The Audacious Round Up

For the weeks of January 16th and January 23rd

Jan 29

The February selection for the Audacious Book Club is The Survivalists by Kashana Cauley. We will be in conversation with Deepti on February 23rd at 8 pm EST/5pm PST. Registration is now open! If you missed our conversation with Deepti Kapoor, you can watch it now.

I am reading submissions to The Audacity’s Emerging Writer Series. Read the guidelines and submit your best writing. Submissions will be open until I have 24 essays.

Don’t Forget: Why Design Matters by Debbie Millman. Debbie also created The Remarkable Life Deck, if you want to think through what the next decade of your life could look like. The cards are really beautiful and this is such a valuable exercise for looking ahead and taking stock of where you are. I don’t say that lightly. Normally, this isn’t my kind of thing but The Remarkable Life Deck is excellent.

If you’re looking for a nice notebook, check out my new Draft Writing Journal from Baron Fig. It’s pretty swank if I do say so myself AND back in stock.

And if you’re looking for some writing instruction, you might want to check out my Masterclass.

As your work friend, I answered questions about a weird severance situation, more mandatory fun, being fired days before your bonus is due and racist colleagues picking on a new hire. And Franklin Leonard and I had a conversation, as part of the Sundance Film Festival, about including climate change in our storytelling. Debbie and I went to Antarctica and I wrote about it for Afar Magazine. Debbie created a visual story. And for WePresent, Debbie wrote about the paradox of the idea of a personal brand.

In March, I am headed to the U.K. with stops in Edinburgh, Liverpool, London, and Bath!

Here are the covers of the first two books I am publishing under Roxane Gay Books.

Monica Lewinsky looks back 25 years after the Bill Clinton scandal.

Here’s a profile of Channing Tatum where he casually mentions we are writing a romance novel together. Which is true!

Madonna is heading back on tour. The Celebration Tour!

In Quebec, their Human Rights Commission drove out their first Black woman president with racism. Can’t make this up.

Over at LitHub, the cover reveal for the first two Roxane Gay Books titles—And Then He Sang a Lullaby by Ani Kayode Somtochukwu and Lush Lives by J. Vanessa Lyon.

A deep dive on the war in Ethiopia and how it is harming its citizens.

In New York Times magazine, a look at cockfighting in the U.S., and finding ways to rehabilitate fighting cocks.

A new poem from Danez Smith.

Kashana Cauley’s Grub Street diet.

Tressie McMillan Cottom looks at blond(e) as a status marker and how absolutely unhinged the mere mention of this makes some people.

Elizabeth Holmes is without remorse and living well while she appeals her conviction.

In New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern is stepping down as prime minister and her candid explanation of why is really interesting. It would be great if more world leaders acknowledged the toll of the work they do.

Actor Julian Sands is missing after going hiking.

Why are rents in NYC so expensive?

Amber Tamblyn has a newsletter. Subscribe!

An essay from Matthew Salesses who has a new book out this week called Sense of Wonder.

In an example of actual censorship, Emma Straub, who is delightful, was disinvited from visiting a Texas school because this one time, she cursed online.

In 2022, police killed more people than ever before. The Memphis police pulled Tyre Nichols over for a traffic stop. And then they murdered him. It is an all too familiar story. The video of Nichols’s murder was recently released and it is galling. It is always galling. He was 29.

Are you an emerging writer over 50? This award is for you.

Pamela Paul decided to revisit American Dirt, a badly written novel, to defend its honor. You can Google it. The book has sold more than a million copies, to be clear. But Max Read and John Warner had great responses.

Alexander Chee offers 100 things about writing a novel.

Debbie spoke with the Times about M&Ms and how they’re handling their branding issues (not well!)

I don’t know Marie Kondo but I like her and I find the vitriol she inspires inexplicable and really shameful. The glee people have expressed because she has relaxed her neatness because she has three children now is really not a good look.

On Days of Our GMA Lives, T.J. and Amy have negotiated their exit from the network. Hopefully they got paid.

New Jesmyn Ward in October!

The last days of book Twitter? For the record, I don’t think these are the last days. Yet.

Enough with the fat suits. And also, who does get to be fat on screen?

Another year, another set of Oscar nominations, and the glaring omissions continue. The entire awards ecosystem fails Black women in particular. And somehow, the Academy still doesn’t know women direct movies. Soraya McDonald gets into how The Woman King was criminally overlooked. Congratulations in particular to Pamela Ribon, whose short, “My Year of Dicks,” was nominated for an Oscar. She is a great person and this thrills me.

The Razorblade Tears adaptation is moving forward!

What medical bias begets.

There is a whole professional class that should be discreet making WILD, inappropriate TikToks.

Inside Twitter under Musk.

Rich people drama.

Lan Samantha Chang on what Lunar New Year means to her.

Black crosswords!

How to become a professional writer. If you were wondering.

The orange stain is back on Facebook.

There have been several mass shootings over the past two weeks. In Monterey Park, eleven people were killed and several injured at a ballroom dancing studio. In Half Moon Bay, eleven people were killed and several injured at two plant nurseries.

And, remember the six year old who shot his teacher? There were MANY signs that he was going to shoot someone and the school did nothing.

The Rikers unit protecting trans women has collapsed leaving trans women more vulnerable than they already were in that abominable jail.