The Audacious Round Up
For the week of July 19th
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 The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Quade. Sign up on Literati to join our great discussions about the book of the month.
I was on “Sound It Out” on Sonos Radio, talking about some great songs.
You can register here for that conversation on July 27th.
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.
The mystery of a pseudonymous novel.
Another billionaire flew into pre-space, this time in a rocket penis. No link. Just making note of the nonsense.
A man in Montana gave Tucker Carlson the business. Richly deserved and richly served. No lies detected.
Maria Taylor has left ESPN. And moved on to NBC.
More broadcast racism.
Writer Jami Attenberg is doing a mini-version of her annual two-week writing blitz, #1000words of summer. Sign up here.
More bigoted nonsense from the gaming industry.
MEN! Honestly.
Sha’Carri Richardson was banned from the Olympics this year but this sexual predator got a plan to keep him away from women so he could fence, as an alternate. There is also this—white women promoting “cannabis,” at the same Olympics where a black woman was banned for using the same substance. As Leslie Mac pointed out on Twitter, allyship is a fallacy.
Lil Nas’X has yet to disappoint.
Telfar outfitted the Liberian Olympic team.
Lebanon is in crisis and the situation there is only getting worse.
A profile of Leon Bridges.
People are behaving even more terribly at restaurants which… is both shocking and not at all surprising but is absolutely disappointing and unfair.
A man missed his fiancée so he put her into AI or something? I don’t know. The movie didn’t end well.
I guess Woodstock 99 wasn’t like the original.
Héctor Tobar on what it means to be Latino. Please also read his incredible novel The Barbarian Nurseries.
Would you look at that. When you send people other than police to people having mental health crises, more people actually get helped rather than hurt.
Croissant toast.
I guess there is a wine of the summer.
Get it, Michaela Coel!
Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson go on a jungle cruise. Hijinks ensue.
(Some) Black women are going back to relaxers. I never left but I think however a black woman chooses to wear her hair is wonderful.
Trump and publishing. I don’t really care.
On friendship and finances and negotiating the differences there.
A look at the life and career of Anthony Veasna So, gone far too soon.
Adopting dogs is very competitive in NYC. As is everything else.
Power to the people!
This is pretty unsettling.
Olds being together, living apart.
We are running out of water, which is not new. But increasingly, we are inundated by reminders of the crisis at hand.
Please don’t do the whole paywall thing where you say ugh why are all of these pieces behind paywalls. For one, not all of them are. Very few are, in fact. Paywalls exist because writing is labor that must be compensated and the money to provide that compensation has to come from somewhere. Also, a quick Google search will give you a very easy, painless way to get around paywalls. Thanks for listening.
bate2greatman @anthonyavee
lil nas is definitely doing too much now
This is now my Monday morning. Which kind of is my Sabbath day for no reason than i chose it. The audacity round up occurs and I'm drop like a pebble down to the bottom of the lake. As I rise to the top I immerse myself in profoundly good writing, commentary and hysterical laughter, all antidotes to the current Sydney lockdown. You're right about the pay walls Roxane. I'm free to decide which stores to read and not to complain. The story about rude customers saddens me. Now I go to you tube to listen to Leon Bridges- thank you. I keep re- reading the article "I identify as a helicopter"- you placed weeks ago. As I come up for air I choke on laughter at the tweets, and find myself going "Oh! Oh"OH" in increasingly shocked tones as that white woman keeps reaching for that woman's hair. Subscribing to the audacity has been the best birthday/Xmas present I've ever been given. Along with a collection of other amazing women. I don't mind that I'm on my phone all the time. Thank you, thank you Roxane and you amazing assistants! 💜💜🌻🌻🌻🌻