Dr. LuElla D’Amico
@luelladamico.bsky.social
Early&19th-Century U.S. Literary Historian at the U of Incarnate Word. Girlhood Studies. Children’s Lit. Transatlanticism. Women’s Writing&Religion. 💜Catholicism&Caffeine.
Tiny Wonders: This week we reread If You Give a Mouse a Cookie—a book I memorized in 4th grade. My daughter joked she wished a Mouse would clean the house before Thanksgiving. SAME.🍪 And it reminded me: Thanksgiving is really about small, repeated gestures of love.
open.substack.com/pub/luellada...
open.substack.com/pub/luellada...
If You Give a Family a Story
What If You Give a Mouse a Cookie taught me about Thanksgiving chaos and holy repetition.
open.substack.com
November 28, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Tiny Wonders: This week we reread If You Give a Mouse a Cookie—a book I memorized in 4th grade. My daughter joked she wished a Mouse would clean the house before Thanksgiving. SAME.🍪 And it reminded me: Thanksgiving is really about small, repeated gestures of love.
open.substack.com/pub/luellada...
open.substack.com/pub/luellada...
"Gratitude is the cheerfulness of wisdom."— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Happy Thanksgiving to all! May your day be filled with peace, warmth, and the grace of good company. (Not to mention the wisdom to be grateful.)
Happy Thanksgiving to all! May your day be filled with peace, warmth, and the grace of good company. (Not to mention the wisdom to be grateful.)
November 27, 2025 at 4:28 PM
"Gratitude is the cheerfulness of wisdom."— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Happy Thanksgiving to all! May your day be filled with peace, warmth, and the grace of good company. (Not to mention the wisdom to be grateful.)
Happy Thanksgiving to all! May your day be filled with peace, warmth, and the grace of good company. (Not to mention the wisdom to be grateful.)
Y’all, I finished a 100-day workout I started this summer. Yes, it’s November. Yes, my middle schooler is roasting me. But proud anyway! Added yoga on some off days, and nothing on others. Still: 100 DAYS! Feeling like the fittest mom ever with my 30 minutes every few mornings.💪😂
November 22, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Y’all, I finished a 100-day workout I started this summer. Yes, it’s November. Yes, my middle schooler is roasting me. But proud anyway! Added yoga on some off days, and nothing on others. Still: 100 DAYS! Feeling like the fittest mom ever with my 30 minutes every few mornings.💪😂
Why would Nathaniel Hawthorne hate Taylor Swift if he were alive today? My latest @thedispatchmedia.bsky.social piece, "The Damned Mob of Swifties," explains why—and what that reveals about the genius of women’s art.
thedispatch.com/article/tayl...
thedispatch.com/article/tayl...
The Damned Mob of Swifties
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Taylor Swift, and the sentimental genius of women’s art.
thedispatch.com
November 22, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Why would Nathaniel Hawthorne hate Taylor Swift if he were alive today? My latest @thedispatchmedia.bsky.social piece, "The Damned Mob of Swifties," explains why—and what that reveals about the genius of women’s art.
thedispatch.com/article/tayl...
thedispatch.com/article/tayl...
Dostoyevsky taught me that ideas have souls—and that lies wound more than logic can fix. My review in @americamag.bsky.social looks at Józef Tischner’s The Philosophy of Drama (brilliantly translated by @arturrosman.bsky.social) and the weight of truth.
www.americamagazine.org/books/2025/1...
www.americamagazine.org/books/2025/1...
Review: The drama of Dostoyevsky
Józef Tischner remains virtually unknown in Western classrooms, despite being one of the pre-eminent voices in 20th-century Catholic thought. The new edition of 'The Philosophy of Drama' in English mi...
www.americamagazine.org
November 18, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Dostoyevsky taught me that ideas have souls—and that lies wound more than logic can fix. My review in @americamag.bsky.social looks at Józef Tischner’s The Philosophy of Drama (brilliantly translated by @arturrosman.bsky.social) and the weight of truth.
www.americamagazine.org/books/2025/1...
www.americamagazine.org/books/2025/1...
Picking up my kids from evening clubs and reminded of this Emerson poem I taught this morning:
"In the turbulent beauty
Of a gusty Autumn day,
Poet on a sunny headland
Sighed his soul away."
