For Vanity Fair, Lucy Sante writes about her transition: “The beautiful image I sometimes see in the mirror is immediately undone if I try to take a picture. But I am much happier than I can remember being, more centered, many many times more social. A few years before my transition, I had undertaken to sell my papers to the New York Public Library and realized, dimly, that I was preparing for death. Now I want to put off the final curtain for as long as possible.”
The National Book Critics Circle announced the finalists for its 2021 awards last night. Thirty finalists in six categories will be in the running for the best books in their category; the winners will be revealed in March. In addition, Merve Emre won the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, Percival Everett received the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, and Cave Canem Foundation was honored with the Toni Morrison Achievement Award.
Anthony Veasna So’s Afterparties is being made into a television series. For more on So’s story collection, see Jane Hu’s review in the fall issue of Bookforum.
On the new episode of the Longform Podcast, the New Yorker staff writer Michael Schulman talks about his profile of Succession actor Jeremy Strong and his other celebrity journalism for the magazine.
On Tuesday, January 25th, biographer Cathy Curtis will talk about her recent book on Elizabeth Hardwick, hosted by the CUNY Graduate Center in New York.