Tag archives: Stella Haffner
My name may be familiar to you, reader. Maybe you recognize it from the fading memory of your child’s school theater production playbill, or perhaps from reading Stella Haffner’s interviews with me in this very column. Thanks to Stella and the Montecito Journal, you’ll be seeing my name on a much more regular basis as […]
Dear Montecito, Four years later and here we are. This column started during the first COVID-19 lockdown, when I found out that half of my exams were being canceled. “Hey Gwyn… mind if I start a column?” And, well, you know the rest of the story! One hundred hours of phone calls, emails, and interviews […]
Dear Montecito, I am writing you from a London Heathrow flight bound to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. From there I will transfer to Dallas Fort Worth before finally touching down in Santa Barbara where I haven’t been for 13 months. Stay off the roads tonight, people – I’m going straight to […]
Dear Montecito, Welcome to the 99th edition of Dear Montecito! Even though this column was started three years ago, I have been looking forward to our 100th edition practically since Day 1. It is not unpopular to say 100 is a very nice number. It is round and also somehow circular in that it encourages […]
It is always a pleasure to host artists in the Dear Montecito column. I feel that their stories and reflections help ground us, particularly when the current event landscape feels so urgent and so claustrophobic. As the opening to our 2023 column, I wanted to invite a young writer to use this space to reflect […]
For young writers, the advice is often “write what you know.” And so, the question becomes: What do I know? In many ways, this may be a question that young people seek to avoid. In painful periods of self-growth and in mundane life trials – your chemistry pop quizzes and the like – what you […]
Supreme Court leak in the USA, Spain’s new initiatives to improve reproductive rights and compensation, Northern Ireland’s abortion clinics – feminist issues are on the mind of the Western world. This week, we journey over to the campus of Westmont College to hear from their Feminist Society. Co-led by students Anna, Britta, Mika, and Riley, […]
You’ve probably noticed that the column looks a little bit different in 2022, huh? Well, I’d like you to know that the team behind the Dear Montecito column – that is, me and my caffeine persona – appreciate your continued readership as we find our voice. The truth is that shifts in identity have a […]
Dear Montecito, Exams are finished. School is out. What’s a girl to do? I could start a political campaign. How hard could that be? All in favor of banishing the word “unprecedented,” say aye. I cleaned my room – that’s a good start. Did some work-related housekeeping too; you may notice I have a new […]
