of certain gendered traits over others. In her words:
“Research indeed underscores that women show differences in multiple traits compared to men, in a variety of settings […]. But *none* of the literature has demonstrated that the traits women exhibit more than men are actually *bad* from a profit or productivity perspective.” (90)
Perhaps it’s not women who need to change, Low suggests. Society, on the other hand, could benefit from looking at the data and adjusting how it values different styles of work and leadership. I love this message and the deep breath it lets me take as I navigate life’s twists and turns.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hxtylpqnglq2rtwwrst4g77b/bafkreiei222tkjwbry3fug4np72jl2qav4aslcjtumzngbzlwslo2rqsq4)
New interview with 2x NYT-bestselling author Anna Malaika Tubbs on @womenofletters.org tomorrow ✨ Come say hi: womenofletters.substack.com
Books We Love is back with a brand new batch of hand-picked titles. Mix and match tags like “Book Club Ideas” and “Eye-Opening Reads.” Find 380+ new 2025 reads, and stick around to browse more than 4,000 books from the last 13 years.
Books We Love
Here are 380+ great reads from 2025 handpicked just for you by NPR staffers and trusted critics.
n.pr
The disclaimer I add to any meme I send in the group chat
derek guy@dieworkwear.bsky.social · 9mo agolisten to me. listen to me right now. if you don't know what this tweet means, just close your device. don't look anything up. go for a walk. return in a week. if you don't listen to me, your life will be ruined and i can't be held accountable
During the first season of Women of Letters, things were so hectic and uncertain that we were often scrambling even to publish our very next interview — because we hadn’t yet been able to secure it, because we had but something had come up along the way, because because because 🧵
I'm editing an anthology about unlikable characters and seeking work from younger writers, 15-21. If you know of one such writer who might want to submit their work for consideration, please share this call for submissions: audacity.substack.com/p/acquired-t...
Acquired Tastes: A Call for Submissions
For younger writers, ages 15-21
audacity.substack.com
It is genuinely incredible to me how much evidence there is to support investing in the public good and how much animus there is to do this simple, effective thing.
Monica Carol Miller@monicacmiller.bsky.social · 9mo agoWe need libraries for so many reasons. www.11alive.com/article/news...
“Part of me wishes I’d opened my eyes up to writing earlier, but in a lot of ways I’m grateful that I had a different experience than most writers I know.” Emily J. Smith — @emjsmith.bsky.social — on how her years of experience as a woman working in tech informed her debut novel:
Pushing against the pull: In conversation with Emily J. Smith
In this author interview, Emily J. Smith discusses her debut novel NOTHING SERIOUS, her background in tech, how she navigated the transition to writing full-time, and what she’s working on next.
womenofletters.substack.com
We are delighted to announce the shortlist for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation in 2025! "Each of these books arrives in English in expert and accessible translations that honour the art and voice of their original authors." tinyurl.com/f9sccz4v
Spent an hour sitting across the table from the hottest person I’ve ever seen in my life this morning and instead of saying literally anything about that I said “what are your plans for Thanksigiving”
am reminded of the old joke: what did James Watson discover? Rosalind Franklin’s notes.
A website I’ve never visited: you’ve reached your monthly article limit
This is such a small thing, but I melt every time it happens: My go-to email signoff is “Waving from my desk, Jana.” A lot of times, I’ll send a first-ever email to someone new, and in their message they’ll sign off saying “Waving back, [Name]” 🥹
