Andrea Askowitz

Author & Teacher

WHAT ARE THESE NUMBER ESSAYS ABOUT?

I’m a slow writer. I want to write better. I want to write faster. And like Marianne Williamson says, I have one last chance to get it right. Because there’s no time like the present; because turning 50 is better than the alternative; and because you only live once, I’m going for it. This year, […]

I Challenged Myself to Stop Talking About Myself in shondaland

When her relationship hit a snag, a writer accidentally discovered the secret to a long-lasting, sex-filled partnership. As my wife, Vicky, turned off the lights to go to bed, she asked me about my college dorm. We had just dropped off our daughter at college for the first time. The question got me reminiscing about […]

Resolve to Fail More 2024

Last Friday night, I was washing dishes when I said, “Yay, it’s the weekend.”  “Isn’t every day the weekend for you?” My 14-year-old son, Sebastian, said. I was like, “Listen Buster, first of all, I wake up at 6:25 to get you to school. I know you think I crawl back to bed, but I […]

You Should Try Making an Anti-Gratitude List. Really. (in Slate)

Being thankful is all the rage. It doesn’t always help! The Bible mentions gratitude 157 times. The New Testament says “Give thanks in all circumstances.” In modern times, Oprah Winfrey calls the gratitude journal life-changing. You’ve heard it. Scientists say gratitude helps the brain. In the beginning, in the mid-’90s, while playing softball and working to save the world, […]

WRITING LIFE “Navel Gazing” for Good (in Hippocampus Magazine)

After an intense, long weekend of writing workshops, we walked into a brew pub. I was so pumped up, I couldn’t sit down and went around the table bear-hugging each scientist. “How will we be able to tell if Andrea’s drunk?” one said. “She’ll start hugging everyone,” my writing partner, Allison Langer, said. We hadn’t ordered […]

Opinion: What Justine Bateman gets exactly right about beauty (on CNN)

Justine Bateman, a star whose age I’m approaching, played Mallory Keaton on “Family Ties” in the 1980s as a teenager. In her early 40s, she says, she typed her name into Google for research, and the search engine auto-populated “looks old.” Bateman, now 57, said she was incredulous. “I couldn’t see what they were talking […]

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