Absolutely blown away that Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors has been long-listed for the Royal Society of Literature/Ondaatje Prize and short-listed for the James Tait Black Prize.

my books are open for may!

I’m a designer and can make your mom a cute collage, design your podcast artwork, make social media graphics for your book / org, typeset your graphic memoir… basically anything you can think of.

lilleallen.com for work samples 🩷

For NYT Magazine, wrote about why KISS is good, but also bad, which makes it good again:
nytimes.com/2024/03/26/mag…

Here's an excerpt from LESSONS FOR SURVIVAL about my home place in The Atlantic thanks to editor Jenisha Watts. I gave this my all. Mosholu, I see you. You have washed clean my eyes. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

I know I'm obsessed with Baby Jane, and I know I've posted this before. But this article by Niela Orr is so fabulous thebaffler.com/salvos/the-wom…

HARLEM IS EVERYWHERE, a new podcast hosted by yours truly, is here! Presented by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in collaboration with Pineapple Street, listen in as we explore the music, fashion, literature & nightlife of the Harlem Renaissance!

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/har…

In NYT Magazine, I wrote about the janky je nais se quoi of Tubi movies: those viral films marked by awful production values. They’re feature-length blooper reels, moving “spot the difference” pictures. Their cinematic world is askew as the actual world feels. nytimes.com/2024/02/14/mag…

Good news is hard to come by these days, and this definitely qualifies. Congrats to The Hollywood Reporter 's wonderful Arts & Culture Critic lovia. Could not be prouder!!!

hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-n…

On this day of celebration of #Usher and his peerless career, I’m re-reading Danielle Amir Jackson’s masterful profile of him in NYT Magazine: nytimes.com/2023/10/11/mag…

Today's my first day at New York Magazine! I'll be editing culture stories for the magazine. Excited to work with some of the best culture writers in the business!

'I remember the weight of the laundry, the solemnity of my task and the laughter just beneath it. Something about the princess and the pea: being the pea.' This beautiful essay about laundry makes me want to read more by Lucy Corin Lucy Corin.nytimes.com/2024/01/30/mag…

a Vulture profile of Venita Blackburn:

A merciless self-editor, she whittled her M.F.A. thesis from a 300-plus-page novel to four pages. “I’ve never been precious about my writing,” she says. “I can always make another sentence later.”

vulture.com/article/venita…

If you like The Curse (and I do—very much!), try Bill Gunn's Personal Problems (1980), one of the only things I can think of that ultimately made me feel a similar way. Unsettling, soulful, inscrutable, transcendent stuff.

Hey Philly, join us Wed Jan 31st for an event with Kiley Reid and her new novel Come and Get It, in conversation with Niela Orr! Details: tinyurl.com/au3bpa84 Uncle Bobbies The Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation @FreeLibrary Penguin Random House 🐧🏠📚 G. P. Putnam's Sons

Join us Wed Jan 31st for an event with Kiley Reid and her new novel Come and Get It, in conversation with Niela Orr! Details: tinyurl.com/au3bpa84 Uncle Bobbies The Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation @FreeLibrary Penguin Random House 🐧🏠📚 G. P. Putnam's Sons

Feminist & queer hip hop syllabus done! Ft writings by Shanté Paradigm, Dr. Lauron Kehrer 🏳️‍🌈 😷, Down4MyDEIs, Dr. Gina Mae, Dr. Unicorn the Indefatigable, Professor J - Janell Hobson, Amy Coddington, DoctaE, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, scott poulson-bryant, QueerBlackFeminist, Will Mosley, taylor crumpton, Niela Orr, #JoanMorgan , & more

“Literature is produced by writers, yes, but also by communities that shape them.” —Kwame Anthony Appiah buff.ly/31tsoEd

I wrote about Godzilla and the destruction of cities for NYT Magazine: nytimes.com/2024/01/04/mag…

Just announced! Join us Wed 1/31 for an event with Kiley Reid and her new novel Come and Get It, in conversation with Niela Orr! Details: tinyurl.com/5c7uz3f4