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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
A Read With Jenna Book Festival is Coming
Jenna Bush Hager is taking her popular book club to Nashville for the first ever Read With Jenna Book Festival. It’s a two-day festival happening May 30-31 and will feature authors, book club discussions, live performances, and more. Hager said Read With Jenna authors Elin Hilderbrand, Ann Patchett, Alison Espach, Rumaan Alam, and Jessica Soffer will appear, and there will be a performance by singer-songwriter Blessing Offor. General admission is $399, which honestly knocked the wind out of me. That gets you admission for a single day–Saturday. When I think “book festival,” my mind goes to the L.A. Times Festival of Books, where I’d show up maybe having paid a few bucks for advance registration to some panels to ensure I got a seat. I was not in the mind of Coachella-level pricing. General admission includes food, beverages, and curated giveaway items in addition to programming, so obviously this is not the open to the public, food carts everywhere kind of event my brain jumped to. VIP admission is an eye-popping $699 and gets you the extra day and exclusive events. The event is a month away and there aren’t a lot of programming details… I don’t know, y’all–I’m a bit puzzled by the whole thing, but maybe the Read With Jenna army will show up and shell out.
10 Things I Hate About You Heads to Broadway
Who could have expected a 10 Things I Hate About You Broadway musical adaptation with Carly Rae Jepsen and Lena Dunham attached? Not I. The 1999 film based on William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, had many a teen swooning over a young Heath Ledger, and this Daria-loving bookworm was drawn to the film’s concept and Julia Stiles’ Kat Stratford like a moth to the flame. It was only a matter of time before we got a reboot of some sort. Jepsen and Dunham will be partnered up with producer Ethan Gruska on the upcoming musical’s score and playwright Jessica Huang on the book, respectively. Jepsen moved far beyond her breakout hit pop song, “Call Me Maybe,” with multiple albums and a Broadway performance in Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella. I don’t know if Dunham has moved beyond her controversies, of which there are too many to link here, but the former Girls creator is additionally attached to write the script for a film based on Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon by Michael Lewis, about Sam Bankman-Fried. We don’t have a lot of details about the musical yet, but you can read more about it at Rolling Stone.
A Magazine for Trans Youth by Trans Youth
PSA! There’s a new magazine for trans youth by trans youth on the block. Chrysalis Magazine launches this fall and they’re currently looking for trans youth to submit visual art, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, advice questions, and journalistic reporting for their first issue. I loved this note speaking to what they’re about:
These days, it feels like we are always hearing about trans kids and teens. Chrysalis was created so that trans, non-binary, intersex, genderqueer, agender, two-spirit, and otherwise gender expansive youth can speak for themselves – and most importantly, speak to one another.
Learn more about the magazine, including how to submit your work if you’re a trans person 18 or under, and how to donate if you’re looking for other ways to support the work they’re doing.
Spicy Romance is All the Rage. Why Isn’t Erotica Getting the Same Attention?
When does romance cross into erotica territory, and if the prominence of explicit sex scenes and a high level of spiciness in romantasy and other genres is pointing to demand, why aren’t we seeing more erotica popularized? Explore these and other questions about romance and erotica here.
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