This week, I’m thinking about A Little Life. I ran the essay below for the 5th year anniversary. I’m adding onto it for this week for the 10 year anniversary. What, in fact, is time?

*****SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK WILL FOLLOW*****

Hanya and I worked together at Conde Nast. We became fast friends despite the fact that we are both strong-willed with sharp tongues and minimal patience, but perhaps that is why we became friends in the first place? All I know is that she calls me the bossiest person she knows and I wear the badge proudly. 

After reading her first book, The People in the Trees (which is brilliant), I bugged her about letting me read the galley of the book she was working on. I'd seen the draft in her office on more than one occasion, the impossibly high stack of pages marked with changes from her editor that she would not take. When giving it to me, she mentioned wanting to do a visual project to accompany the book release. At that point, I didn't really know what that meant or what it could look like. I read the galley Thanksgiving weekend, 2014. I spent a full day reading the book - from morning until night, from couch to chair to bed - and falling in love with the characters. And then having my heart broken. When I reached the final 100 pages, I wept. A lot. 

That Monday, I stormed into her office, FURIOUS. How DARE she do that to Malcolm? Jude!?? To Willem?! How DARE she leave Harold alone? I told her I couldn't look at her. . .but also that I wanted to take the project on.

My brain went into creative overdrive and I went back through the book a second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, nth time annotating it for visual possibilities. In the end, I commissioned nearly 20 photographers, two artists and two bakers to illustrate scenes and lines from the book for the instagram. In some cases, the photographers read the book and were inspired on their own, for others, I handpicked their assignments. For several months, I posted original content to the instagram page. At one point, I worked with a professor at SVA who assigned the project and for several weeks, those were the images that populated the feed. 

After seeing the project come to life, the publisher got excited and printed postcards of some of the images. Hanya also wanted to make a small number totes for some of the most passionate book sellers and sales reps who had championed the book before it was published. We asked designer Josef Reyes to design the boy’s names as you see them on the bag and pin. It is a popular design. We ran a giveaway through the IG and a few of the earliest fans got their own tote.

People were so excited about them that the publisher then decided to print a larger number to distribute. Hanya and I decided that we wanted each "edition" of the tote to have a different colorway and asked them to do red lettering on canvas bags. A new version of the bags were printed by the publisher for the paperback edition, and then another by a European bookstore. People loved them. When I carried mine, I was stopped on the street by fans of the book. At some point, Hanya and I decided to make it available for everyone to download, so they could make their own. We made a special edition tote with street names. The paperback publisher also made lapel pins. The boys were everywhere. The book did very very well. 

As the book gained in popularity, so did the IG. . .and then book was released internationally. Once I stopped commissioning original art, the account shifted to fan-generated content that includes #bookfacefriday,  trips to Lispenard St., art, tattoos, etc. Five years and 17k followers later [ED NOTE: 65k now], fans still tag the account with their photos of the book, with the book, visiting #literarylandmarks. In 2018, I did an in-person giveaway on Lispenard Street. Everything was gone within 10 minutes. 

To say that the book changed my life is a bit of an understatement. Not only because it is a brutally heartbreaking book that will stick with me forever and whose characters worked their way into my brain, never to leave, but also because Hanya kindly, generously discussing it at events beget my next project for the Pulitzer Prize winning, Less, which led my next project for The Ghost Notebooks, which turned into this instagram project for The Shadow King. [ED NOTE: and this and other projects which I have not added to my website]

In 2022, Hanya released To Paradise and I got to be a part of the marketing and publicity plans from the early stages. Then in 2023, the play adaptation came to the West End and I got to work on that campaign with the producers which was a new and exciting experience.

This passion project was the beginning of my own small visual corner of the book world. I’m so grateful to Hanya for bringing me into the fold and trusting me with her story, her book, her boys. 

Happy 10th anniversary, Jude & JB & Willem & Malcolm & Hanya. 

This week in reading. . .
I’ve been out for the count with a truly miserable head cold and my reading time took a tough hit. I read Acts of Desperation which was a darker, sadder cousin to My Husband. I can’t decide if I’d recommend it. I’m not finished with One Day, Everyone Will Have Been Against This, but it is exceptionally good so far.

​This week in listening. . .
NO ONE TOLD ME BILAL DID A TINY DESK. YOU ARE ALL FIRED. Enemies!

​This week in TV. . .
Running Point was a lot of fun. Kate Hudson is great. Obviously Max Greenfield is wonderful. Jay Ellis looks incredibleeeeee. I hope there is a second season.

Every clip I’ve seen is cringey. Every review is vicious. I am going to watch every single minute of Love, Meghan.

​​This week in a gif. . .

​This week in a newsletter. . .
Thrilled that Caroline Moss is moving away from Amazon links, so much so that I immediately paid for the annual subscription and got five gifts subs to give away. First five folks to email will get a 1-month subscription.

Photographer and friend Peter Prato has launched a lovely newsletter.

THIS IS NOT A DRILL: Britt, Unhinged is live.

This week in google searches. . .

This week in one good thing. . .
Sick days and cold medicine.

​This week in a quote. . .
“That is how history turns—not through mass consensus but through the actions of determined minorities who know exactly where they want to go while everyone else is still arguing about the road.” - Rafal Rohozinski

​This week in artsy stuff and photo things. . .
Yessss, bring on the small art books!!

Here’s a gift link for a story I worked on at work that I really love and am proud of

I saw that this artist was inspired by Gilmore Girls, so obviously IMMEDIATE CLICK. (Jury remains out on if I agree)

Friend of the newsletter, Margo J. sent along this link which is for a free 1-year membership to Theatre Development Fund for public and charter high school seniors graduating in 2025.

​This week on the internet. . .
I have not reread it in two decades, but the way A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius imprinted on me should be studied by science. . .or written about by Dan Kois.

How dare the chefs de-spice menus!? Keep it spicy, you cowards!!!

Hellgate headline writers deserve a raise: just saying.

A pediatrician who went to Gaza shares her heartbreaking story.

I can’t believe The Sims are still going strong 25 years later.

Finally got around to reading Rebecca Mead on Amanda Dimoldenberg and this line, in parentheticals, no less, is going to HAUNT ME: (She hasn’t seriously dated anyone from the show.)

me, with my amazing coloring skills,
Leonor

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