BY JESSICA GROSS As usual, now that our LABA discussions have primed me toward BEAUTY, the subject has been leaping out at me from all corners, from the highbrow to the lowbrow: Critic Mark Harris examines the media’s willful refusal to acknowledge Melissa McCarthy’s dependable bankability and talent at performing diverse roles: “Critics can like or dislike
LABALive #1 Appreciating BEAUTY Is Not As Simple As It Seems. Next Thursday, LABA Fellows and the downtown community will join together for the first LABAlive event on BEAUTY. Join LABA Fellows Gon Ben Ari, Jessica Gross, and Gal Beckerman as they share new literary work based on their investigation of BEAUTY through Classical Jewish
On Thursday, February 25, LABAlive will present an evening of fiction, presentations, and subversive teachings exploring our relationship with beauty. The evening will feature teachings by Ruby Namdar and work by fellows Gal Beckerman, Gon Ben Ari, and Jessica Gross, who will read a new short story, “Black Box.” Gross talks about her new work and the inspiration she found in our house
BY JESSICA GROSS Looking for a new dose of beauty musings? You’ve come to the right place. Over at The New Republic’s Intersection podcast, hosted by Jamil Smith, a recent episode on body image features discussions with writer Lindy West, editor Isaac Fitzgerald, trainer Andia Winslow, and blogger Erika Nicole Kendall. In an On Being interview with artist Ann Hamilton,
BY JESSICA GROSS This week’s links and quotes complicate the idealization and idolization of beauty. The writers below valorize not the power of beauty, but the power of putting it in its place. (Except for that last quote, which plays with beauty’s more dangerous powers.) In an essay on Flavorwire, writer (and LABA alum) Sarah Marian Seltzer
Jessica Gross writes fiction, essays, and criticism. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review Daily, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Longreads, New York Magazine’s Vulture, Kirkus Reviews, and more. In 2014, she did a test run of a writer’s residency on an Amtrak train from New York to