The Audacious Round Up
Keep up with the Joel Gay Creative Fellows, Jet Toomer, Jesus Rodriguez, and Elspeth Michaels.
The October selection for the Audacious Book Club is Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi. Our conversation with Omolola takes place on October 26th at 8 pm EST/5 pm PST. Register now! Our conversation with Elaine Castillo is now up!
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 has a new project, 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 Decks 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.
In this week’s Work Friend, I encourage less surveillance of our professional colleagues and more minding our own business.
Protests in Iran are ongoing. The sustained energy of these protests is beyond admirable. But it comes at a cost. A great many young people have died. Actually, let me not use passive voice. They were killed.
A young tot has a very gourd friend.
This piece is a few years old but will always be relevant—Alexander Chee on Jesus’s Son.
There is a run on the Boston Birkenstocks. I don’t even know what’s happening to us but I guess this is what the fall of humanity looks like. That said, I love my ugly Boston clogs and I love wearing them and I will be comfortable when it all burns down.
A congressional candidate made a sex tape to advocate for legalizing sex work. (See above.)
There was a mass shooting in Raleigh, North Carolina. Five people died. The suspect was fifteen. This will not stop until our elected officials create the necessary conditions for people to no longer have access to assault weapons.
Don’t talk to cops!
Looks like Bill Murray is not a nice man.
Interior Chinatown, an incredible novel, is coming to Hulu.
Kashana Cauley on two tattoos that went so very wrong. But not in the way you might think.
Really appreciated this short film on how wrong-minded, unfeasible, phallic and downright silly billionaires pet projects can be.
Speaking of Elon Musk, of course he has a strange social calendar.
Is there a cult of craftism? I honestly don’t know (or care). But this piece was really interesting, regardless.
An interview with Ling Ma, both of whose books I loved. Her new collection is out now or soon.
Robert Daniels grapples with the challenge of black trauma on the screen.
There is a writer named Colleen Hoover who has sold twenty million books. I am not familiar with her. Or I wasn’t. And then a couple weeks ago, one of my students reviewed one of Hoover’s novels in our criticism class and had some very strong opinions on the work. Now I will read one of these novels and see what’s the what. Have you read any of Hoover’s novels? Any recommendations?
A profile of Hannah Waddingham, who is sublime on Ted Lasso, a show I enjoy.
Brittney Griner is, understandably, worried that the United States will not secure her freedom. I hope she is wrong but I fear she is not.
Warner Bros Discovery, in their ongoing rampage to ruin everything good they produce, decided to end the Writers and Directors Workshops, one of the few incubators for creators of color. And then, suddenly, they changed their minds. Of course they did.
Climate protestors threw tomato soup on a Van Gogh painting. The painting is fine. Our planet is not.
Former MLB star Randy Johnson is now a professional photographer.
More on Aretha Franklin’s FBI file and the way she was surveilled for daring to believe in her civil rights.
From all accounts, Angela Lansbury was a hell of a human and a beautiful actor and performer. May she rest in power.
Pour one out for A Strange Loop, one of the best musicals I have ever seen. The show is closing in January so please, if you get a chance, go see it. You will not regret it. The show is original and brash and entertaining.
ATL cops do random searches at gates and their primary targets are, yes, Black people, so two comedians are suing them. As they should.
Three members of the LA City Council were caught being racist and otherwise terrible on tape. The president of the council, Nury Martinez, stepped down as president but then went silent. Finally, after a great deal of public pressure, she resigned in a huff. In her resignation letter, there was no acknowledgment of what she had done. There was no apology. Instead, she summarized her accomplishments in a revisionist manner and then was sad she could no longer be a role model for Latina girls. You cannot make this shit up. And Knock LA has the best coverage of what went down and where things are at now.
After the past week’s about John Fetterman, it’s important to ask why there aren’t more politicians with disabilities. The always excellent Rebecca Traister has written an excellent, deeply engaged profile of Fetterman.
On Brendan Fraser’s comeback in The Whale. I have feelings about fat suits and so on but I am very fond of Brendan Fraser. I will see the movie and then see how I feel about the way he portrayed a fat man.
The WaPo is hiring a book features writer.
A conversation with our October author Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi.
Brown Sugar, one of my favorite movies, still slaps.
Excellent thespian Jonathan Majors has done quite a photo shoot for Men’s Health. He is very, very…. talented.
Why are storytellers so obsessed with serial killer biopics?
Adnan Sayed is finally free after Baltimore prosecutors drop the charges against him. Props to Rabia Chaudry and others who worked, tirelessly, to set this man free.
The Hindu right has some undue influence on Bollywood and this piece explores how that happened.
A profile of Danielle Brooks who is starring in Broadway’s The Piano Lesson.
How the New York Times covers Black writers.
Nikkie Finke, who created what would become Deadline has died.
Kanye West was being antisemitic and anti-Black again. This man has shown us who he is.
Jessica Knoll on adapting her novel The Luckiest Girl Alive for Netflix. I saw the movie and I am not sure how I felt about it but I also watched the whole thing. Parts of it are very good. Parts of it are trite. And parts of it are just strange.
An essay from Carl Phillips on finding community on and off the page.
Colleen Hoover books: It Ends With Us and Verity are the two that are most recommended by her fans.
Please share what you think about Colleen Hoover's books. I read two after reading your post and seeing the nytimes article.