TueDo List: Frida + 90s Con + Beehives
Plus, a frank look at book publishing and celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month.
THIS WEEK
📖 READ: The Gen-X guide to Brooklyn nightlife (in bed by 9pm). “You are likely to have a longer relationship with the women you go to the Barbie movie with than any of your male romantic partners.” Can America age gracefully? (Gift link). The women who transformed Rolling Stone and Janis Ian on Jann Wenner. TueNight contributor Deesha Philyaw’s seven-figure deal for her next two books! This lovely Stacy London interview. In praise of midlife heroines in film and fiction. Lita Ford, total badass. RIP, Irish Grinstead of 702.
👀 LOOK: The beehive: a study of big hair. Scenes from 90s Con. TikTok’s Mikayla Nogueira attempts ‘80s makeup (only we NEVER used primer). Artist Tiffany Shlain rewrites women into U.S. history. Vogue opens London fashion week with Annie Lennox and ‘90s supermodels back on the catwalk.
🎧 LISTEN: New album drops from The Pretenders and Indie pop lords Teenage Fanclub. New live performance video of Jenny Lewis’ “Cherry Baby.”
🎟️ GO: Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with these events, nationwide. Ten major style exhibitions. Everything happening during Climate Week NYC.
📺 WATCH:
This week: Explore the life of the celebrated artist in this three-part docuseries, Becoming Frida Kahlo (PBS).
Wed: Kim Kardashian and Cara Delevingne join a creepy new season (and first-time novel adaptation) of American Horror Story (FX).
Thurs: Gillian Anderson in the final season of the hilariously provocative coming-of-age series, Sex Education (Netflix).
Fri: No One Will Save You adds aliens to a home invasion and it looks awesome (Hulu). The Continental: From the World of John Wick throwing it back to ‘70s New York, where it all began (Peacock) and a heartwarming film about late-in-life love between an Irish widow and a widower in My Sailor, My Love (Theaters).
STORY: Why Is Publishing Making Authors So Sick?
By Lisa Weinert
One of my early mentors at Random House told me that writers write for four different reasons: They have something they need to say; they have something they need to shed light on; they have something to teach or a way to help others; they want to have something to talk about at dinner parties. Over the years, I’ve also learned that writing to be published requires a certain reckless internal impulse to share your work in the world, despite the perils. It’s not always logical or sane and it’s rarely easy. It’s like the Kurt Vonnegut quote: “We have to be continually jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.”
Knowing all of this, when the time came earlier this summer to publish my first book, Narrative Healing, I approached the release date with the confidence of a fool. It turned out everything I thought I knew had not prepared me for what I didn’t know: namely, that knowing how things work does not release you from the big feelings that come with sharing vulnerable work into the world.
Writing a book has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl, and yet instead of feeling elation when the book came out, I felt pure dread and acute anxiety. I developed a rash and had a constant stomach ache. The tape running through my head was I’m not doing enough and time is running out. The worst part was my expectation that I was supposed to be having the time of my life, like all the touring authors I saw on Instagram, grinning next to piles of books and adoring fans.
TUENIGHT 10: Letisha Marrero, Middle-Grade Novelist
Your Age: 54
Basic bio: Letisha, a once “semi-famous entertainment journalist” in NYC turned digital media maven and editorial director for a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit, has been a writer and editor for more than 20 years. Her debut middle-grade novel, Salsa Magic, releases on September 26.
Beyond the bio: Living out a childhood dream of becoming an author is both exhilarating and humbling. It’s taken me 20 years to publish this novel, but I realize everything is happening exactly as it’s supposed to be happening.
What makes you a grown-ass lady? I had my only child at age 35, when I was single, and through many ups and downs managed to raise a human being to age 18. I’m so proud of the person he’s become. I’m a recent empty nester, so I’m still navigating this emotional rollercoaster. But I know the job of mom never ceases…
¡Feliz Mes de la Herencia Hispana, TueNighters!