Jessica Lamb-Shapiro has published fiction and nonfiction in The Believer, McSweeney’s, Open City, and Index magazine, among others. She has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and is a graduate of Brown (BA) and Columbia (MFA). She lives in New York City and Columbia County, New York. Promise Land: My Journey Through America’s Self-Help Culture is her first book.
New Year’s Resolutions Are Bad for You
For a better idea, look to the ancient Babylonians