The Audacious Roundup
For the week of June 8th
AUDACIOUS BOOKCLUB HAPPENINGS
Our June bookclub selection is John of John by Douglas Stuart. We will be in conversation with Douglas on June 24th 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
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!
On June 20th, The Rumpus is hosting a convening for Black writers at Rutgers University. Tickets are available but going fast.
On June 22nd, I will be in conversation with Emma Copley Eisenberg in Frenchtown, NJ!. Tickets and more info here.
And then, on June 25th, I will be at the Center For Fiction in BK, speaking with Nicole Dennis-Benn and Xochitl Gonzalez about what makes a book a classic.
Book and project links: Books I’ve Written, RGB Imprint Titles, Rebind: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton; The Forgotten Occupation.
READING MATERIAL
The Knicks WON IN FIVE!!!!! Oh, frabjuous day. Callooh. Calay. Game 4 was incredible. We watched it from Sydney, on ESPN believe it or not, and it was STRESSFUL. But at halftime, I was rather sanguine about the whole affair. “It’s going to be okay,” I said. Surely, the team would not allow themselves to lose twice, at home, and by such an alarming margin. I was right. Anyway, here’s what it was like inside the arena. Mariska Hargitay put in the work for Game 4. She did two performances of Every Brilliant Thing (we saw it and I loved it) and then ran, literally, to MSG to watch the game. Detective Benson is always on the case. Game 5 started as we were beginning our descent into L.A after being on a plane for thirteen hours. We were on an Airbus 380, my favorite plane, and as is often the case, the jet bridge wasn’t working so that stymied us a bit. Eventually, we ran home (figuratively), caught the end of the Haiti game (where the reffing was terrible) and then caught the end of the Knicks game (glorious). Debbie paced furiously while muttering about how the Knicks break your heart (she’s a longtime fan) and then it was all great.
The UFC spectacle on the White House lawn (LOLWUT) proceeded apace and a lot of money is involved, of course. The matches took hours. There was a lot of praise for Trump and God because nothing says sanctified like men beating each other to a pulp until one of them passes out. Amen. Anyway, one of the fighters, for some reason, decided to say Michelle Obama is a man? Like, how is she being brought into… this? Will a UFC fight happen again at the White House? Dana White says no but… I don’t believe him.
By court order, the regime had to take Trump’s name off the Kennedy Center. His people tried to appeal the order but the appeals were denied. After erecting an unnecessary amount of scaffolding, and after the midnight deadline, the letters were removed but now LOL, Kennedy’s name is covered by a large tarp that looks… semi-permanent. This is absolutely ridiculous. Such petty people are in charge but not petty in a fun or interesting way, just stupid and petty which is a terrible combination.
Trump went to Game 3 of the NBA Finals, cursed the team who went on to lose the game, and was booed very, very loudly, as he should be. It all worked out in the end, but MSG had to be saged.
Where is Rep. Tom Kean? He’s been missing for a while now.
Sadly, we’re going to have to talk about Graham Platner for the next five months. Amazing, the amount of tolerance people have for white men, how they get to make youthful mistakes well into their thirties, how we’re supposed to forgive them, endlessly, how credulous people are when they say things like, I didn’t know it was a Nazi tattoo. But this is what the people of Maine want, so that makes it all okay, seemingly. Nothing ever changes in politics, not really. Aim low. People love that.
At least Spencer Pratt won’t be mayor of L.A. (He never, ever had a shot.) Instead, it will be Karen Bass vs Nithya Raman, and hopefully, they will acquit themselves well and run on actual policy and give Angelenos two good options to choose form.
Here’s a little election treat… Nancy Mace was shellacked in her attempt to become governor of South Carolina.
Is Bari Weiss a liability at CBS/CNN/Whatever? I don’t know. Things continue getting worse over there but I think a lot of these articles are wishful thinking. She seems to be doing exactly what she was hired to do.
Elon Musk is a trillionaire in fake money but most people won’t let that detail trouble them. If billionaires shouldn’t exist, trillionaires are an even more offensive proposition. Egregious. And it’s sad that so much “money” is in the hands of someone with so little taste.
