For those in New York who love books
a special invitation to the next Femme Circle 📚🥂
Welcome to Wanderess, a free and sporadic newsletter brought to you by the founder of Unearth Women. In this newsletter, I invite you to the next Femme Circle and wax poetic about creating meaningful offline experiences and content. If you’ve found your way here but are not yet subscribed, here, let me help you with that:
Back in 2024, I read a newsletter from Alison Roman’s newsletter (aptly titled “a newsletter”), in which she waxed poetic about her love of books.
“I love spending my precious sweet time making things that feel long-lasting and impactful,” she writes. “I’m not good at TikTok and have an increasingly low tolerance for content created for the internet gaze, but I love making books.”
This is a sentiment I feel deeply as an author of two books (Call You When I Land and Wanderess). I, too, love creating long-lasting, tangible art, despite an increasingly attention-deficient and digitally obsessed world.
Looking back at my career as both a travel writer and editor, much of my work exists digitally, geared towards the internet gaze—from digital articles to curated social media posts to edited travel videos. For as much as I enjoy this content, it somehow feels too fleeting. That article that took days for me to edit and produce or that online story that took me months to write, may exist indefinitely within the expanse of the virtual world but to readers, it’s a mere blip on a radar seen for a minute on the homepage of a website or a post on their Instagram feed. While most of I’ve created tends to hold a special place in my heart, it’s the things I’ve done offline that stick out in my memory: the books I’ve written, the conferences I’ve spoken at, the magazine I launched, the event series I created—all meant to foster connections that go beyond a quick “like” or emoji-riddled comment.
This, I imagine, is what Roman is getting at: creating online content is inevitable—such are the times, and we must move with the times to survive—but we can still appreciate creations that take time, are immersive, even tangible and require more than five minutes to read or one minute to watch.
This brings me to books.
As a published author currently in the throes of writing my third novel, I’m fascinated by the world of book publishing. How is the book industry surviving in the face of AI? Is the book industry, much like media, facing apocalyptic hurdles? Whose voices are readers hungry to read and, therefore, getting published? Which voices need to be lifted and should be published? What kind of stories are becoming bestsellers today?
These are lofty questions that I refuse to ask ChatGPT, and so, I’ve decided to dedicate the next Femme Circle to book publishing and ask women within the industry all about today’s literary world. Inspired by New York's historic Round Table and its "Vicious Circle”—where an informal group of influential artists regularly met in the 1920s and 30s—The Femme Circle is a seasonal series inviting creative women and their allies to gather for candid discussions around storytelling, representation, and navigating today’s creative industries.
The first Femme Circle invited writers and editors from across the media industry to weigh in on the media landscape, sharing their own experiences. For this next one, I’m bringing together a panel of women who can offer a unique perspective on the book publishing landscape, from the viewpoints of bestselling authors, literary agents, and publishing houses.
“I like spending money making things that feel lush and vibrant and full and professional and polished and soulful and honest,” wrote Roman in her newsletter, and the Femme Circle (along with my own books) is very much that for me. It’s an opportunity to connect offline, bring people together, and create space for meaningful conversations that reflect on how creativity is evolving.
With that, if you’re NYC-based and are an aspiring author, curious about the world of publishing, or simply love books, I’d love to invite you to the next Femme Circle, taking place at Neuehouse in Manhattan on July 24th. Open to Neuehouse members and non-members, this free event will kick off with a happy hour where complimentary bubbly will be served, followed by a one-hour panel discussion.
I hope to see you there!
What I’m Watching: Having just moved to a new apartment, I’ve been watching nearly every episode of The Home Edit on Netflix. For those unfamiliar with The Home Edit, this company was founded by two women with a knack for organization, transforming any cluttered room into a thing of color-coordinated beauty. Ahead of my move, I drew A LOT of inspiration from The Home Edit, and am now the proud owner of two color-coordinated bookshelves, a closet organized like a boutique store, and a kitchen where nearly everything is contained within acrylic bins and neatly labeled. As a surprise to no one but me, I’ve only recently learned I’m Type-A. If you’re moving to a new home or in need of a serious home refresh, I highly recommend watching a few episodes of The Home Edit.
What I’m Reading: I recently finished The Missing Half by Ashley Flowers, the queen of true crime (her podcast, Crime Junkie, is my favorite listen and one I’ve recommended on this newsletter in the past). If you’re looking for a quick read that draws you in fast and spits you out bewildered, this is the book for you. I'm notorious for spoiling things, so I’ll stop myself here except to say that this book seems predictable and then ends in the most unpredictable way ever.
