AUDACIOUS BOOKCLUB HAPPENINGS
Our April book club selection is Lessons for Survival by Emily Raboteau. We will be in conversation with Emily on April 30th at 8 pm EST/5 pm PST. Registration is now open. I hope you can join us! If you missed our conversation with Tommy Orange, you can enjoy the recording.
THE NEWSLETTER WEEK IN REVIEW
PERSONAL PROFESSIONAL NEWS
On April 15th, Soho Rep will be hosting their fun annual Spring Fete, which is the theater's most important fundraiser of the year. I am on their board and would love to see you there!
June 7-9, I will be participating in The Loft’s 50th anniversary weekend, with intensive classes, a conversation with me and three Roxane Gay Books authors, and agent/editor consultations and pitches. Minneapolis is quite lovely in June.
If you have a burning professional query, please do reach out to workfriend@nytimes.com.
My essay series, Roxane Gay Presents, with Everand has launched. First up: Julia Turshen with Built For This: The Quiet Strength of Powerlifting. 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.
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 in June of this year. Pre-order, now!
READING MATERIAL
Beverly Hills squatters!
A look at what goes on behind the scenes of F1 racing.
A profile of the absolutely luminous Regina King.
On design thinking…
An essay from Yvonne Conza on the Fearless Girl statue and the realities of being a woman in this world.
New short fiction from Paul Rousseau, a former Emerging Writer Series author.
Sometimes our personal disasters intersect with the global climate catastrophe.
Consumer DNA testing is uncovering that a whole lot of incest going on.
The new issue of Hammer & Hope focuses, entirely, on Palestine.
There’s a new baseball scandal that is weird and doesn’t really make much sense but Ohtani is very cute.
An extensive investigation into Opus Dei.
Living with long COVID.
I don’t mind a petty president.
Dawn Staley and the community she has created for Black South Carolina basketball fans.
Speaking of college women’s basketball, I am CURIOUS about whatever story the Washington Post will be publishing about Kim Mulkey who seems absolutely terrible. How is she gonna be homophobic coaching women’s basketball? How is that… logistically possible?
A terrible landlord went to Rikers and got punched in the face. I guess, sometimes, justice is served.
In Moscow, a terrorist attack at a concert hall. At least 130 people were killed and four suspects have already been to court.
HOAs really can be the absolute worst. The other day I attended the lil HOA meeting for my neighborhood. There were like 9 people there and 4 of them were board members and they spent the entire time arguing over the most ridiculous minutiae about meeting minutes. I was… agape.
Hozier can take me pretty much anywhere.
I have a confession—I have reached the age where often, when I encounter a paywall, I just subscribe to the publication. Fortunately, I am in a position to do this and recognize it is not feasible for everyone.
Congress avoided another government shutdown. Why is this all so precarious? Why is the government on the precipice of a shut down every 7.7 days?
A man doing a mannish thing when he was excluded from something.
There is a witch hunt happening and, of course, Black women in academia are the primary targets.
Kate Middleton is, supposedly, alive. She made a video sharing that she has cancer. I hope it all goes well for her moving forward but the whole thing remains bizarre. As a highly public figure, why not just lead with this and ask for privacy? Why not share this when anyone who is even halfway human would understand and offer empathy? Why would the palace throw a woman with cancer under the bus about bad photoshop? Why the fuck is William not sitting by her side? I WISH I would make that kind of video alone. There would be furniture moving in the house, I know that much. And also, the journalists who are trying to shame people for speculating about a missing princess are just embarrassing AF. This whole situation was avoidable.
Congratulations to the winners of this year’s National Book Critics Circle awards. And the National Book Foundation has announced this year’s Five Under Thirty-Five.
Coogler! Prince! Musical!
A young college student on Spring Break in Nashville, somehow got separated from his friends, stumbling about town drunk and, sadly, he died. Never leave your friends alone! This is Friendship 101!
A conversation with J.B. Smoove. A profile of Sheryl Lee Ralph.
A veterinary office lost a woman’s dog and panic ensued, UNDERSTANDABLY, and now the dog has been found and is doing okay!
Why are Kanye and Bianca foisting their kink on the world? What is the deal with their wardrobes?
Remember Carlee Russell and the weird disappearance hoax? She won’t serve jail time (which is a good thing). I hope things are going better for her.
Beyoncé did some guerilla marketing for her new album at the Guggenheim Museum. Anyway, I enjoy a queen who plays the long game. And I think 87% of the critiques about the new album cover are wrong and reflect a lack of knowledge about the cultural references in the imagery.
The Houston Rodeo, Black Texas culture and what it takes to love Texas as a Black person, and, of course, Beyoncé.
An essay from Leslie Jamison about antique medical slides. Of course! And new poem from Elisa Gabbert.
More donations to nonprofits by MacKenzie Scott. I would love to see her showing some love to literary and theater organizations. That kind of money would go so far. But that’s just an observation, not a criticism.
JoAnn Fabrics is declaring bankruptcy!
There’s a lot to… parse here, but a 24 year old dating coach? How? No. (Sorry to young’uns. You’re lovely.)
San Diego stopped outsourcing ambulance services, and what do you know? Things improved!
Prince’s former audio engineer is really interesting.
Would love to subscribe to everything, but if you had to focus your subscriptions to 5, what would be on your list?
The profile on Susan Rogers was unexpected and awesome 👏🏻