Dr. LuElla D’Amico
@luelladamico.bsky.social
Early&19th-Century U.S. Literary Historian at the U of Incarnate Word. Girlhood Studies. Children’s Lit. Transatlanticism. Women’s Writing&Religion. 💜Catholicism&Caffeine.
Today during their final my American lit survey students recited either an Emily Dickinson or Walt Whitman poem to round out our semester together. As such, I'm sharing what I see as the quintessential "English major" Dickinson poem. Enjoy, friends!
December 8, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Today during their final my American lit survey students recited either an Emily Dickinson or Walt Whitman poem to round out our semester together. As such, I'm sharing what I see as the quintessential "English major" Dickinson poem. Enjoy, friends!
Wondrous Reading is out! Today I’m reflecting on why reading with children is one of the most overlooked practices of formation we still have. 📚✨
open.substack.com/pub/luellada...
open.substack.com/pub/luellada...
Reading Wondrously, Together
A Book for Families, Classrooms, and the Church
open.substack.com
December 8, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Wondrous Reading is out! Today I’m reflecting on why reading with children is one of the most overlooked practices of formation we still have. 📚✨
open.substack.com/pub/luellada...
open.substack.com/pub/luellada...
Spouse started cooking this past year… and now casually makes lunches like this. A lovely Sunday afternoon catching up on all the things—laundry, emailing, football playoff talk, Christmas decorating—with the family.
December 7, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Spouse started cooking this past year… and now casually makes lunches like this. A lovely Sunday afternoon catching up on all the things—laundry, emailing, football playoff talk, Christmas decorating—with the family.
Today is St. Nicholas’s Feast Day, and my son woke up to a copy of The Polar Express and a few other goodies tucked in and beside his shoe. Read more about St. Nicholas and children’s literature in my piece from a couple of years ago here.
churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/st-...
churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/st-...
St. Nicholas and the Advent of Children's Literature
LuElla D'Amico on a forgotten side of St. Nick.
churchlifejournal.nd.edu
December 6, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Today is St. Nicholas’s Feast Day, and my son woke up to a copy of The Polar Express and a few other goodies tucked in and beside his shoe. Read more about St. Nicholas and children’s literature in my piece from a couple of years ago here.
churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/st-...
churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/st-...
Passed a project I’ve worked on for years to a colleague who’ll do a fabulous job. And okay—it was still hard. But the world didn’t collapse. And wow, that email showing it’s already moving forward felt good. Sometimes letting go makes room for grace.
December 5, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Passed a project I’ve worked on for years to a colleague who’ll do a fabulous job. And okay—it was still hard. But the world didn’t collapse. And wow, that email showing it’s already moving forward felt good. Sometimes letting go makes room for grace.
At a middle school basketball game. Are the shoes even squeakier here?
December 4, 2025 at 12:08 AM
At a middle school basketball game. Are the shoes even squeakier here?
Last full day of teaching before finals, and we’re ending with one of my favorite Dickinson poems. “Wild nights should be our luxury!” A perfectly Romantic send-off to the semester.
December 3, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Last full day of teaching before finals, and we’re ending with one of my favorite Dickinson poems. “Wild nights should be our luxury!” A perfectly Romantic send-off to the semester.
Spouse fixed the lightbulb in the ceramic Christmas tree we’ve had since forever, and for that alone he’s my Christmas prince tonight—better than any Hallmark leading man.
December 3, 2025 at 3:54 AM
Spouse fixed the lightbulb in the ceramic Christmas tree we’ve had since forever, and for that alone he’s my Christmas prince tonight—better than any Hallmark leading man.
Advent always brings out my cozy side: lamps low, blankets piled, picture books open. In this week's Tiny Wonders, I wrote about Song of the Stars and the invited refrain: “It’s time.”
open.substack.com/pub/luellada...
open.substack.com/pub/luellada...
When the World Whispered “It’s Time”
How Song of the Stars teaches us to listen for Advent’s beginning
open.substack.com
December 2, 2025 at 1:43 AM
Advent always brings out my cozy side: lamps low, blankets piled, picture books open. In this week's Tiny Wonders, I wrote about Song of the Stars and the invited refrain: “It’s time.”
open.substack.com/pub/luellada...
open.substack.com/pub/luellada...
Getting out our family's annual Advent read as we prep to light the first candle this evening.
November 30, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Getting out our family's annual Advent read as we prep to light the first candle this evening.
