Stacy Appel

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Stacy Appel, an award-winning essayist, has been a monthly contributor to Skirt! Magazine since 2002. Her work has also appeared in The Chicago Tribune, The Women’s Times, and other publications, and she has written for National Public Radio. She is a contributor to the book You Know You’re a Writer When… by Adair Lara.

Stacy lectures and teaches creativity and intuition classes in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she resides, and has been a frequent guest on San Francisco’s KEST radio station, as well as shows in Monterey, Seattle and Phoenix.

Greatest Source of Inspiration?
Reading, especially memoirs. Other people’s survival stories are such a gift. I’m also deeply immersed in listening to music, whether live performances, CD, or radio. I’m very eclectic in my tastes and especially love African and Celtic songs and rhythms. I believe music has much to teach writers about their craft.

Perfect Day?
Breakfast in a cozy cafe, then a walk along the shore or among the redwoods, especially when it’s foggy. Then a movie and a long nap before an impromptu dinner party with friends at a restaurant. Followed by dancing - any kind, any place.

Proudest Accomplishment?
Working as Director of Volunteer Services for Hospice and getting to watch as our number of trained volunteers tripled in size. We were able to serve many more families, in really creative ways.

Can’t Live Without?
My cats, really good coffee, and my journal. In that order. But don’t test me.

What’s Next in Your Work?
I’m currently finishing an essay collection, and have begun two other books. Now where’s that coffee?

“Stacy Appel’s writing is tender and funny, a rare combination. Her essays delight on first reading and then linger in the mind.”

~ Cyra McFadden, author of The Serial and the Pulitzer-nominated memoir Rain or Shine

“I would slog through the Finnish snows like Diane Keaton did in “Reds” to read even a sentence by Stacy Appel.  A major new voice, the next Anne Lamott.”

~ Adair Lara, former S.F.Chronicle columnist and author of the memoir Hold Me Close, Let Me Go, among others

Read Stacy's Essays:

Sleight of Hand
Roughing It          
Doing Time
Living La Vida Mocha
Lie To Me
Changing the Score
Labyrinth
Standing My Ground
Fortune Cookie
Reading Between The Lines
Eat Your Jello With Chopsticks
Holy Water
Navigating
Just Say Maybe
Lean On Me
Recovering Eden
Crazy Love
Party of One
Healing A House
Peel Me a Grape
Snapshots from a Round Trip
Life's Calling
If I Were a Carpenter
Putting on the Brakes
Missing
The Cost of Secrets
My Impossibly Low Standards
Undercurrents
Nourish Me
Notes from Center Stage
Communion
A Fender-Bender on Memory Lane
Dream Time