“SECONDS: COMING BACK FOR MORE”

“None of the pieces of this project are an attempt to replicate the book I made and loved before; this book is similar but just a touch more than its predecessor. It takes my love language for soup that I spilled onto the pages of Soup Club – the familiar emotional hand-painted illustrations by Willow Heath that pair with the unique vegan recipes that I make for my friends, this time a touch braver and more creative than those that came before—and turns it outward, with the help of Seattle-based fine art photographer Adair Rutledge in her photo essays. If Soup Club was the story of how becoming a soup cook changed my life and healed me, Seconds is about how cooks around the country found the cookbook during the global pandemic and, in becoming soup cooks, found healing too.

Another equally important factor of the sequel is the decision to more intentionally celebrate the community that this book comes from: a product of female artists and creators in Seattle, but not just up to the point of when the book is released. This Kickstarter supports a model in which all parts – including where the book is printed and where it is sold – are made possible through the collaboration of women in Seattle. The book will be printed at the local Seattle female-owned press, Girlie Press, and stocked exclusively at the local Seattle female-owned cookbook store, Book Larder. This means that the success of Seconds is a success for the individuals who helped to make it, and celebrated with gratitude by sharing soup, hugs and high fives with its creators. It makes the book far more expensive to produce, but infinitely more valuable and more personal, too: it is a tangible symbol of my Soup Club, this silly and genuine soup love I bring to nearby friends week after week in the hopes it nourishes them.” - Caroline Wright*