Advent helps me remember seasons past: South Carolina porches, my parents’ voices, the stories only they could tell. This essay blends that longing with Christina Rossetti’s “In the Bleak Midwinter.”
Sharing again for the first Sunday of Advent:
www.frontporchrepublic.com/2023/12/nost...
Sharing again for the first Sunday of Advent:
www.frontporchrepublic.com/2023/12/nost...
Nostalgia, Longing, and Christmas Joy "In the Bleak Midwinter" - Front Porch Republic
Christina Rossetti’s 1872 devotional poem, “A Christmas Carol,” has held a special place in my heart from the moment I first heard it at a high school friend’s Christmas concert and found myself unexp...
www.frontporchrepublic.com
November 30, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Advent helps me remember seasons past: South Carolina porches, my parents’ voices, the stories only they could tell. This essay blends that longing with Christina Rossetti’s “In the Bleak Midwinter.”
Sharing again for the first Sunday of Advent:
www.frontporchrepublic.com/2023/12/nost...
Sharing again for the first Sunday of Advent:
www.frontporchrepublic.com/2023/12/nost...
Settling in with my fave Hallmark movie & some friendship bracelets with my daughter. Pop culture is fun, but you can’t beat Randy Travis. Forever & ever, amen. You can take the gal out of SC… but you’ll only get her as far as Texas.
November 30, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Settling in with my fave Hallmark movie & some friendship bracelets with my daughter. Pop culture is fun, but you can’t beat Randy Travis. Forever & ever, amen. You can take the gal out of SC… but you’ll only get her as far as Texas.
Happy birthday to Louisa May Alcott, born Nov. 29, 1832!
“The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.”
Working on this wisdom of hers, between laundry piles and deadlines.
“The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.”
Working on this wisdom of hers, between laundry piles and deadlines.
November 29, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Happy birthday to Louisa May Alcott, born Nov. 29, 1832!
“The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.”
Working on this wisdom of hers, between laundry piles and deadlines.
“The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.”
Working on this wisdom of hers, between laundry piles and deadlines.
You’re eating pumpkin pie today because a 19th-century magazine editor willed Thanksgiving into existence.
Sarah Josepha Hale was sentimental, stubborn, ambitious—and maybe the most influential woman you’ve never heard of.
My new piece:
thedispatch.com/next-250/hal...
Sarah Josepha Hale was sentimental, stubborn, ambitious—and maybe the most influential woman you’ve never heard of.
My new piece:
thedispatch.com/next-250/hal...
The 19th-Century Influencer Who Invented Thanksgiving
For Hale, the Thanksgiving table wasn’t primarily culinary. It was communal. And, in her mind, it was constitutional.
thedispatch.com
November 28, 2025 at 3:43 PM
You’re eating pumpkin pie today because a 19th-century magazine editor willed Thanksgiving into existence.
Sarah Josepha Hale was sentimental, stubborn, ambitious—and maybe the most influential woman you’ve never heard of.
My new piece:
thedispatch.com/next-250/hal...
Sarah Josepha Hale was sentimental, stubborn, ambitious—and maybe the most influential woman you’ve never heard of.
My new piece:
thedispatch.com/next-250/hal...
Tiny Wonders: This week we reread If You Give a Mouse a Cookie—a book I memorized in 4th grade. My daughter joked she wished a Mouse would clean the house before Thanksgiving. SAME.🍪 And it reminded me: Thanksgiving is really about small, repeated gestures of love.
open.substack.com/pub/luellada...
open.substack.com/pub/luellada...
If You Give a Family a Story
What If You Give a Mouse a Cookie taught me about Thanksgiving chaos and holy repetition.
open.substack.com
November 28, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Tiny Wonders: This week we reread If You Give a Mouse a Cookie—a book I memorized in 4th grade. My daughter joked she wished a Mouse would clean the house before Thanksgiving. SAME.🍪 And it reminded me: Thanksgiving is really about small, repeated gestures of love.
open.substack.com/pub/luellada...
open.substack.com/pub/luellada...
"Gratitude is the cheerfulness of wisdom."— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Happy Thanksgiving to all! May your day be filled with peace, warmth, and the grace of good company. (Not to mention the wisdom to be grateful.)
Happy Thanksgiving to all! May your day be filled with peace, warmth, and the grace of good company. (Not to mention the wisdom to be grateful.)
November 27, 2025 at 4:28 PM
"Gratitude is the cheerfulness of wisdom."— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Happy Thanksgiving to all! May your day be filled with peace, warmth, and the grace of good company. (Not to mention the wisdom to be grateful.)
