And Ho! Hard-hearted poets, gather round! Hear my declaration: The era of mandatory masks has ended, and the age of full-faced public transit flirtation is upon us again! Gather ye round, fair (but well aged) maids and eager (salt-and-pepper-haired) lads. There’s matchmaking to do! Gather all your hopes, all the honed shards of your broken... Continue Reading →

I met her outside the museum. She was standing there, looking at the clock on her locked phone like she was waiting for someone. I guess she was willing to pretend that someone was me.I was out for a walk, attempting to get the exercise my partner always said would clear my mind. I hadn't... Continue Reading →

I have received countless emails in response to my Modern Love Essay, "Two Kisses We Never Talked About" in the New York Times, and many of them are asking "What happened to Kevin?" The answer is tricky, but the short answer is: Kevin is still alive. Beyond that, the answer in unclear which is why... Continue Reading →

My essay was published in the New York Times' Modern Love column. It was such an honor to have my piece given this incomparable platform, and so far the response has been amazing and overwhelming. This has been an absolute dream of a lifetime. You can read the article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/03/style/modern-love-two-kisses-we-never-talked-about.html

Hello everyone! Thank you for all the love on the NYT article. I am working to respond to every email I got. A few people have messaged me that they are having issues subscribing through WordPress. If you are one of those people, please send me an email at ranelli.alessandra@gmail.com from the email address you... Continue Reading →

When I got home I found the neighbor sitting behind the bakery's woodpile, smoking a cigar. The neighbor, I guess that's all he is now. First, he was the cute neighbor, then the hot neighbor, then the creepy neighbor. For now, he's the lonesome neighbor, sitting behind the stack of wood with a curl of... Continue Reading →

We went for a walk in the cemetery on New Year’s day, greeting the future and mourning the past. A stroll among the overgrowth and overturned headstones and the piles of ruins from the war. Among all the names whose families had forgotten them. Among the life springing up amid all that death: a trio... Continue Reading →

Whenever I get away from the book, it reminds me to come home. I am currently sitting in the Orient Café, a tourist spot on the eaves of the central train station in Budapest. I love train stations, especially the gorgeous old ones littered around Europe. With the checkered tiles, welded green metal, and fogged... Continue Reading →

I have been completely insufferable for the last 24 hours because my work in progress “Murder at the Hotel Orient” just won the Blue Pencil Agency Pitch Prize! I have been referring to myself as “An award winning author” all day, in all kinds of contexts where it absolutely isn’t called for: “You should order... Continue Reading →

I promised Wednesdays to the blog, I promised this month to the book, and my Sundays to a poetry course. I promised my heart and my body and the rosewater-inoculated burden of monogamy to a man, and I have been spending most of my evenings wrapped in his arms. It’s saved me a little money... Continue Reading →

Tell me everything. Pour the whiskey before we sit down. Sit across the table from me, it’s the decent thing to do, I am taken. I wrote to you on a midnight when I wasn’t. I am, as ever, taken with you. I agree with the sentiment of your parenthetical statement where you hesitantly admitted... Continue Reading →

The way you kiss the top of my spine when you walk byI can tell you woke up loving me today, How you always stop me from picking at my fingers and you sayYou want your Alessandra in one piece ... "How do you put up with her?" "I'm sorry I don't know the phrase..."... Continue Reading →

The agreement was not to write about you on the blog.The fine print was: I could write about you elsewhere:In publicationsIn my journalsOnce, I stapled a poem about you to a telephone poleAt a train station.For all the commuters to see.For everyone with somewhere better to beTo stop and read how I felt about you.... Continue Reading →

You’ve been gone a week And I am fine, But my bed misses you. It’s not me. I do not care. Not even a little. But the sidewalk keeps mentioning you in conversation and, I swear to God, Yesterday a street lamp asked me where you have been, He said, Shouldn’t he be standing underneath... Continue Reading →

I hope to spend my life doing something good, something big, but in the meanwhile I am happy to entertain a side project. Maybe good starts small. It might be that my (minor) purpose in life was to hang around for a while and teach you how to love recklessly. Teach you how to make... Continue Reading →