Alysia Abbott

Cognoscenti contributor

Alysia Abbott teaches creative nonfiction at Emerson College and is the author of "Fairyland, A Memoir of My Father" (W.W. Norton, 2013). She lives with her family in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Recently published

Joni Mitchell at the 66th Grammy Awards held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA, Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Joni Mitchell is still ‘the best of all of us’

Awards shows are full of personalities, posing and performing. But in the utter silence that descended on the room when Joni began to sing from the Grammy stage, another message...

Cognoscenti

Feb 8, 2024

The author, holding her Barbie Doll, with her grandmother and great-grandmother. (Courtesy Alysia Abbott)

'Barbie' isn't about the matriarchy or the patriarchy. It’s about fantasy vs. reality

Conservative critics are missing the point, writes Alysia Abbott. The emotional conflict in Barbie isn't between men and women. It's between the life we imagined for ourselves as kids and...

Cognoscenti

Jul 28, 2023

In this aerial view a slide stands at a pool at the Kiebitzberge public swimming pools near Berlin during the coronavirus crisis on April 28, 2020 in Kleinmachnow, Germany. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Mom reflects on how her city pool is a special place for her son and neighborhood

Alysia Abbott explains why this public space is an inclusive one for her son and others.

Here & Now

04:29Sep 5, 2022

Kids enjoyed the cool of the water at Dilboy Pool in Somerville, Mass. on a hot afternoon, July 7, 2014. (Dina Rudick/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

At the pool, my boy can enjoy summer like everyone else

Something profound happens here at the public pool, with all its vivid life on display, writes Alysia Abbott. It's a richness that makes space for all sorts of differences, including...

Cognoscenti

06:19Aug 12, 2022

The author and her daughter. (Courtesy Alysia Abbott)

I'm longing to be the mother I never had

Are we mistaken to believe our kids continue to be ours as they grow? asks Alysia Abbott.

Cognoscenti

May 6, 2022

The author, at about 3 years old, with her grandparents circa 1975. (Courtesy Alysia Abbott)

The $50 I can never spend

On a recent deep-cleaning mission to pass the hours stuck inside, Alysia Abbott found a $50 bill in the back of a drawer. It reminded her of languid summers in...

Cognoscenti

Feb 4, 2022

Marianna, a 15-year-old high school student is seen during her online math lesson in her room, in Warsaw, on January 18, 2021. (Wojtek Radwanksi/ AFP via Getty Images)

The Kids Are Not All Right

When my teenage daughter struggled, she didn’t blame the isolation, or the extraordinary times we’re all still muddling through, writes Alysia Abbott. She blamed herself.

Cognoscenti

04:53May 21, 2021

Voters wait to cast their ballots at the Cranberry-Highlands Golf Club on November 3, 2020 in Butler County, Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

Count Every Vote. We'll Wait

We’ve all witnessed what damage the president is capable of inflicting to others and to the office he holds, writes Alysia Abbott. But still more than 67 million people said,...

Cognoscenti

Nov 4, 2020

Mackenzie Phillips and Paul LeMat in a scene from the 1973 George Lucas movie "American Graffiti." (Photo by FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images)

In This Summer Of Loss, I Watch Movies With My Daughter

The summer of 2020 will be remembered as the summer when everything was canceled, writes Alysia Abbott.

Cognoscenti

Aug 28, 2020

The author and her son, Finn, in 2017, a few months before his 10th birthday, in Cambridge, Mass. (Courtesy)

'Instead Of Our Visits, I Sing To Him’: What The Pandemic Means For A Mom And Her Autistic Son

Alysia Abbott’s 12-year-old son Finn is autistic. She hasn’t been able to see him in person since the residential school where he lives suspended in-person visits in response to the...

Cognoscenti

03:15Mar 27, 2020