Are there infinite ways to say THIS HAS BEEN A WEEK? Because that’s what I need. In Louisiana alone, the cops killed a Black man named Trayford Pellerin (link); a white guy killed an unarmed Black man in a Trader Joe’s parking lot (link); and a massive (though not as massive as we feared) hurricane struck the southwest coast of the state (link). That is one single state that those things happened in. And yet at the same time things keep happening in many states. Please, please do whatever you can do to ensure that Trump does not get reelected in November. And have some links!
In honor of the centennial of women’s suffrage, the New York Times is running an obituary series called “Overlooked,” where they write obituaries of people whose lives and deaths were overlooked by the Times the first go-around. (link)
Nothing quite like Myriam Gurba interviewing Akwaeke Emezi. I just read The Death of Vivek Oji and it was SUPERB (though with some content warnings if you want them). (link)
In this time of pandemic, the scramble to preserve endangered languages has taken on even greater urgency. (link)
“A defining characteristic of trauma, though, is the way it burrows like a tick into the subconscious, erasing the traces that might hold it accountable. You might not even know what’s pulling your strings.” Jess Zimmerman on living through this pandemic. (link)
Ellen can be a queer icon AND a boss who fostered an abusive workplace; and we can hold even our faves accountable for their racism and bad behavior. (link)
Self-hatred and self-consciousness are becoming A Lot in a specific genre of literature. (link)
Vivian Stephens is a founding mother of the romance genre, but she was pushed out of the genre’s history. https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/vivian-stephens-helped-turn-romance-writing-into-billion-dollar-industry/
“What does it mean for the canon of horror to almost exclusively be white? Is this intentional or not?” (link)
Likewise, who decides what counts as true crime? (You know the answer.) (link)
Lisa Lucas, the departing director of the National Book Foundation and soon to be publisher of Pantheon and Schocken Books, talks about how she got to this point in her career, and how publishing is changing. (link)
The fandom of teenage girls deserves to be taken seriously. (link)
Numerous staff writers have left the CBS show All Rise, which centers on a Black female judge, because of the showrunner’s dismissiveness and ignorance around racial issues. (link)
Nonfiction publishers don’t pay for fact-checking. This is a mistake. (link)
In positive news, I have had the blessed experience of telling some new people about New Leverage, which is a great reminder to us all to watch Leverage if you haven’t already! The pilot is fuego, and every episode is about criminals doing a con to deprive wealthy jerks of their ill-gotten gains. You’ll love it! Watch it ASAP!