Here, I Made You a Link Roundup
A little Oldsterish content for your weekend...
I tend to read, watch, and listen to an awful lot of Oldsterish content. Now and then I’ll pass some of it along to you in a link roundup like this one.
“More than four million people have been directly affected by the conflict in Ukraine which broke out in the east of the country in 2014. A disproportionate number of them are older people.” HelpAge—an international organization that fights ageism, and other issues facing older people—is working to support the elderly in Ukraine.
“From aging Civil Rights activists to Native American tribal leaders, to survivors of Stonewall, many stories remain untold or beyond the grasp of museums and institutions…” Through poet and author Jacqueline Woodson’s new project, I See My Light Shining: Oral Histories of our Elders, ten acclaimed writers will conduct hundreds of interviews with elders from marginalized communities.
“Let me just say, first of all, that I’ve never in my life thought of myself and the word legend in the same breath.” