Why Accountability?
In 2017, I published a nonfiction true crime narrative called The 57 Bus, about two teenagers on either side of a high-profile crime. One teenager was nonbinary. One was Black. Each of them was trying to figure out how to write their own story in a world that already had a script prepared for them. Based on a story I’d written for the New York Times Magazine, the book went on to become a New York Times bestseller and win a number of prestigious awards, including being named to Time magazine’s list of the One Hundred Best YA Books of All Time.
That book, and its unexpected success, has led me to all manner of amazing places. I joined a restorative justice circle made up of formerly-incarcerated and never-incarcerated people from all walks of life. I traveled to every corner of the country talking to young people about race, gender, and justice. And I spent five years reporting and writing a new nonfiction narrative called Accountable, about a racist social media account at a public high school and the young people who created, followed, and were targeted by it.
I’ve now spent nearly ten years writing, thinking, and talking about issues of race, gender, justice, adolescence, hate, and accountability, in addition to my long career as a criminal justice reporter. This newsletter will be a chance to share some of what I’ve learned, as well as an exploration of the the lenses I look through when I consider current events. I’ll be talking about social media and radicalization, history and policy, isolation and connection, and much much more. I’ve got a lot to say on these topics, and I’m guessing you do too. The newsletter won’t launch until mid-2023, but I’m hoping you’ll subscribe now. There’s nothing like readers to inspire writers.