Literary BFFs
plus James Baldwin & Joan Didion exhibitions, an interview with singer-songwriter Half Gringa, profiles of Chelsea Manning & Constance Debré, and much more
Last week I shared a history of Largehearted Boy’s Largehearted Lit reading series. This week, the Literary BFFs series is in the spotlight.
After hosting the Largehearted Lit series for a year at Brooklyn’s WORD Bookstore, I envisioned another series where authors who are good friends talk about books, writing, and especially their friendship. At the time, literary publicist Gabi Gantz and I were publishing an NYC events calendar called BookBoroughing, and she agreed to co-host the events with me.
In July of 2012, Largehearted Lit was born at Manhattan’s McNally Jackson bookstore. Matt Dojny and John Wray took the stage along with a karaoke machine and a bottle of blackberry brandy. Karaoke was my idea, at the time no one had incorporated it into a literary event. After Matt and John’s lively discussion of their friendship and books, they broke out an unforgettable duet of the Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me Baby.”
Unfortunately, the next couple of Literary BFFs guests were not keen on karaoke, so the microphones stayed home after the first event. Within the year our NYC literary calendar website became too much work, so Largehearted Boy took over the Literary BFFs hosting duties.
Over the next five years at McNally Jackson and Brooklyn’s Greenlight Bookstore, I hosted editors and their authors (David Levithan & Eliot Schrefer), long-time friends who brought along transcripts of their AOL Instant Messenger middle school chats (Amy Brill & Tina Chang), college classmates (Emma Straub & Edan Lepucki), and many other combinations of people who loved each other. Their stories and interactions were always engaging and drew some of the most interesting audience questions I have ever heard at literary events.
My introduction to every event was succinct. “Literary BFFs is all about literary community, and celebrates the strongest bond in that community, the friendship of writers.” At the event featuring his daughter Emme, Peter Straub pulled me aside and told me, “That may have been the most eloquent introduction I have ever heard.” Fine words from a fine man.
Literary BFFs returns this year. Publicists and authors, feel free to get in touch. I’m looking forward to sharing the literary love once again.
Largehearted Likes
God Made My Face: A Collective Portrait of James Baldwin
This group exhibit of art alongside James Baldwin’s archival documents is on display at Amherst College’s Mead Art Museum from February 24th through July 9th. Curated by Hilton Als, this collection impressed me when I saw it in 2019 at the David Zwirner Gallery, and put Baldwin’s life and legacy in a new perspective.
Architectural Digest on the Micro-Apartment Trend (or as We Call Them in NYC, Just Apartments)
…with an ever-growing population, ceasing construction completely isn’t always possible, so building less becomes one of the next-best choices. “There’s no need to be the cleverest man in the world to know that there is less impact if your space is smaller,” Torres quips. Smaller homes use fewer materials, minimize construction waste, require less energy to heat and cool, and reduce urban spread, which decreases the need for cars. “It’s just a simple fact of scaling your energy and material needs,” he says. Since they often cost less to build, micro units have a higher probability of using high-quality materials.
Lux Magazine’s profile of Chelsea Manning
In prison, she helped organize with other incarcerated people around meal provisions, realizing in the process that “the scariest thing, to the prison administrators, was when we all worked together. It meant they were losing control.” And in a sentence reflective of her actions throughout the book, she writes, “I have an instant affinity with anybody who is getting harassed, humiliated, or tortured for just being different. I’ve dealt with that kind of treatment my whole life.”
Grimm J’Adoube blended barrel aged saison racked over second-use local Balaton cherries
One of the most refreshing (and interesting) beers I have had in a long time.
A Public Space’s 2023 Editorial Fellowship is open to applications
Weekly literary magazine news.
Molly Crabapple is on Substack
The journalist/author/artist is sharing sketches from her travels.
This Guardian interview with Aleksandr Hemon about his new novel
Did it feel risky incorporating so many languages into the narration?
The book is 102,000 words and I venture that under 1,000 of them are foreign words, but already [among early readers] it has started to come up: “There are a lot of foreign words.” I was aware of the risks, yet I wanted an actively multilingual consciousness at the centre of the novel.Paul Harding on writing his latest novel at the New York Times
“I think of my writing as interrogative,” Harding, 55, said. “You just go in there, and you just listen and look and describe. The mode can never be explanatory. There’s no thesis. There’s no argument. It’s purely descriptive, just always asking, ‘What is it like, what is it like, what is it like?’”
These two poems by [sarah] Cavar
Largehearted Links
How Climate Change Affects Book Preservation
…luck is not a safeguard against the growing threat posed by extreme weather events such as wildfires and floods to book collections, even collections housed in professional facilities. As those events have become more common as a result of climate change, preservationists across the United States know they must adapt their practices to keep books and archives safe. But the solutions can raise their own set of sustainability issues.
UPROXX’s interview with singer-songwriter Half Gringa
What are four words you would use to describe your music?
Pondering Midwestern Latina Poet.
Isaac Mizrahi on books and reading
Beauty makes me weep more than tragedy. There are songs in the Shakespeare play Twelfth Night that make me weep literally every time I read them.
Marisa Crane on writing experimental fiction
Using inventive forms and styles to tell stories isn’t about doing what’s never been done before—it’s about stretching the limits of storytelling. It’s about giving a big middle finger to the restrictions you put on yourself.
Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space
This PBS documentary examines the life and legacy of Zora Neal Hurston.
The Van Pelt is releasing its first new album in 26 years
The Guardian’s profile of Constance Debré, whose books I am currently obsessed with
“There’s always a price to pay for freedom,” says Constance Debré, running a hand over her shaved head and her neck tattoo that reads “plutôt crêver” (“rather die”). The 50-year-old author, who faced a fierce custody battle over her young son after coming out as gay in her mid 40s, adds: “To me, that’s a happier, livelier way to see things: rather than saying there are injustices or blows raining down on you, you realise it’s all because you’re living life in the way you want, seeking out an existence … trying to give life some shape. That’s why life and literature are so connected: it’s the quest for form.”
Last Week’s LHB Feature Posts
Chelsea Stickle's playlist for her chapbook Everything's Changing
Dan Kois's playlist for his novel Vintage Contemporaries
Dawn Raffel's playlist for her story collection Boundless as the Sky
Josh Riedel's playlist for his novel Please Report Your Bug Here