When Nicole and Mallory approached me and invited me to contribute to The Toast, I was absolutely thrilled. I recognized what an amazing opportunity it was, particularly as a woman of color, to be able to run an online publication where I had editorial freedom and the ability to pay writers.

It has been all joy to run The Butter. I was able to publish truly amazing writing filled with wit and heart, humor and intelligence. I worked with columnists that gave me insight into this wonderful world around us, living with a lover, raising a modern family, living with disability, the ways in which music can shape our lives, how beloved  literary characters might throw down, and, of course, we had, at the end, a warm, wise advice column.

But now, alas, The Butter is coming to an end. Over the past year, I’ve gotten so many exciting opportunities and it is nearly impossible for me to say no. I always think, “This is too cool to say no to!” Or, “What if this is the last chance I will ever have?” Or, “Who are you to say no?”

The end result of always saying yes is that I am simply stretched too thin. I have loved The Butter and wish I could continue doing it but given my day job and this writing thing I insist on doing and speaking gigs and, and, and, I haven’t had the time to grow The Butter’s readership to where it needs to be for the site to be sustainable. As an ambitious person, I hate failing at anything and I particularly hate letting down the writers who trusted me with their work. All I can say is that next time, and there will be a next time, I will do it better. Until then, all the writing on The Butter is staying up, in perpetuity, thanks to the gracious stewardship of The Toast. There will also be a couple more column posts next week, as those writers bid their own farewells and one last Writer on Fire, so stay tuned!

Thank you so much to Nicole and Mallory for the amazing opportunity, to Nicole Chung for her editorial prowess, to Melissa Moorer, my assistant editor for being a right hand, to the amazing writers who contributed to this project and gave my mind and my heart so many words on which to thrive, and, certainly, to the readers who supported this project. Thank you, all.