September 16, 2018: On the acknowledgments page in her new novel, The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (and Their Muses), author Terri-Lynne DeFino writes, “Though she has no idea who I am, and likely never will, I feel the need to thank Dame Helen Mirren, whose brilliant catalog of work gave Olivia life, breath, and heart.” Like DeFino, I can’t introduce you to Mirren, but I can introduce you to Olivia, one of the stars of The Bar Harbor Retirement Home, which—well, lookee here—I review in today’s Portland Press Herald.

September 10, 2018: I believe that everyone is entitled to one or two irrational fears in life, and mine are driving and dancing. But that didn’t prevent me from reading and writing about Vince Aletti’s The Disco Files 1973–78: New York’s Underground, Week by Week; it’s on the verge of being reissued, but my piece is out now in L’Officiel number four (September/October). (Sorry: It’s not online. But it’s out there.) Vince was nice enough to let me interview him about his book, which is a tremendous artifact of a scene that was radical in a way that never occurred to me back when I was a dumb-ass kid.

August 5, 2018: That’s Sander Hall you’re seeing blown up. The building—a high-rise dorm commissioned by the University of Cincinnati—was designed by the architect Woodie Garber, the extravagantly imperfect father of the poet Elizabeth W. Garber, whose new memoir, Implosion, I review in today’s Portland Press Herald. Maybe hold your ears and give it a gander here?

July 22, 2018: By that I mean, please won’t you read my piece on The Neighbor, Joseph Souza’s new thriller? This is my first regular-length review for the Portland Press Herald, and it’s out today, and it’s right here, in case you want to glance at it. Thank you. You. Are. Special.

July 2, 2018: Joan, Maggie, and Judi would really like you to read my latest piece—an essay this time—for the New York Times Book Review; in “Bob Dylan and Will Smith: Children’s Authors?,” I tackle a major existential conundrum of our times: do pop song lyrics have any business being picture-book texts? The piece is going to run in the Sunday Times book review dated July 8, but it’s available online today, right here. Happy now? You know I am.

June 23, 2018: The Madrid-based Peruvian feminist Gabriela Wiener is fighting the good fight, sex-wise. Sexographies, her first book translated into English, is out today, and so is my third piece for L’Officiel, for which I interviewed her by email through a translator. You really should read it if you’re not too busy having sex. / June 28, 2018: Okay, I’ve just seen the issue and must report that a couple of errors were introduced to my piece (take slow, easy breaths, Nell…), and (of lesser importance) my best lines were cut in the zero hour for (presumably) space reasons, so I don’t really stand by this piece anymore. But thanks for your interest, and hopefully I won’t feel compelled to disown the next thing I publish…

April 24, 2018: Judy, Judy, Judy…what did Jimmy Stewart do to you? I had the pleasure of thinking this through in my second piece for L’Officiel, in which I look at Vertigo, which turns sixty this year, through the lens of the #MeToo movement. I got some swell insights from film critic Molly Haskell, and the great Kim Novak, who does precious few interviews and is Vertigo’s last surviving cast member, answered a couple of my questions via her can-do manager and friend, Sue Cameron. Anyway, my piece is out now, but if you’re going to your nearest newsstand to find it, please walk: don’t jump.

February 27, 2018: Listen here, laddies and lassies: Trainspotting (book, not movie) turns twenty-five this year, and I just wrote about it for the first U.S. edition of L’Officiel, which pubs today. The great Irvine Welsh was kind enough to grant me an email interview, which really spruced up the joint. Maybe give the piece a gander?

December 27, 2017: Keith Keith Keith Keith Keith Keith in The Awl Keith Keith Keith Keith Keith Keith Keith Keith Keith Keith Keith Keith Keith I said Keith in The Awl Keith Keith Keith Keith Keith Keith I mean Keith and I really mean it.

December 1, 2017: My second piece for the New York Times Book Review—a cluster review of kids’ books that would make neato holiday gifts—is online today; the piece will be in the print issue dated December 3. A couple of old dames really want you to read it.