"to recite the truth"
Friday Seven // 0010
Hello and a brief introduction: this is a newsletter called "Friday Seven," written by me, Melissa Gira Grant, journalist and author, to record seven things that are still on my mind as the week runs down. Welcome/back. I'm currently at work on a new book, called A Woman Is Against the Law, which will be published by Little, Brown. I'm also a staff writer at The New Republic, where I've spent the past five years reporting on all that is under attack (again), which is not really a "beat," but is how it looks to me. You can find me most often on Bluesky.
// 1. This, about my new book:
I just re-read some of the new parts of my book written over the last two weeks, and not only had I forgotten half of it, I also forgot despite the last two weeks and my own impossible standards, it’s good
— Melissa Gira Grant (@melissagiragrant.com) 2025-09-19T15:08:47.823Z
I was too far into the writing to do any new book-in-progress posts, but here's what I can share now:
On Tuesday I sent off a nearly 89,000 word draft with a decent number of TKs still because it was both my deadline and time to get to editing. As I told my editor, "Without a deadline I would have just kept going."
// 2. The news. It took me most of Tuesday and Wednesday just to feel caught up enough to even venture something, which ended up coming at the big news of the week sideways: The Trump administration is not denying the existence of far-right violence; they are telling us it is useful to them.
// 3. "Black Voices Are Vital to Democracy. The Media Must Stop Firing Them." (by Perry Bacon, now at The New Republic)
// 4. "American Shrapnel" is a deeply-reported podcast series on still-recent historic events: the 1996 Atlanta and 1998 Birmingham bombings, targeting the Olympics, two abortion clinics, and a lesbian night club. The series is by John Archibald, who reported on the bomber at the time, and Becca Andrews, who reports on abortion and right-wing extremism now. It does not feel like history.
// 5. "I find it useful to recite the truth as a way of holding onto it" is a line from a post by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein that's been hanging out in my to-include list since July, and it feels right now, too.
// 6. Book darts. They are pretty gentle on pages.
I've got these brass ones (no kickbacks to me on that link or any others here). The book is my heavily-annotated ARC of Hugh Ryan's The Women's House of Detention.
// 7. The bee, pictured above. I didn't grow those particular flowers from seed (I got them from Prairie Moon). But every time I see a bee on them I feel like I accomplished something.
Thanks for reading. You are still here.
