Eats of Eden: A Foodoir
Essays and Recipes by Tabitha Blankenbiller
“This collection—complete with recipes—comes together like a satisfying and well-balanced meal.”
—Sarah Einstein,
AWP Prize in Creative Nonfiction
award-winning author of Mot
AWP Prize in Creative Nonfiction
award-winning author of Mot
Eats of Eden is a trip into the memory, into the stomach, and into the heart of every woman. These essays of tasty bites, writing, coming-of-age, family, sex, self-esteem—and above all, overcoming personal odds to live your best life—are complete with mouth-watering recipes and memories that will change your relationship with food forever. From self-identity to love affairs with the sinking of the Titanic to cheese snobbery to reconciling the unanswered questions of a lost friendship, the home-loving socialite at the heart of this memoir dishes and dines on fashion, feminism, fabulousness, and food.
Eats of Eden follows a year of attempting to write a novel, and the daily life, occasional revelations, and passions that feed, distract, complicate, and enrich that process—in the author’s case, constant detours into the kitchen. It’s a book about writing, eating, and surviving in the modern west, from literary hustling at the Doug Fir Lounge, to waiting for life-altering emails around a stew-cooking campfire at Crater Lake.
Content warnings: sexual content, language
Eats of Eden follows a year of attempting to write a novel, and the daily life, occasional revelations, and passions that feed, distract, complicate, and enrich that process—in the author’s case, constant detours into the kitchen. It’s a book about writing, eating, and surviving in the modern west, from literary hustling at the Doug Fir Lounge, to waiting for life-altering emails around a stew-cooking campfire at Crater Lake.
Content warnings: sexual content, language
Perfectbound Trade Paperback $16.99
Praise for Eats of Eden
“Lush, rich and delicious, these essays are as tasty as the recipe she delivers: Blankenbiller dishes not only fun but depth and honesty. She shows us that literature is not meant to fly above taste but delve into it. What a satisfying read.”
—Rene Denfeld,
author of The Child Finder and The Enchanted
author of The Child Finder and The Enchanted
“Tabitha’s enthusiasm and energy and voice and personality comes through on every page, sweeping you up and carrying you along for the ride, like a best friend dragging you into line after line after line after line after Disneyland, making you love it all and feel like a kid again. She made me care about cooking (which I don’t, at all) as much as I care about writing (which is a lot). I even read every recipe! (Though I will never make any of them.)”
—Aaron Burch,
Editor of Hobart and author of Stephen King’s ‘The Body’ and Backswing
Editor of Hobart and author of Stephen King’s ‘The Body’ and Backswing
“If you can’t cuddle up with a good friend and trade life stories, the next best thing is cuddling up with Blankenbiller’s charming Eats of Eden. From buying your first bra and attending the dinner anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking to joining Weight Watchers (again) to navigating the peaks and valleys of a writer’s life, Blankenbiller parses these relatable, tender, human moments with candor, humor, heart—and food. A bon vivant who finds ultimate joy in cooking and eating, Blankenbiller takes us on a culinary tour of her life—recipes included!—with delicious, and nourishing, results.”
—Sarah Sweeney,
author of Tell Me if You’re Lying
author of Tell Me if You’re Lying
“Reading Eats of Eden is like having a delicious, leisurely lunch with a smart and insightful friend. Blankenbiller is sharp and self-aware in these essays about food, writing, and being a person, and each one is a distinct pleasure on its own. The collection—complete with recipes—comes together like a satisfying and well-balanced meal.”
—Sarah Einstein,
AWP Prize in Creative Nonfiction award-winning author of Mot
AWP Prize in Creative Nonfiction award-winning author of Mot
“Eats of Eden starts with a generous helping of humor and adds dashes of writerly anxiety. Focused around the food and the recipes that feed the soul and the body, Blankenbiller mines her memories for evocative details and snapshots. Come for the stories, and stay for the cooking!”
—Sonya Huber,
author of Pain Woman Takes Your Keys and Other Essays from a Nervous System
author of Pain Woman Takes Your Keys and Other Essays from a Nervous System
“Blankenbiller has packaged longing, self-doubt, body image, and love for others and food into fun and fulfilling narrative recipes for living an authentic life. Eats of Eden demonstrates the ways food can bring people together (or tear them apart), how pursuing one’s dreams is never futile, and that the best meals—and moments—come from creative practice. This ‘foodoir’ is a funny and reassuring read for anyone who has ever felt like a front-line cook in a world of gourmet chefs.”
