Welcome! I'm Melissa Wiley, a children’s book author living in Portland, Oregon.

Infectious enthusiasm is my superpower.

I write about the ways my family and I engage with all kinds of creative practice. This means posts about books (reading them and writing them), art, handstitching, backyard habitat development, film club, music, tidal homeschooling, and the apps and systems I use to enable all this juicy exploration to happen.

Let’s love the world together!

My actual studio is crammed so full of books and art supplies and project tables that you might have to sit on the floor. But this Substack is wide open. We have all the space we need. We’ll get cozy, we’ll get creative, we’ll make connections.

Show-and-tell is my love language

This space is my catalog of enthusiasms—the digital equivalent of the books and links and apps and art supplies and conversation topics I would be dying to gab about with you if we were hanging out in person. 

Who I am

I'm the author of more than a dozen books for kids, including The Nerviest Girl in the World, The Prairie Thief, Fox and Crow Are Not Friends, and many others. I also write literature guides about middle-grade novels for Brave Writer and am co-host of the Brave Writer Podcast with Julie Bogart.

Why subscribe?

Subscribe for free to receive:

  • My main posts: reflections on books, stitching, creative learning, and daily wonder

  • Access to community discussion threads and Notes

  • News and updates on my books and projects

Become a paid subscriber to enjoy:

  • Access to my new Story & Stitch series: behind-the-scenes glimpses of my writing and handwork! I’ll be sharing work-in-progress peeks of my new novel, The Swimming Pigs of Licorice Springs, and other exciting projects

  • Full archive access, including earlier paid posts

  • Exclusive reflections on creativity, lifelong learning, and artistic practice

  • Special discussion threads for deeper conversation

Paid subscriptions help sustain this work—and I’m so grateful for your support!

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Subscribe to Catalog of Enthusiasms

Juicy explorations of the reading-thinking-stitching life from the author of THE NERVIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD, FOX AND CROW ARE NOT FRIENDS, and other books.

People

Author of THE NERVIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD & other books for kids. Obsessive handstitcher, insatiable reader, lifelong tidal learner. Show-and-tell is my love language. Creative midlife humans, let’s talk about what lights us up!