The Audacious Round Up
For the week of May 24th
This has been something of a big week. As announced in the New York Times, I am starting a book imprint at Grove Atlantic called Roxane Gay Books. I have a logo! I will be accepting book submissions starting on July 1st, both agented and unagented. (I will be honest; I don’t know how long I will be able to accept unagented submissions. It depends on volume.) We are also hiring a publishing fellow who will work half-time supporting the imprint and half time learning the publishing business across Grove Atlantic departments. You can find that job ad here.
Over at T Magazine, I did a Cooking Class with a guest appearance by Debbie Millman.
I wrote about the police at pride and why they don’t belong there.
As your Work Friend, well, I counsel someone who worries about leaving chocolates for his staff, a woman who is disrespected by her husband, and a freelancer whose coworker is billing more hours.
Register now for our discussion with Gabriela Garcia.
In recent years, there have been so many white women who have pretended to be people of color. Each story is more convoluted and absurd and that remains true in the case of Andrea Smith.
I am not at all sure why but I loved the Jackass movies, so I enjoyed this profile of Johnny Knoxville, who is fifty!
The Ziwe interview with Andrew Yang is not to be believed.
Anne Helen writes about the millennial vernacular of fatphobia. Yeesh.
A conversation with Ted Lasso’sCoach Beard.
An oral history of A Different World.
There is a nice write up of Afrofemononomy, and their residency at Performance Space NY.
A summer book reading list. Lots of great titles!
Bitch Media is hiring an executive director.
There are a lot of projects right now exploring what happened in the Tulsa Race Massacre. The New York Times has a really well down interactive feature, that is worth your time.
A guide to finding your nemesis. (LOL! Run me my check!)
Palestinian writers share what it has been like celebrating Eid amid conflict.
An interview with Mae Martin.
Simone Biles remains excellent and the rest of the field cannot catch her and it’s a problem (for them. Only for them.) (See also: Surya Bonaly!)
A profile of Samaria Rice.
A profile of Zakiya Harris whose novel The Other Black Girl is out next week.
The pandemic has affected everything, including the arts.
Speaking of the arts, what happens when two artists get married? (I quite enjoy it, myself!)
Renée Elise Goldberry has a new role!
Exciting news! The Linda Lindas have a record deal!
On suburban restaurants.
I love any sort of real estate entertainment involving throuples. That one House Hunters episode was so great!
Looks like The Underground Railroad is pretty good!
Blah blah blah, influencers.
Forgot to say: congratulations on the book publishing imprint!! And the tweets at the bottom more than make up for the pay walls at the top. You and your assistants curate the most joyous and hilarious tweets and tiktoks which is more than enough for me. Thank you!!!
Thank you for the round up this and every week. I'm sometimes saddened at the fact that many articles sit behind pay walls: I can't read any of the NY times, New Yorker, Vulture, LA Times. But I do get a glimpse of the headlines.🤣 in a way I don't mind as I support your good self and three other substack writers & that's where my pension $$ have gone & honestly, between the four of you, I get enough to read, on top of my mature age studies.
In the spirit of sharing, may I politely direct you to check out @7methods on Instagram. A collaborative program by women of colour, they recently produced a production of "The 7 Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner". This show sold out, extended its season and opened up work opportunities for black and brown women in Australia. Not only that they have produced videos in colourism and other topics. They are still active on instagram and personally, as an ex theatre director, their whole lead up to the play was amazing. Finally in Australia - the land of whiteness as you know Roxane😖 this group and other productions are knocking down the doors of long established structures. Thanks for reading. Janet 💜🙏💜