Drafts, notes and scraps from a nonfiction life.

Kaya Oakes is the author of five books, most recently including The Nones Are Alright, Radical Reinvention, and The Defiant Middle. Her sixth book, on the limits of forgiveness, is forthcoming in 2024.

Residuum (noun, a substance or thing that remains or is left behind) is a very, very occasional newsletter about the writing of nonfiction, teaching, labor in higher education, feminism, religion, California, and whatever the center of that Venn diagram looks like (a mess).

Her essays and journalism have appeared in lots of places. You can see a list and longer biography at her website, oakestown.org.

Kaya teaches writing at UC Berkeley and lives in Oakland, California, where she was born and raised.