The Audacious Round Up

For the week of August 2nd

Aug 7, 2021

Disregard the newsletter I accidentally sent out today that is actually going up on Wednesday. Technology happens.

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 10/26.

Our next book selection is Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford. Sign up on Literati to join our great discussions about the book of the month. You can register now for that conversation on August 24th.

If you missed our conversation with Kirstin Valdez Quade, you can find it, here.

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 open for submissions.

And speaking of, Library Journal, interviewed me about the imprint.

I am partnering with Mayors For Guaranteed Income to publish a series of essays on a world where everyone’s basic needs are met. I’m calling the project Essays for Guaranteed Income. Consider submitting.

Tressie McMillan Cottom profiled Sean Diddy Puffy Etcetera Combs for Vanity Fair and as you might expect, she goes to interesting places with remarkable style and wit.

Matt Damon has this strange idea that his folksy, “I was a bigot until ten minutes ago” stories, make him more likable. I hope a friend sets him straight.

Brandon Taylor, in his newsletter, has some interesting thoughts on representation and moral fiction. I think his distillation of some contemporary fiction is short-sighted in ways that serve his argument but don’t reflect the true state of the genre, but overall, it’s a brilliant essay.

I guess we aren’t going to get drone deliveries just yet.

Frank Ocean has started a luxury company (ie. not an album), and you can visit the store, Homer, in NYC, by appointment only.

A (white) man built a wall.

I’m not even going to link to it but a (white) man wrote a bad poem in the vein of Jonathan Safran Foer. IYKYK.

I never tire of writing about the evils of the weight loss industry.

Medium is hosting a writing competition for which there are monetary prizes. Here are some FAQs as there has been some chatter about rights grabs and the like.

After all the pageantry of “auditioning” it looks like Jeopardy is going to hire some rando who already worked for the show. WHO?

Fancy fried rice, but there’s a twist.

The USWT won a bronze medal at the Olympics! It’s awesome. It is a medal.

As I was watching the Olympics, I went down a rabbit hole about the steeplechase, the horse race humans run. Anyway. People really are out here inventing wild feats of endurance just because they can, I guess.

Move to digital screeners, already.

Western democracy is a child. Childish. Trifling.

But not all of it. A profile of the wonderful congresswoman Lauren Underwood.

Browsing the web has become a nightmare. SO many things to click when no, I don’t want your stupid cookies. I can bake my own. Just do no cookies and stop putting all this clutter on my screen keeping me from your content. It’s ridiculous. It’s like, myspace and geocities rolled into an unholy abomination, out there.

If Angela Bassett just became the highest paid black woman in TV, ever, WTF were they paying Kerry Washington and Viola Davis for their incredibly popular shows? It boggles the mind.

Skateboarding is back, baybee!

Gee, thanks.

A profile of Gemma Chan in British Vogue.

Blah blah blah men Wallen Da Baby cancellation but not really blah blah blah. But… bad baby.

BYE!

The poetry of Kaveh Akbar, my former colleague at Purdue.

A profile of Wes Studi.

WHEW! This is an excoriation.

American shoppers are terrorists, basically. BE BETTER!

The follies of (some) online activism.

Christopher Meloni is in his beefcake phase and I support him living his truth.

One of those essays about how to hate NY is to love NY and so on. I mean, sure, I guess.