Riese’s Team Pick: NY Times’ “Modern Love” (Queered)

Posted byriese

on July 31, 2010

Every week The New York Times brings us a new Modern Love column which range from dumb to brilliant/beautiful but almost never gay. Often beautiful, but this one, which reader Sameera sent to Laneia and which she sent to me and which I would like to share with you, is called A Free Spirit Who Couldn't Be Tied Down and it's also, obviously, queer. But also, it's just really lovely.

30 responses to “Riese’s Team Pick: NY Times’ “Modern Love” (Queered)”

Brianna (member)
July 31, 2010 at 11:49 am Permalink Reply Report user

That was sweet. I wonder who this accomplished writer is.

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1. scarlett
  July 31, 2010 at 4:38 pm Permalink Reply
  
  agreed. i tried looking, but to no avail.
  
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  1. riese (member)
    July 31, 2010 at 4:55 pm Permalink Reply
    
    i actually went through five pages of google search results for “flying kites in Tiananmen Square”
    
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    1. scarlett
      July 31, 2010 at 5:06 pm Permalink Reply
      
      hahah me too! except i added “about the author” to that same search after a while and still got nothing
      
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      1. Brianna (member)
        July 31, 2010 at 5:09 pm Permalink Reply Report user
        
        I did the exact same thing as you guys. Google failed us.
        
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        Cait (member)
        July 31, 2010 at 5:54 pm Permalink Reply Report user
        
        You guys, bylines are your friends.
        
        I love you all but how many lesbians does it take to read the whole thing?
        
        “Michelle Nicole Lee is a writer in St. Louis.”
        
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        Brianna (member)
        July 31, 2010 at 6:01 pm Permalink
        
        We’re talking about Lisa Ruth Brunner’s story, A Free Spirit Who Couldn’t Be Tethered.
        
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      2. riese (member)
        July 31, 2010 at 6:03 pm Permalink Reply
        
        i also added: pittsburgh, brother, boyfriend, trans-siberian railroad, japan, bisexual — to no avail
        
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        Cait (member)
        July 31, 2010 at 6:08 pm Permalink Reply Report user
        
        Oops, I looked at the wrong window.
        
        Regardless, it’s still there. I hate the NYTimes.com layout though, it is ridiculously hard to come by information like that.
        
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        Brianna (member)
        July 31, 2010 at 6:15 pm Permalink
        
        No, it’s not there. We know who wrote the Modern Love piece. We’re wondering who the writer was talking about in her story. Want to join us in our googling frenzy?
        
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        Cait (member)
        July 31, 2010 at 6:19 pm Permalink
        
        I can’t reply to Brianna’ post, but jesus christ someone should not have given me a computer today. I seriously thought you guys were talking about the author of the piece. Pfft. In my defense they are both now relatively accomplished writers and I just took the idiot’s path.
        
        I’ll google with you guys, but I’m not going to post anything for fear my idiot will show.
        
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Cait (member)
July 31, 2010 at 5:50 pm Permalink Reply Report user

This whole series is gonna cost me my Saturday. I really really really really like the writer though.

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Molly (member)
July 31, 2010 at 6:37 pm Permalink Reply Report user

I like how we all tried to find the elusive mystery writer. I, too, googled key words. No luck. This piece is beautiful.

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waitaminute
July 31, 2010 at 7:04 pm Permalink Reply

I think I found her.

“Miriam Bird Greenberg has taught ESL in rural Japan, flown kites in Tiananmen Square, and eaten marmot on a train traveling through Mongolia. She is finishing her MFA at the University of Texas Michener Center for Writers, and has work forthcoming in Smartish Pace and DIAGRAM.”
http://www.olemiss.edu/yalobusha/contributors.htm

and then from her page

“I grew up in rural Texas, the daughter of leftist Jews involved in the back-to-the-land movement. From an early age I began attempting to communicate with the dead; I wore the silk schoolteachers’ dresses of ancestors a hundred years dead of diphtheria, and collected honey that dripped through cracks in the ceiling to sweeten my tea.”
http://www.inknode.com/people/cryptozoa

How could you guys not realize that googling “memoir poem travel fellowship award biography tiananmen pittsburgh” was the key??

