The Audacious Round Up
For the Week of October 4
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LIBRA SEASON IS UPON US!
I did a lil questionnaire for Fast Company.
There is a new installment of Work Friend.
Why Design Matters by Debbie Millman is available for pre-order. Yes, this link will be available in this newsletter until it goes on sale on at some point, hopefully in January 2022 (damn supply chain).
On November 2, Debbie and I will be in conversation at the University of Albany.
Our next book selection is The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang. We will have our conversation with Helen on October 25th. Instead of a live Q & A, please e-mail me your questions for Helen by October 24th! Register now for that conversation. You can watch our engaging conversation with Donika Kelly if you missed it live.
Tressie, Debbie Millman and I are hosting a writing workshop retreat in July 2022. You can also register for this if you want to spend a weekend with us.
Roxane Gay Books is closed to unagented submissions until 6/15/2022. I’ve found, I think, my first few books!
In this newsletter, Uma Dwivedi wrote an unbearably beautiful essay about the unbearable nature of desire.
Why is ketchup still just ketchup? I make homemade ketchup, as an aside, and I love doing it.
There is just so much damn injustice and some of these stories… I always wonder how people are supposed to make a life for themselves when there are so many systems designed to prevent that from happening.
A feature on potter and artist/activist Roberto Lugo. Also in that episode, Facebook is more evil than we thought!
A review of Fifteen Minutes of Shame, a new documentary on HBO, produced by Monica Lewinsky. I’m in it, a bit, too.
You know how people say eat the rich? Here is a list of 400 people you can start with!
Jenny Zhang writes on the weaponization of identity and the perils therein.
There is a very long article in The New York Times, about a conflagration between two writers. It’s more complicated than that. There is a kidney donation and a Facebook group, and a relationship one person saw as a friendship which the other person saw as… I’m not sure what. There are some really petty and incriminating e-mails and texts buried in the court documents that make everyone involved look terrible because they did, indeed, behave terribly. There is plagiarism (unacceptable) and endless litigation (unacceptable), and in the end, well, you can draw your own conclusions. Also, Michael Hobbes digs a little deeper into the story, and still no one comes out looking good but there is always more to a story.
A real housewife is in real trouble.
Bobby Flay is leaving Food Network!
Debby King, a backstage attendant at Carnegie Hall recently died. She is fondly remembered.
Returning clothes is messy business.
Fucking Facebook.
Adele has new music on the horizon. And a new look. I can’t wait for the album. My body is ready.
A profile of Kumail Nanjiani.
Mental health resources for marginalized communities.
A painful piece on the abuses women of color have faced in creative industries.
Looks like the Diana musical is not good at all.
Each progressive sentence in this article about Nick Cannon is better than the last.
The oyster oracle.
More on Ozy and how we need a new kind of black media. I guess it was the scam of the century.
Sometimes, when I am sad and want to cry, I read about celebrity diets.
An interview with Derecka Purnell.
What happened to Marie Calloway?
The 2021 National Book Award finalists.
We can now access a black public radio archive. Dive in!
Matthew Rhys bought a wooden boat.
A review of Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s My Monticello.
Erika Girardi takes up too much space in my head. Seeing her I become like Madeline Kahn in Clue…. “ I hated her sooo much…it it…the feel—it. Flames. Flames! Flaaaames…on the side of my face, breathing, breathless, heaving breaths.” The Britney bro was cute tho. Good round up.