Happy fall! Tomorrow is World Mental Health Day, and I’m stoked that Mind Game is coming out in paperback so soon: Thursday, Oct. 16. Imagine the hardcover version, but softer and cheaper. What’s not to love? You can preorder a copy at any of the usual spots. If you snag it from Astoria Bookshop, I’ll go sign it for ya.
New Yorkers, I want to celebrate the launch with you on Tuesday, Oct. 21. I’m planning to be in Manhattan at Wilka’s, the city’s first women’s sports bar, in conversation with my buddy and recovering sports journalist Haley O’Shaughnessy. The exact logistics are still coming together, but figure it’ll start at 6 p.m., ahead of the bar’s regular trivia night at 7:30. (I’ll send an update if something changes.) Stick around and play!
On Slate
My story on a new term called gender detachment, coined by gender and sexuality researcher Canton Winer, was published on Slate last month. Here’s an excerpt:
The gender-detached people Winer spoke to, one of whom supplied her gender as “meh,” identified as asexual. In the same way asexuality for some can feel like a lack of a sexual orientation, rather than an orientation of its own representing no sexual attraction, Winer’s interviewees were essentially articulating to him a lack of gender identity. He summarized some of his respondents’ answers to him thus: “The concept of having a gender that I identify with feels inaccurate, uncomfortable, unnecessary, irrelevant to me,” he said. “I think actually that a lot of people who say that they’re agender probably feel that way about gender, but we don’t really live in a world that gives us the option to say, ‘Well, my gender is no thank you.’ ”
Don’t forget to come say hi at Wilka’s — and maybe toss me a few dollars if you can to help support my journalism. I should have more work to share here soon!