Welcome to Everyday Distractions
Hi, I’m Emily Farris. Maybe you know me from Ye Olde Internet. Or maybe you have no idea who the hell I am and you were just clicking around and ended up here by accident. Either way, welcome. You don’t have to take off your shoes (but you can if it would make you more comfortable).
Most of the time, I write things for the Internet. By day I’m a senior staff writer at Bon Appétit and Epicurious, and I spent nearly every night for more than a year writing my essay collection, I’LL JUST BE FIVE MORE MINUTES: AND OTHER TALES FROM MY ADHD BRAIN. It will be out from Hachette on February 6 but you can preorder it now.
Why I’m writing on Substack
I miss the days of writing about whatever’s on my mind and putting it out there for people to read (or not).
What I’m writing on Substack
In the spirit of old-timey personal blogging, I’ll probably send a combination of deep dives and short posts. Maybe I’ll write about coming out of the pandemic a middle aged woman one week, and recommend a product or service that changed my life the next. I’ll probably also link to articles and essays I can’t stop thinking about, share some cocktail recipes, and catch you up on my other work. I’m trying to move away from the perfectionism paralysis that’s plagued so much of my career, so I’ll likely treat you to some sloppy typos while I’m at it.
My official-ish bio
In the fifth grade, I won the D.A.R.E. essay contest.
Since then, I’ve written for The Cut, Bon Appetit, BuzzFeed, Food 52, The Kitchn, Food & Wine, Gourmet, Taste, Epicurious, Country Living, ELLE Decor, Hunker, BUST, Women’s Wear Daily, The Daily Beast, and many more websites and publications you’ve actually heard of. My first cookbook, Casserole Crazy: Hot Stuff for Your Oven, was published by Perigee/Penguin in 2008 and I contributed to Charlotte Druckman’s Women on Food anthology (Abrams, 2019). “Emergency Room,” my piece on finding affordable healthcare, appears in The BUST DIY Guide to Life (Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2011).
While lifestyle service journalism is my main beat, I’ve published numerous personal essays about anxiety, parenting, and my ADHD diagnosis at age 35. My first essay collection, “I‘ll Just Be Five More Minutes: And Other Tales from My ADHD Brain” will be published by Hachette Books in February 2024.
I live in Kansas City, MO with my burly husband, two young sons, rowdy rescue mutt, and backyard chickens.