Happy Thanksgiving to all! May your day be filled with peace, warmth, and the grace of good company. (Not to mention the wisdom to be grateful.)
Y’all, I finished a 100-day workout I started this summer. Yes, it’s November. Yes, my middle schooler is roasting me. But proud anyway! Added yoga on some off days, and nothing on others. Still: 100 DAYS! Feeling like the fittest mom ever with my 30 minutes every few mornings.💪😂
November 22, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Y’all, I finished a 100-day workout I started this summer. Yes, it’s November. Yes, my middle schooler is roasting me. But proud anyway! Added yoga on some off days, and nothing on others. Still: 100 DAYS! Feeling like the fittest mom ever with my 30 minutes every few mornings.💪😂
Why would Nathaniel Hawthorne hate Taylor Swift if he were alive today? My latest @thedispatchmedia.bsky.social piece, "The Damned Mob of Swifties," explains why—and what that reveals about the genius of women’s art.
thedispatch.com/article/tayl...
thedispatch.com/article/tayl...
The Damned Mob of Swifties
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Taylor Swift, and the sentimental genius of women’s art.
thedispatch.com
November 22, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Why would Nathaniel Hawthorne hate Taylor Swift if he were alive today? My latest @thedispatchmedia.bsky.social piece, "The Damned Mob of Swifties," explains why—and what that reveals about the genius of women’s art.
thedispatch.com/article/tayl...
thedispatch.com/article/tayl...
Dostoyevsky taught me that ideas have souls—and that lies wound more than logic can fix. My review in @americamag.bsky.social looks at Józef Tischner’s The Philosophy of Drama (brilliantly translated by @arturrosman.bsky.social) and the weight of truth.
www.americamagazine.org/books/2025/1...
www.americamagazine.org/books/2025/1...
Review: The drama of Dostoyevsky
Józef Tischner remains virtually unknown in Western classrooms, despite being one of the pre-eminent voices in 20th-century Catholic thought. The new edition of 'The Philosophy of Drama' in English mi...
www.americamagazine.org
November 18, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Dostoyevsky taught me that ideas have souls—and that lies wound more than logic can fix. My review in @americamag.bsky.social looks at Józef Tischner’s The Philosophy of Drama (brilliantly translated by @arturrosman.bsky.social) and the weight of truth.
www.americamagazine.org/books/2025/1...
www.americamagazine.org/books/2025/1...
Picking up my kids from evening clubs and reminded of this Emerson poem I taught this morning:
"In the turbulent beauty
Of a gusty Autumn day,
Poet on a sunny headland
Sighed his soul away."
"In the turbulent beauty
Of a gusty Autumn day,
Poet on a sunny headland
Sighed his soul away."
November 17, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Picking up my kids from evening clubs and reminded of this Emerson poem I taught this morning:
"In the turbulent beauty
Of a gusty Autumn day,
Poet on a sunny headland
Sighed his soul away."
"In the turbulent beauty
Of a gusty Autumn day,
Poet on a sunny headland
Sighed his soul away."
Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and a sick-day Saturday that didn't go as planned but is definitely worth the story. New Tiny Wonders is up.🕯️📚
luelladamico.substack.com/p/tale-as-ol...
luelladamico.substack.com/p/tale-as-ol...
Tale as Old as Time, Comfort as New as Today
How rewatching childhood favorites helped me rest in the middle of exhaustion.
luelladamico.substack.com
November 17, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and a sick-day Saturday that didn't go as planned but is definitely worth the story. New Tiny Wonders is up.🕯️📚
luelladamico.substack.com/p/tale-as-ol...
luelladamico.substack.com/p/tale-as-ol...
Students from my Romanticism class made me this beautiful keepsake of our Austen event, with all their signatures. I tried not to cry in class, dear colleagues. Yes, those are tea stains they said made it all the more authentic.
November 17, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Students from my Romanticism class made me this beautiful keepsake of our Austen event, with all their signatures. I tried not to cry in class, dear colleagues. Yes, those are tea stains they said made it all the more authentic.
Under the weather today and yesterday, and my sweet husband said he was bringing home comfort food. He arrived with… a flour tortilla blanket. Reader, I am now wrapped like a burrito and accepting my fate.
November 15, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Under the weather today and yesterday, and my sweet husband said he was bringing home comfort food. He arrived with… a flour tortilla blanket. Reader, I am now wrapped like a burrito and accepting my fate.
Botanical garden time this afternoon
November 11, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Botanical garden time this afternoon