"In the turbulent beauty
Of a gusty Autumn day,
Poet on a sunny headland
Sighed his soul away."
November 17, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Picking up my kids from evening clubs and reminded of this Emerson poem I taught this morning:
"In the turbulent beauty
Of a gusty Autumn day,
Poet on a sunny headland
Sighed his soul away."
"In the turbulent beauty
Of a gusty Autumn day,
Poet on a sunny headland
Sighed his soul away."
Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and a sick-day Saturday that didn't go as planned but is definitely worth the story. New Tiny Wonders is up.🕯️📚
luelladamico.substack.com/p/tale-as-ol...
luelladamico.substack.com/p/tale-as-ol...
Tale as Old as Time, Comfort as New as Today
How rewatching childhood favorites helped me rest in the middle of exhaustion.
luelladamico.substack.com
November 17, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and a sick-day Saturday that didn't go as planned but is definitely worth the story. New Tiny Wonders is up.🕯️📚
luelladamico.substack.com/p/tale-as-ol...
luelladamico.substack.com/p/tale-as-ol...
Students from my Romanticism class made me this beautiful keepsake of our Austen event, with all their signatures. I tried not to cry in class, dear colleagues. Yes, those are tea stains they said made it all the more authentic.
November 17, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Students from my Romanticism class made me this beautiful keepsake of our Austen event, with all their signatures. I tried not to cry in class, dear colleagues. Yes, those are tea stains they said made it all the more authentic.
Under the weather today and yesterday, and my sweet husband said he was bringing home comfort food. He arrived with… a flour tortilla blanket. Reader, I am now wrapped like a burrito and accepting my fate.
November 15, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Under the weather today and yesterday, and my sweet husband said he was bringing home comfort food. He arrived with… a flour tortilla blanket. Reader, I am now wrapped like a burrito and accepting my fate.
Botanical garden time this afternoon
November 11, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Botanical garden time this afternoon
Latest Tiny Wonders is out! Sometimes the best theology lessons come from a dinosaur learning not to eat her classmates. 🦖 Ryan T. Higgins’ We Don’t Eat Our Classmates turned our Sunday dinner into a conversation on kindness and Proverbs 4:23.
open.substack.com/pub/luellada...
open.substack.com/pub/luellada...
We Don’t Eat Our Classmates
Finding Holiness in Everyday Choices
open.substack.com
November 11, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Latest Tiny Wonders is out! Sometimes the best theology lessons come from a dinosaur learning not to eat her classmates. 🦖 Ryan T. Higgins’ We Don’t Eat Our Classmates turned our Sunday dinner into a conversation on kindness and Proverbs 4:23.
open.substack.com/pub/luellada...
open.substack.com/pub/luellada...
10yo made my lunch today and it includes a leftover piece of Halloween candy and a note. Life is sweet.
November 10, 2025 at 6:37 PM
10yo made my lunch today and it includes a leftover piece of Halloween candy and a note. Life is sweet.
Teaching Emerson's "Nature" today so it feels right and true to share this for your Mondays as you walk around to do whatever self-ing you shall self today: "The world is emblematic. Parts of speech are metaphors, because the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind."
November 10, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Teaching Emerson's "Nature" today so it feels right and true to share this for your Mondays as you walk around to do whatever self-ing you shall self today: "The world is emblematic. Parts of speech are metaphors, because the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind."
Holidays are harder when you’re the last keeper of the stories. My parents passed in what feels like long ago time now, and every year I wonder how to teach my kids the beauty of our whole family culture when it’s mostly memory now—and mostly me to hold it.
November 9, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Holidays are harder when you’re the last keeper of the stories. My parents passed in what feels like long ago time now, and every year I wonder how to teach my kids the beauty of our whole family culture when it’s mostly memory now—and mostly me to hold it.
Knew I’d found my people at this American women writers conference when a serious literary conversation turned into a full feminist exegesis of Hillary Duff's comeback. Currently packing this morning to “Mature” like it’s primary source material for life. Listen if you haven't yet!
November 9, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Knew I’d found my people at this American women writers conference when a serious literary conversation turned into a full feminist exegesis of Hillary Duff's comeback. Currently packing this morning to “Mature” like it’s primary source material for life. Listen if you haven't yet!