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1. Brianna (member)
  July 31, 2010 at 7:19 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  Japan? Check. Tiananmen Square? Check. Trans-siberian railway? Check. Poet? Check. Daaamn – good work!
  
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  1. riese (member)
    July 31, 2010 at 7:21 pm Permalink Reply
    
    I feel like we somehow should’ve guessed that her middle name was “bird”, like that’s something we should’ve just been able to garner from the text, i’m serious
    
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    1. Brianna (member)
      July 31, 2010 at 7:31 pm Permalink Reply Report user
      
      omg I think you’re right. It fits the whole “free spirit” theme.
      
      I wonder if she will ever google “Lisa Ruth Brunner” and find the column about her…
      
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      1. Cassandra
        July 31, 2010 at 8:14 pm Permalink Reply
        
        Yeah, now that we know who she is I’m kind of vicariously embarrassed for her.
        
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        g (member)
        August 1, 2010 at 9:35 am Permalink Reply Report user
        
        i love the autostraddle sleuthing club. i spent last night googling tiananmen square + kites too. then today i check back and the answer surfaced in the comments.
        
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2. riese (member)
  July 31, 2010 at 7:19 pm Permalink Reply
  
  ZOMG
  
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3. Cassandra
  July 31, 2010 at 7:20 pm Permalink Reply
  
  Fuck that was gorgeous.
  
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  1. Cassandra
    July 31, 2010 at 7:21 pm Permalink Reply
    
    And also waitaminute, the phrase “google fu” seems so woefully inadequate. Wow!
    
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4. scarlett
  August 1, 2010 at 12:04 am Permalink Reply
  
  waitaminute FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i kind of love you.
  
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  1. scarlett
    August 1, 2010 at 12:05 am Permalink Reply
    
    wait a minute.. i really do love you. (see what i did there? huh? huh?????? haha kbye)
    
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waitaminute
July 31, 2010 at 7:33 pm Permalink Reply

Guys, in middle school I won a gold medal in “Searching the Internet: How to Utilize Search Engines”. It ain’t no thang.

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Inklis
July 31, 2010 at 8:46 pm Permalink Reply

YOU GUYS. A story about someone cool and liberal from Texas. I keep telling people they exist.

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Tiara the Merch Girl
August 1, 2010 at 4:46 am Permalink Reply

awwwww…

*is reminded of her also-nomadic-but-just-returned-ZOMGS crush now*
*sigh*

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Jessica
August 9, 2010 at 7:50 pm Permalink Reply

And now autostraddle is the number one hit for “writer kites tiananmen square.” Nice sleuthing!

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elena
August 10, 2010 at 5:17 am Permalink Reply

Here you can also find a very fascinating photo…
http://abodeofsnow.wordpress.com/2010/05/10/abraham-burickson-and-miriam-greenberg-read-at-red-hill-books-may-16/

“Miriam Bird Greenberg grew up on an organic farm in rural Texas and spent her childhood roaming the creeks and caved-in barns in muslin schoolteachers’ dresses left behind by ancestors a hundred years dead of diphtheria. She’s been awarded residencies from Headlands Center for the Arts, a waitership from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and a Stegner Fellowship. She holds an MFA from the Michener Center for Writers, though she’s also taught EFL in Japan, hitchhiked solo from Montana to Vermont, and flown kites in Tiananmen Square. She lives in Oakland, California, where she’s practicing “settling down.”

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Rachel
August 26, 2010 at 2:48 pm Permalink Reply

Thank you — was just about to start my own sure-to-be failed google search when I found this. (Curious to read Autostraddle now too…hadn’t heard of it.)
Does anyone remember “A Friendship Too Tight for Breathing Room” ? (From 2007)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/fashion/05love.html

Kind of reminded me a little of this. “IT began like many other romances: an introduction at a party. She and I slid quickly into an easy banter, drifting from the food table to the bar to the couch, smiling and laughing, the sparks between us practically visible. Anyone could see we were falling for each other. There was just one thing: neither of us was a lesbian.”

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