AUDACIOUS BOOKCLUB HAPPENINGS
Our June selection is Bite by Bite by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. We will be in conversation with Aimee on June 25th at 8 pm EST/ 5 pm PST and registration is open.
THE NEWSLETTER WEEK IN REVIEW
PERSONAL PROFESSIONAL NEWS
We’re having a writing contest. Only paid subscribers can enter and win! Prizes include $2,500, publication in the newsletter, and a mentoring session!
After four years and 96 columns (including the last one), I am saying goodbye to Work Friend, for now. Hopefully I will be back again. But to say goodbye, I wrote an essay about my working life, and what I hope for all of our working lives (spoiler: nothing but the best).
At Roxane Gay Books, we’re hiring a new fellow for the next year! Applications are accepted until June 24th.
August 24-25, I will be in Sydney, Australia, speaking at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. I’ll also be going to Melbourne later that week!
My essay series, Roxane Gay Presents, with Everand has launched. First up: Julia Turshen with Built For This: The Quiet Strength of Powerlifting and in this video, you will learn about the queer powerlifting club she started. The second essay in this series is: You Are a Teen Mom: Instructions by Randa Jarrar. You can learn more about Randa in this video. The third essay in this series is My Year of Psychedelics: Lessons on Better Living by Gabrielle Bellot. The fourth essay in this series is Good Girls: Notes on Dog Rescue by Elaine Castillo. You can learn more about Elaine in this video. The final essay, by me, is called Stand Your Ground, and it will be out soon!
Megan Pillow and I wrote a little book about power called Do The Work: A Guide About Power and Creating Change. It will be out on June 20th! Pre-order, now!
In the Sudan, more than ten million people have been displaced, now.
The IDF freed four hostages but also killed 274 Palestinians and injured many others. No one is certain how many hostages remain in Gaza and how many of those hostages are still alive. And Benny Gantz, an Israeli minister, has resigned. Meanwhile, Eid is near but a ceasefire seems very unlikely any time soon.
In Brooklyn, the homes of the Brooklyn museum’s director and two trustees, were vandalized. Protest is supposed to be disruptive but it shouldn’t be antisemitic.
The Los Angeles Times explores the “queerest century.”
Apparently, this is the summer of the “rat boyfriend,” so good luck with that, folks. Also, stay at home girlfriends are having a moment… which, umm…. good luck with that, too.
The Art of Fiction with Percival Everett in The Paris Review. A conversation with Julia Louis Dreyfuss, one of the two actually funny people on Seinfeld. R.O. Kwon’s By the Book. A profile of Keith Lee. A conversation with Jonathan Groff. A conversation with Maya Hawke. A profile of Malika Andrews.
New poetry from Amber Tamblyn.
Claudia Sheinbaum is the new president of Mexico and is the first woman president in North America.
The New York Times is hiring an editorial assistant for two columnists.
A warning about AI…
Private equity has set its sights on… bowling?!
Apparently, steroids are all the rage these days.
Are you watching Ren Faire on HBO?
Check out Merch Aid, a fundraiser for the NNAF!
Sometimes, I do interesting projects. I got to go deep on The Age of Innocence for this new app called Rebind, that will be out in the next few months. It involves AI but I’m not onboarding anything about AI, as we’ve discussed.
Alex Jones must liquidate his assets to start to pay the $1.5 billion he owes the Sandy Hook families. FAaFO. Meanwhile, the children who survived that massacre are graduating from high school and they are not okay.
Racist football fans in Spain are going to prison for harassing a Black football player.
Author Jennifer Weiner is starting a writing fellowship! And the FSG fellowship is accepting applications until the end of the month.
An excellent essay from Emma Copley Eisenberg about fatphobia in the American novel. Pretty sure it’s also not just the American novel.
It’s expensive to try and sell your book once it has been published.
Humans will turn just about anything into a competition including spreadsheets.
For now, people will still have access to mifepristone, as the Supreme Court rejects a challenge to the medication’s availability.
A judge also struck down Florida’s ban on trans minors accessing healthcare.
