Category: Personal

  • Getaway

    It has become harder and harder to escape myself. My mind, endlessly churning. My anxieties, sprouting like weeds between the cracks, blooming bigger as the years wear on, fertilized by horrors in headlines. The world is beautiful, and the world is terrible. Sometimes it helps to be reminded of the former. Sometimes it helps to…

  • Favorite books of 2021

    No, that is not a typo. I really do mean 2021. Meanwhile, some people are already releasing their “Best of 2022” lists, haha. Well, better late than never. Actually I did share my favorite kidlit reads of 2021 over with We Heart YA way back in February, but I would like to add a couple…

  • Happy Mother’s Day. Earlier this week, after news broke that the Supreme Court intends to overturn Roe v Wade, thereby robbing certain people (myself included) of our bodily autonomy and full reproductive choices, I called every single one of my representatives. This is what I said: — Hello. My name is Kristan Hoffman, and I…

  • Renewal

    Our yard has so much potential. And yet, over our years here, it has struggled. At first, we didn’t know what we were doing. There was too much shade, too much dog pee. We were too lazy to set up sprinklers, and the mosquitoes discouraged us from even venturing out. We shrugged and gave up.…

  • Times like these

    A few nights ago, I was checking in with a friend about his small business — which had to survive Hurricane Harvey not so long ago — and he used the phrase, “in times like these.” I laughed. As if we have ever lived through a time like this. A pandemic. A global pandemic. How…