The Audacious Round Up

For the week of March 29th

Apr 5

Sorry this one is late! Life is… busy right now.

A directory of literary agents of color.

The city of Los Angeles recently cleared an encampment at Echo Park. Erika Smith at the Los Angeles Times, tracked down what happened to several of the people who were displaced.

Here is what New York’s Vaccine Daddy (Vaddy) is up to.

An interview with Alissa Nutting, author of the novel Made for Love, and co-creator of the television show, available now on HBO Max.

Chicago has one remaining men’s hotel. This piece offers a look inside.

Larissa Pham writes beautifully about crushes and falling in love and trying to hold onto yourself at the same time.

I have opinions about vegan cheese but Alicia Kennedy is a great writer and in this essay for Eater, she writes about vegan cheese’s trajectory from unpalatable to something much better.

There really is a brief history of everything.

Janicza Bravo co-wrote (with Jeremy O. Harris) and directed Zola. Rolling Stone gets into how she came to the project. When the movie goes out this summer, I hope you see it. It’s so great. Wild wild fun. And intelligent.

I hate when a website asks to show me notifications. Why do websites do this? I get enough notifications already. Stop. Anyway, here’s how to bring an end to this practice.

Bigots in this country have a pathological obsession with trans kids, who have every right to healthcare, dignity, the freedom to live openly, safely, and with joy. Here is an article about how the current wave of anti-trans legislation is affecting some of these kids.

Something something the economy.

Rod Benson writes about how he followed the NBA dress code while earning $200 a week.

Girlhood, by Melissa Febos, is out now, and this essay, from the book, explores consenting to unwanted touch.

Your Fat Friend writes about how she prefers the terms anti-fat bias and anti-fatness to fatphobia. Lots to think about.

Our legal system can change, if we want it to. Baltimore is leading the way.

People are amazing.

A review of Murakami’s latest, a short story collection. Tough review but well-written.

A new story from Brandon Taylor in the Southeast Review. And when he was an editor at Electric Literature, Brandon edited this amazing story by Audacity co-editor Meg Pillow.

Lil Nas X is good at many things, including clapbacks. It is a shame, though, that he has to draw upon that skill so often. Also, how he challenges the Catholic imagination.

At long last, The Nanny is streaming. It’s one of my favorite shows. Here is an interview with the show’s star, Fran Drescher.

Brandi Carlile’s voice remains gorgeously strong and she is profiled in the New York Times.

Niecy Nash and her wife Jessica have a seat at The Red Table.

As with many things, the idea of cancel culture began in the black community and then it was appropriated to the mainstream. Here is a brief history of that transition.

On a black utopia.