In France, Macron has called for elections. He made the move because across Europe, the far right is making alarming gains.
The environmental cost of AI is… staggering but of course the tech overlords care not a whit.
A writer fucked around and found out. And speaking of Dolly Parton, she’s bringing a musical about her life to Broadway! Idina Menzel is also returning to Broadway.
Adobe stepped in a pile of shit and can’t seem to get it off their shoes.
Trump’s lackeys are ready to dismantle the Constitution.
The NAACP has asked Biden to stop selling weapons to Israel.
Howard University has taken back Diddy’s honorary degree.
This scam is still going on.
In very, very obvious news, lesbians have more orgasms.
Bad Boys 4 did really well at the box office and (white) pundits are surprised because they assumed no one would go see the movie. We really do live in different worlds.
Ahh, the persistence of just one person.
At the Washington Post, the executive editor Sally Buzbee stepped down abruptly and then more chaos. CEO and publisher Will Lewis says it had to be done as he reorganizes the Post into three news divisions. But wait! Turns out, he tried to prevent a story about him from being published so he has basically lost all credibility with his staff.
Free tuition at USC’s graduate acting and dramatic writing programs!
In his obituary, a man comes out as gay. I’m glad he did that but also, don’t wait until your death to live your truth. Life is way too short for that.
Clarence Thomas has taken more private jet flights from his benefactor than he disclosed. Of course he has. And Alito got caught being very, very partial.
Look at this fancy dog. And we have lost so much. PLOT TWIST. And yes, we STILL choose the bear.
A new drug promises to grow teeth and that’s well and good but like… where will those teeth grow?
Hunter Biden was convicted on gun charges and his father is standing by him.
A remembrance of Faith Reinggold. And RIP Françoise Hardy.
In shocking news, Elon Musk has inappropriate relationships with women who work for him.
The actors in The Blair Witch Project were treated horribly and absolutely robbed.
Sony Pictures but the Alamo Drafthouse chain of movie theaters.
Is New York going to get rid of brokers’ fees? One can dream!
Actor Wendell Pierce tried to rent an apartment in Harlem… HARLEM of all places, but racism.
Soon, universities won’t be able to withhold transcripts from students who owe the school money. FINALLY!
Abbi Jacobson and Jodi Balfour got married. Lesbian Wedding!!!!
And here is a rich people queer wedding.
A racist father ran on stage during graduation, and humiliated his daughter by preventing her from shaking the hand of the district superintendent who was, yes, Black. The superintendent is not ready to make nice and does not accept the racist’s apology. Some people are saying this wasn’t racially motivated but, come on.
Sort of related: Black people believe American institutions are conspiring against them. How could this be? Hmmmmmmmmmmm.
We’re learning more about how toxic relaxers actually are. Great to learn this now that I’ve been using them for 45 years!
A somewhat unhinged essay about trying to make a parasocial relationship into a real one. I cringed so much reading this. My shoulders still hurt from it. I had to take breaks when I got too uncomfortable.
Adele yelled at a heckler, and rightly so.
Every queer kid needs a cool aunt. I am a cool aunt.
In Atlanta, some water mains broke, affecting hundreds of thousands of people. And also Megan Thee Stallion had to postpone a couple concerts.
Simone Biles, GOAT, won her 9th overall gymnastics title.
Black men in Baltimore are overdosing at alarming rates.
Access to menstrual products in prisons is a fraught experience for women. It shouldn’t be.
Texas’s abortion laws are affecting all kinds of women who need abortion care.
The Dream has been accused of sexual assault.
In curious news, some Trump witnesses have received payoffs and the like.
The appeals court has ruled that a venture capital fund for Black women is discriminatory even though Black women receive like 3% of all venture capital money. Total BS.
New reality show coming from… Alec Baldwin.
Angel Reese deserves better than she’s getting from the media. And her team, the Sky, was harassed at their hotel.
At long last, NYC is building more public bathrooms and an app to find them.
This remains one of my favorite parts of the internet. Thanks for doing this work!
I loved your final Work Friend. Thank you for sharing your own work journey and for sharing yourself.