Shelby Vittek

Writer • Editor

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Personal Essays

How Treating People With Brain Injuries Helped Me Forgive My Mother
After a lifetime of resentment, working with T.B.I. patients finally helped me understand the riddle that is my mother’s mind.
Narratively

The Joys and Sorrows of Watching My Own Birth
In which I reflect on the bittersweet experience of watching myself be born — and my now-divorced mom and dad become parents — again and again.
Longreads

My Not-So-Rosy View of the World’s Largest Redhead Festival
I was looking for a place to belong. Instead I found a weird, fetishistic group of strangers.
Narratively
Listed as notable in Best American Travel Writing 2018

Learning to Fly: When You Have to Be Your Own Parent
Even as a child I found extreme pleasure in the things I could control.
Catapult

My Cast-Iron, Myself
How caring for my cast-iron pan taught me to better care for myself.
Bon Appétit

I’m Sorry, but Dishwashers Are Kind of Overrated
Why I still prefer washing my dishes by hand.
The Kitchn

What Thanksgiving Means When Your Mother Is Estranged from Her Family
It’s been nearly a decade since my mother has attended a family Thanksgiving dinner.
The Kitchn

A Place For Her Spoons
How discovering the world’s largest collection of spoons caused me to reflect on my own idiosyncratic souvenir spoon collection.
New Jersey Monthly

Finding Family at Wegmans Grocery Store
Looking back on memories of working for Wegmans as a teenager, and how it was, in short, a dream job.
The Kitchn

The Way of Tea
I spent a month learning the Japanese tea ceremony, only to find it was about everything but tea.
The Smart Set
Association of Food Journalists 2015 Award Finalist

On the Line
Now that we have Google, who still needs a telephone holiday helpline?
Table Matters

Spoon-fed Memories
I thought my souvenir collection was pointless. But then I thought again.
Washington Post

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