About to pack it in because I have an early flight (God willing) and a stack of grading waiting for me. But here’s a little more Society for the Study of American Women Writers Philly love for your Saturday evening. ✨📚
November 9, 2025 at 12:43 AM
About to pack it in because I have an early flight (God willing) and a stack of grading waiting for me. But here’s a little more Society for the Study of American Women Writers Philly love for your Saturday evening. ✨📚
"Part of my history is I tell about women."
Yes! SSAWW keynote!
Yes! SSAWW keynote!
November 7, 2025 at 10:57 PM
"Part of my history is I tell about women."
Yes! SSAWW keynote!
Yes! SSAWW keynote!
Hosted a morning mentoring session on navigating burnout with then spent some time with some absolute rock stars on an Editing Stowe roundtable. Feminist editing—as theory and as practice—is where it’s at.🔥
November 7, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Hosted a morning mentoring session on navigating burnout with then spent some time with some absolute rock stars on an Editing Stowe roundtable. Feminist editing—as theory and as practice—is where it’s at.🔥
Stoicism and Little House at Society for the Study of American Women Writers: done and joyfully so. Loved debriefing with my co-writer Gregory Eiselein afterward. Can’t wait to keep thinking about Stoic joy in American lit…and to do even more conferencing tomorrow!
November 7, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Stoicism and Little House at Society for the Study of American Women Writers: done and joyfully so. Loved debriefing with my co-writer Gregory Eiselein afterward. Can’t wait to keep thinking about Stoic joy in American lit…and to do even more conferencing tomorrow!
Prepping for a conference talk on Little House mid-flight, and the stranger next to me starts reminiscing about her favorite scenes. A reminder: classic stories find us—and connect us—across generations and time.
November 6, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Prepping for a conference talk on Little House mid-flight, and the stranger next to me starts reminiscing about her favorite scenes. A reminder: classic stories find us—and connect us—across generations and time.
My daughter narrates her life. And, as she has an English prof as a mom, I love hearing every word.
But I also commiserate with those who call themselves my friends and loved ones all the more. And THIS is how the Lord works in the world, my friends.
But I also commiserate with those who call themselves my friends and loved ones all the more. And THIS is how the Lord works in the world, my friends.
November 5, 2025 at 9:24 PM
My daughter narrates her life. And, as she has an English prof as a mom, I love hearing every word.
But I also commiserate with those who call themselves my friends and loved ones all the more. And THIS is how the Lord works in the world, my friends.
But I also commiserate with those who call themselves my friends and loved ones all the more. And THIS is how the Lord works in the world, my friends.
Spent the evening visiting the relics St. Thérèse of Lisieux at the Little Flower Basilica.
"My way is all confidence and love."
"My way is all confidence and love."
November 4, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Spent the evening visiting the relics St. Thérèse of Lisieux at the Little Flower Basilica.
"My way is all confidence and love."
"My way is all confidence and love."
Aaaaand I've landed in San Antonio.
November 2, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Aaaaand I've landed in San Antonio.
Leaving the Lilly Network conference buoyed by enlivening time with Christian scholars contemplating the Christian Imagination—one of the topics closest to my heart. And I didn’t have to imagine fall for once! 🍂
Key takeaway: When denouncing evil, don’t forget to announce good!
Key takeaway: When denouncing evil, don’t forget to announce good!
November 2, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Leaving the Lilly Network conference buoyed by enlivening time with Christian scholars contemplating the Christian Imagination—one of the topics closest to my heart. And I didn’t have to imagine fall for once! 🍂
Key takeaway: When denouncing evil, don’t forget to announce good!
Key takeaway: When denouncing evil, don’t forget to announce good!
Happy All Saints' Day! Here are some of my closest spiritual friends that you might find comfort and inspiration from as well, Catholic or not:
bustedhalo.com/life-culture...
bustedhalo.com/life-culture...
Holy Friends: 4 Saints to Turn to This All Saints’ Day - Busted Halo
As we celebrate All Saints' Day, one mother reflects on a few saints that have guided her and her family through their daily lives.
bustedhalo.com
November 1, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Happy All Saints' Day! Here are some of my closest spiritual friends that you might find comfort and inspiration from as well, Catholic or not:
bustedhalo.com/life-culture...
bustedhalo.com/life-culture...