I am fascinated by the discourse around gifted children and how so many people seem very invested in tearing down the idea that children can be gifted. First of all, why are you talking about something that happened 20, 40, 50 years ago? Anyway. Whatever.
A Somali World Cup referee was denied entry into the U.S. to do his job, during the World Cup. This country is a disgrace. We knew that but it has to be said with regularity.
In Northern Ireland, anti-immigrant violence is running amok and terrorizing people of color who live there.
A (preventable) measles outbreak in Utah is, as you would expect, causing a lot of anguish. I wish I could muster empathy for these stories but… to not vaccinate your children is a choice that comes with very dire consequences. I do feel for the children who had adults making terrible decisions on their behalf.
RIP David Hockney, an extraordinary artist. Also, he designed gorgeous opera sets.
All is not well inside Alex Cooper’s Unwell media empire. Unsurprising, in that most businesses have some shadiness and/or bad behavior going on. That said, I read the piece and like, it was a bit… thin.
Emily Ratajkowski wrote an interesting essay about dating as a single mother and really I don’t think many men are dating material. The ending is particularly good.
Another dying tradition, thatched roofing. And in Louisiana, waterways are threatened by climate change.
The GOAT is playing tennis again and won a doubles match!
When you let parents pay for your wedding there are, inevitably, strings attached.
Pope Leo and Bad Bunny walk into a holy bar…
Mother daughter relationships can be challenging and this is a gorgeous essay about one such relationship.
My wife has severe misophonia, so I read this piece by Sloane Crosley with great interest.
Also, dads get postpartum depression, too.
Laverne Cox has a new memoir out and in it she writes of the MAGA cop she once dated and how now, she realizes that in doing so she was betraying herself. Girl, I guess.
Meta employees hate Zuck’s hackathon idea.
Some authors ruminate on AI and writing. Personally, when people start talking to me about AI, all I hear is the Peanuts adult voice. WAH WAH WAH WAH.
Here’s your weird landlord story for the week.
A food critic goes on a culinary journey with his son.
An unconventional guide to L.A. for the World Cup.
THE RUMPUS WEEK IN REVIEW
Comics:
Waffles by Sean Ironman
Fiction:
Clubhouse by Hillary Lightstone
The Part That Hurts by Louise Scoville
Poetry:
Two Poems by Rhea Davison
Five Poems by Giovannai Rosa
Favor by Birch Wiley
Interviews:
A Conversation with Douglas Stuart by Greg Mania
A Conversation between Rachel Khong and Emma Copley Eisenberg
A Conversation with Kim Fu by Alia Spartz
A Conversation with Krys Malcolm Belc by Hannah Matthews
Other:
The Pride 30 by Roxane Gay
Dr. Gay, I love your writing and have long relished the ability to take in your perspective on various topics through this newsletter and social media. I learn so much from you. I would like to invite a little more nuance to the Graham Platner conversation, if you'll humor me. I can only speak for myself, but as a Mainer, I did not delight in ranking Platner by any means, nor am I interested in lending any extra slack towards tolerating another shitty white man. But voting for Platner also felt like the (marginally) best option out of several very lousy options. Andrea LaFlamme couldn't collect enough signatures to get on the ballot, and her messaging was basically "vote for me because I'm the best candidate," while never attempting to connect with voters in the largest city in Maine (Portland). David Costello couldn't be bothered to connect with any of the immigrant communities in Maine. Janet Mills is an establishment Dem, through and through -- to quote you, the very definition of "Nothing ever changes in politics, not really." Susan Collins is absolutely evil in my opinion. Platner has made a LOT of unforced errors. I do not forgive him for his nazi tattoo; I do not look kindly upon his reddit posts. But I do see someone who, when ICE activity surged here in January, actually showed up for our immigrant neighbors in meaningful ways, when no other candidate has done so at all. It might all be a stunt, and I do not feel particularly trustful of this man, but I also believe he is the only candidate who stands a chance at beating Collins and I don't think he can be any more evil than she is.
Finally, I will add that Shay Stewart-Bouley is an organizer and writer living in Maine who has written a lot about this race and Platner in particular (https://blackgirlinmaine.com/) and I have found her insights and perspectives incredibly helpful in making some more sense of this messy senate race, and I recommend anyone to read her various pieces on the subject if you haven't already.