I’m looking forward to talking with Lee Hawkins, author of I Am Nobody’s Slave, for the first-ever McNally Jackson Book Festival! In conversation, we’ll explore the complexities of family history and the intergenerational legacies we carry. We’ll discuss race, inheritance, trauma, and resilience—and how confronting the past can offer hope for future generations. June 3, 6:30 pm, South Street Seaport.
I love the New York Public Library, and am so grateful to history and genealogy librarian Serena Dresslar for recommending my book, Ancestor Trouble, in such outstanding company.
For the Art & Kinship installment in my latest newsletter, I write about Laila Lalami’s chilling new novel, The Dream Hotel, and the author reveals that her mother’s childhood in a Moroccan orphanage may have influenced the book.
Last week my pal Carrie Frye, editor of The Awl: The Book, texted me these photos of The Awl anthology, with so many great essays from former contributors. The book includes my own 2011 essay on a Rapture prediction that didn’t pan out, just in case you’ve ever wondered how long I’ve been on the End Times beat (my whole . . .
I’ve renamed my newsletter from Ancestor Trouble — still a focus and preoccupation — to Meditations on Kinship, which better reflects the breadth of my thinking and feeling and seems like a capacious home going forward. After considering other options, I’m staying on Substack for now. I’m unpersuaded that the alternatives are guaranteed to avoid platforming hate speech, but they . . .