The Audacious Roundup
For the week of May 18th
AUDACIOUS BOOKCLUB HAPPENINGS
Our May bookclub selection is The Violence: My Family’s Colombian War by Adriana E. Ramirez. We will be in conversation with Adriana on May 27th at 8 pm EST/5 pm PST. Registration is open.
For newcomers, there is a bookclub FAQ if you have questions about how it all works. And this is what we will be reading for the rest of the year. We’re partnering with the lovely people at Allstora for the Audacious Book Club. Now, you can sign up to have the monthly selections delivered to your doorstep each month! Otherwise, I’ve put together an Audacious Book Club storefront if you want to buy current or forthcoming book club titles.
THE NEWSLETTER WEEK IN REVIEW
PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL NEWS
For the New York Times, I wrote an essay about playing make-believe with politicians and how it enables us to avoid discernment.
On June 20th, The Rumpus is hosting a convening for Black writers at Rutgers University. Tickets are available but going fast.
The latest edition of Best Women’s Travel Writing is out on June 9th and it includes an essay from me, about the time Debbie and I went to Antarctica. (It was amazing.)
For my Australian readers, I will be back in Sydney on June 12th, in conversation with Narelda Jacobs! Tickets here!
On June 18th, I am joining Hope for Haiti in a fundraiser for their capital campaign to build a new medical campus in Haiti. They are a wonderful organization and my dad is on their board and I am so impressed with the work they do AND that all of their clinics and operations in Haiti are run by Haitians. If you want to support this campaign, please consider a ticket or table (if you have the scratch), and enjoy an evening of conversation, Haitian food, and music!
Book and project links: Books I’ve Written, RGB Imprint Titles, Rebind: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton; The Forgotten Occupation.
READING MATERIAL
In San Diego, a mass shooting at a mosque, where five people were murdered.
Even the NYT editorial board thinks Trump is very very corrupt.
The Pope dropped some bars on A.I. and its dangers.
The Women’s History Museum has run into some legislative roadblocks.
The Colbert Show has come to an end. This is bad for many reasons, not the least of which is political interference in media offerings.
James Murdoch bought half of Vox Media.
World Cup ticket prices are still outrageous.
Is AI writing good short stories? No, absolutely not. Are bad, AI short stories winning contests? Yes.
It should come as no surprise that AI is pretty sycophantic.
RIP Michael Singer. RIP Kyle Busch. RIP Grizz Chapman. RIP Rob Base. RIP Juniper Blessing.
Some very wealthy people bought some art at an auction.
The documentary Ask E. Jean is out now, in select theatres. Getting the film made was… a challenge.
A profile of a Hollywood casting director.
It’s never too late! Billie Jean King graduated from Cal State Los Angeles!
The disastrous Swatch/Audemars Piguet collab launch could have definitely been avoided.
An excellent excerpt from Tracy Lynne Oliver’s Magician.
An interesting piece about Belle Burden’s enormous wealth, some of which she elides in Strangers.
This one time a guy decided to use a landline instead of a cell phone, like it was… the 80s and 90s and other such ye olde times.
It’s hot at the French Open.
Elizabeth Smart has taken up bodybuilding.
Some tech bros threw “enhanced games” where athletes could use performance enhancing drugs and equipment but it was a dud.
I always appreciate Kate Manne’s writing and thinking. This essay about the limits of sex positivity and the dangers of sexual strangulation, was excellent.
This was an interesting essay about mah-jong and the tensions between people for whom mah-jong is part of their culture and a new breed of players who don’t have those cultural ties to the game.
Alison Roman is opening a First Bloom in Brooklyn.
A conversation with Shirley Kurata, who created the visual language of I Love Boosters. These interviews with L.A. dishwashers were really interesting. A conversation with Boots Riley. A conversation with Vivian Gornick.
In Marfa, there’s a roadside attraction that is more than a roadside attraction.
Route 66 is a hundred years old.
Lego pinball machine coming soon.
THE RUMPUS WEEK IN REVIEW
Essays:
Imagining Irmgard by David Susman
Intimate Enemies by Juan Villoro
Fiction:
Men in Black Coats by Isabelle Yang
Poetry:
Two Poems by Caroline Laganas
there must be a field alive inside you that isn’t burning by B. Luke Wilson
Three Poems by Louie Leyson
Reviews:
O’Frankenstein: A Resurrection of Manman and Tifi in Catherine-Esther Cowie’s “Heirloom” by Jay Aja
The Taxonomy of Girlhood: A Review of Susan L. Leary’s “More Flowers” by Natalie Tombasco
Interviews:
A Conversation with Kelly Yang by Olivia Q. Pintair
A Conversation with Jeff Boyd by Andrew Boryga
A Conversation with Bsrat Mezghebe by Nimarta Narang
A Conversation with Sean Hill by Clemonce Herd
A Conversation with Beth Ann Fennelly by Jenny Bartoy
I’ve read the Antarctica essay published in AFAR so many times. It’s one of the best travel essays I’ve ever read. The photos and hand lettering were amazing as well. I’m really looking forward to this new book.