—Melissa Grunow,
author of Realizing River City and I Don’t Belong Here
author of Realizing River City and I Don’t Belong Here
“Eats of Eden is truly a delicious treat! Blankenbiller is a confident essay writer, making it look easy as she lets us into her hungry heart in this bright, satisfying collection. She waxes on food and being a writer and wrestles with rejection, ambition, and cheese-lust. Peppered with recipes, pop culture, sugar-sweetness, and plenty of nostalgia, this book is a unique, honest, funny, glittery, high-energy explosion of a sparkly cupcake—easily and greedily devoured.”
—Leesa Cross-Smith,
author of Whiskey & Ribbons and Every Kiss a War
author of Whiskey & Ribbons and Every Kiss a War
“A feast of the senses and the writerly sensibilities, Blankenbiller’s foodoir cuts to the heart of the things that elude us—success, ex-friends, the perfect lemon meringue pie. A debut to savor.”
—Kendra Fortmeyer,
author of Hole in the Middle
author of Hole in the Middle
“A writer’s life can be ridiculous, between the self-sabotage, the hours spent moving commas and carefully crafting our public images, never mind the risks we take to create moments of deep luminous beauty only for the world to ignore them. Blankenbiller writes a triumphant, existential comedy of errors about finding her way as a creative person, making readers laugh one moment and nod the next. I love when books can be this fun and vulnerable. She laughs without hiding behind the humor. She also includes recipes, because she knows salvation lies in food and friends. Take a risk. Bake a strata. Read Eats of Eden.”
—Aaron Gilbreath,
author of Everything We Don’t Know and This Is: Essays on Jazz
author of Everything We Don’t Know and This Is: Essays on Jazz
“Wise, funny, sharply observed, and eminently readable, Blankenbiller’s Eats of Eden is literary comfort food. The stories at the heart of these essays—and the recipes that follow—offer the nourishing warmth of companionship and intimacy.”
—Steve Edwards,
author of Breaking into the Backcountry
author of Breaking into the Backcountry
“Eats of Eden is a sensitive, generous, and laugh-out-loud funny collection that I want to return to again and again. This book is a must-read for creative women with big appetites—for life, for success, and for excellent cheese.”
—Kelly Davio,
author of It’s Just Nerves: Notes on a Disability
author of It’s Just Nerves: Notes on a Disability
“This book is pure comfort food, warm and filling. Peppered with confessions of desire for literary stardom, each of these essays feels as light and crisp as croissants fresh from the oven. Blankenbiller shares her recipes here for not only tasty dinners but authentic, often hilarious, living as she candidly charts her own uncertain path to becoming a writer. I had to resist devouring them all in one sitting.”
—Melissa Wiley,
author of Antlers in Space and Other Common Phenomena
author of Antlers in Space and Other Common Phenomena
“Reading Blankenbiller’s delightful memoir, Eats of Eden, is time spent listening to a good friend tell smart, heartfelt stories over plates of delicious food she’s spent all day cooking just for you. And yes, she’ll share the recipes.”
—Cari Luna,
author of The Revolution of Every Day
author of The Revolution of Every Day
“Is there anything more important than feeling good, eating well, and living passionately? Blankenbiller’s essays would suggest there is not, and I would suggest that with Eats of Eden, there may be no one writing more urgently, humorously, or touchingly about these topics than Blankenbiller herself.”
—Ben Tanzer,
author of Be Cool: A Memoir (Sort Of), Sex and Death, and Orphans
author of Be Cool: A Memoir (Sort Of), Sex and Death, and Orphans
“At turns hilarious and heartbreaking, but always genuine, Blankenbiller’s Eats of Eden will leave you satiated. An enthralling narrative and a remarkable meal: if there’s more you want from a book, you’re just being greedy. This is the real deal.”
—Andrew Brininstool,
author of Crude Sketches Done in Quick Succession
author of Crude Sketches Done in Quick Succession
About Eats of Eden
• Foodoir, Memoir, Linked Essays, Recipes
• Published by Alternating Current Press
• 5” x 8” Perfectbound Trade Paperback
• Cream Paper, 206 Pages
• Print ISBN-13: 978-1-946580-02-3
• Print ISBN-10: 1-946580-02-3
• First Edition: March 6, 2018
• Permalink | Short URL: tinyurl.com/eatsofeden
• Request Review Copy
Images for public use for Eats of Eden
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Click to view / download photo of author Tabitha Blankenbiller by Christine Hyatt of Cheese Chick Productions in [JPG].
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About Tabitha Blankenbiller
TABITHA BLANKENBILLER grew up in Washington State and currently lives outside of Portland, Oregon. She graduated from the Pacific University MFA in Writing program in 2012 and has written essays for Electric Lit, The Rumpus, Bustle, Catapult, Hobart, Brevity, and other venues, and has been anthologized in the Not My President and All That Glitters collections. Her home is populated by her husband Matt, her cats Max and Mehitabel, and her prized dual oven, Doubles.
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