AUDACIOUS BOOKCLUB HAPPENINGS
Our September selection is The Rich People Have Gone Away by Regina Porter. We will be in conversation with Regina on September 25th and registration is open. Please do join our bookclub discussions when the threads are posted. We have great conversations and all are welcome.
THE NEWSLETTER WEEKS IN REVIEW
PERSONAL PROFESSIONAL NEWS
On September 21st, join me and other friends of Jacqueline Woodson to fete the tenth anniversary of Brown Girl Dreaming.
In October, find me at the Circa Queer Histories festival in Los Angeles. I will be part of the closing plenary, “The Future of Queer History: LGBTQ+ Writers on the Election,” on Sunday, October 27, 2024, 7-8:30 p.m. at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Renberg Theatre. I will be joining Eric Cervini, Justin Torres, Tre’vell Anderson and George M. Johnson in conversation.
Debbie Millman has a new book, Love Letter to a Garden, and it will be published on April 15th, 2025. Also included in the book are 10 recipes by me—a mini cookbook if you will. Pre-orders are open!
Megan Pillow and I wrote a book called Do the Work. The Tenth Anniversary edition of Bad Feminist is available. The Portable Feminist Reader is coming out on February 18th, 2025. Pre-orders are now open and it is always a huge help when you pre-order.
Details about our new writing contest and the winner and runners-up of the inaugural contest are up!
For Sotheby’s Magazine, I wrote the cover story on artist Titus Kaphar who is making his feature film directorial debut with Exhibiting Forgiveness.
Here’s a fun interview I did with People Magazine about a project I did with Hinge, the dating app.
Oliver Radclyffe is launching his memoir Frighten the Horses at Housing Works in NYC on September 17th at 6 pm. Registration is free!
Brandon Taylor reviews the new Rachel Kushner novel which… he did not care for.
Yes, Caesar salads are perfect. Yes we will continue to talk about them alllll the time.
What’s with all the garlic in recipes?
The Blacklist is getting into books! They have an unpublished novel contest you should check out if you have one of those lying around.
The CMA nominations are out and, predictably, Beyoncé has been snubbed for Cowboy Carter, a truly excellent, virtuosic album. She doesn’t need them, to be clear and they do not deserve her.
RIP James Earl Jones—Darth Vader, Mufasa, star of stage and film. RIP Sergio Mendes.
Princess Kate is done with chemo and is relaunching her public persona.
About a Prince documentary we may never see.
Production on the final season of Good Omens has stopped as Neil Gaiman faces multiple allegations of sexual assault. I’m surprised that this particular story only seems to be reported out on a podcast. I wonder when mainstream media will start reporting on the allegations.
Parul Sehgal reviews Garth Greenwell’s new novel Small Rain.
Good news, lesbos! Sasheer Zamata has joined the fold.
Football player Tyreek Hill was pulled over by police before last Sunday’s game in Miami (he plays for the Dolphins). The dash cam footage is SSDD.
Speaking of football, Kendrick Lamar is headlining the Super Bowl halftime show which is just an absolute delight. There are so many layers to his absolutely relentless domination of the Canadian actor.
This is just a rich person’s version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
There was a mass shooting in Kentucky and a mass shooting at a high school in Georgia. The usual suspects, of course. In Georgia, the suspect’s mother called the school to warn them. The father has been charged on several counts and he bought the AR-15 used in the killings, AFTER he and his son were interviewed by the FBI because of threats to local schools. They do not pay teachers enough for this. Meanwhile, J.D. Vance says school shootings are simply a fact of life. (They aren’t. Young people, it was NOT always this way.)
Ugandan runner Rebecca Cheptegei was murdered by her boyfriend and turns out, this is happening with alarming frequency in Kenya, where this crime took place.
Some tea on Abe Lincoln and his boyf.
Who gets to kill in self-defense?
A profile of my beloved Ina Garten. A profile of Corinne Bailey Rae. A conversation with Usher.
In France, more details are coming out about one of the more horrific crimes I’ve ever had the displeasure of learning about. At the center of the story, Gisèle Pelicot. Her trash ass husband is on trial as are like 72 other men. No need to bother with “not all men” because clearly, CLEARLY, it is a whole fucking lot of men. Sit with that.
This piece about Kamala Harris expecting her staff to be competent and prepared just as she is competent and prepared is unintentionally hilarious. Be fucking for real.
How a small town in Michigan is “dealing” with an immigration influx.
Elon Musk, not only a tool but a tool of Russian propaganda. He also continues to attack Kamala Harris. Massive, massive tool.
Trump, convicted felon, will be sentenced after the election when he is free to serve whatever sentence he receives.
In Mexico, a wave of Chinese immigration.
No, that apartment building in Aurora isn’t swarmed by Venezuelan gangs.
No Haitian immigrants aren’t eating household pets in Ohio.
The first school year after the end of affirmative action informed admissions has some interesting results. At Yale, fewer Asian students. At Brown, 40% fewer Black freshfolks.
The mute spectacle of Bianca Censori….she intrigues me. It’s all so strange.
In Scotland, you can stay at an Air BnB and run a sweet lil bookstore.
Black divers are excavating the shipwrecks of ships that once carried enslaved people.
Wow, that Brandon Taylor review is an absolute work of art in itself.