COMPLEX FEMALE CHARACTER: my first book

i sold a book!

the headline kind of says it all: my first book, COMPLEX FEMALE CHARACTER, is officially forthcoming from Knopf. i’ve been waiting to share this with you for a long, long time, and i am just indescribably excited to be able to tell you about it now. <3

it’s a collection of essays, most of them original and never-before-seen, a few of them expanded from things i’ve previously published here. they’re about womanhood, illness, religion, surveillance, commodification, and — perhaps most of all — performance; as you probably know, i’ve always been fascinated by how we construct the self in a world where someone is always watching. to be able to write ~60,000 words on the topic is a privilege and a thrill !!!

the last few months have been a whirlwind, to say the least: i’m moving to new york. i’m moving out of the apartment i shared with someone who i once thought i’d spend the rest of my life with. i sold this book to a wonderful editor at my dream publisher, which has been an experience so strange and scary and wonderful that i haven’t even really felt all of it yet. it feels sort of silly to call anything my life’s work at this point, but if anything is my life’s work, it’s this book: i feel so, so excited about every part of it. i dream about it. i cry all the time but i’m never sad.

it’s so cliche that it almost goes without saying, but i’d feel like a bit of a monster if i didn’t say it again: this substack, and all the people that read it, have changed my life. i am so lucky and so grateful, and i really, really can’t wait for you to read COMPLEX FEMALE CHARACTER! i can’t wait to write this book and to share it with you.

some housekeeping: you’ll get all the relevant book updates (pre-order links down the road, etc) from me here, no further action required. i’ll give more updates very soon about how my substack will function while i write my book over the next year (don’t worry, it’ll be mostly normal, except i might have even more paid professionals telling me to get a new essay out already).

there’s honestly a lot more i could say about this, but i feel like i should cut myself off before i get too weepy and self-indulgent (there is a very annoying book-announcement draft in my notes app that reflects heavily on my teenage years and, weirdly, gets kind of cynical about God? but i’m an adult now, and i have SELF-CONTROL).

thank you for everything!! i can’t wait for the future!!