I was born and raised in the Bay Area, on the peninsula. I’ve traveled widely, more frequently in the Before Times, with a camera in hand. I love house music and house plants, day parties, old jungle mixtapes, tiny things, big gatherings with my Filipino family, and the ’90s. As my close friends know, I’m not to be fed after midnight.
Hi! I’m Cheri. I spend my days reading and editing at Longreads, an award-winning publication at Automattic.
At Longreads, I curate and recommend longform nonfiction on the web. I commission and edit reported essays and personal narratives from writers and journalists around the world, and also publish book excerpts, reading lists, interviews, and occasionally more in-depth features. Stories I’ve edited have won a Pushcart Prize and an ASJA Writing Award, or have been recognized with a James Beard Award nomination or a notable mention in Best American Essays. You can read more about my work in this Q&A at Famous Writing Routines. If you’re interested in writing for Longreads, review our guidelines, get a sense of what I publish, and send me your essay submission or story pitch.
Alongside my role at Longreads, I’ve been a story wrangler at Automattic for more than a decade. Over the years, I’ve worked on many projects: telling customer stories, developing writing and photography courses, managing company blogs and social channels, and providing editorial support for our brands.
My digital garden 🌱
I’ve wanted some of my Simplenotes to see the light of day. For abandoned drafts to find new life. This garden is a return to what I used to enjoy about the internet. Not just thinking and writing in the open, but actively tinkering with an online home.
This is an evolving space of notes and lists, ideas and obsessions, and collected links. Most recently updated garden beds (themes, topics, and list series) are below, along with seedlings (notes). The structure may change as I figure out the best system.
Current status
April 2026: In March, I planted roots—literally—only to learn this month that we’ll be on the move again soon.
Beds
Seedlings
I may introduce a visual label and tag system for these notes in time. Or, I may decide to remove them from the homepage entirely.
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May 1: This month’s little to-do list
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Apr 6: A few things to change right now
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Current Status: April 2026
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Apr 11: Memorable sounds from my life
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Apr 6: Things to check out in my city
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Apr 2: Unique places I’ve visited
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Good taste in the AI era
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Mar 31: Things that made me happy this month
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Mar 20: Sounds I dislike
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Mar 19: Last three movies watched
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Current Status: March 2026
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Mar 5: Stuff I’ve googled recently
Selected writing from the blog archives
These posts have been edited: photographs have since been removed and many broken links have been updated.
- One Landscape Does Not Fit All, 2015. On the process of finding a plot of land for our tiny house on wheels.
- That Thing I Wrote That Wasn’t True: On Facts, Memoir & John D’Agata, 2012. On essayist John D’Agata and handling facts while writing memoir.
- The End of An Era, the Beginning of the Future (and the Long Moment in Between), 2011. On the unique friendships made during the underground warehouse rave scene in the mid-1990s.
- 26 Hours: The Magical State of Writing, 2013. On writing when the universe allows, even—or especially—at five in the morning.
- On (Un)organized Consumption, 2013. On productivity, information overload, and the labyrinthine-ness of the web.
- Cycle, 2016. On the cycles of subculture—and the dance underground.
- Online Mourning and the Unexpected Refuge of Facebook, 2012. On remembering a dear friend and navigating Facebook, two weeks after his death.
- On Writing (and Evolving) Online, 2013. On contemplating where, online, my writing lives.
- This Is Not a ‘Travel Blog’ (But It Is a Travel Blog), 2014. On thinking about physical places—cities, countries—as blank canvases for the mind.
- On Everything and Nothing & Reading and Not Writing, 2012. On dealing with information overload and the Twitter stream.
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The blog on this website still exists! I post infrequently, maybe once or twice a year, if that. Posts are completely separate from my digital garden—you’ll receive them via email. Sign up below—you can always unsubscribe in the future.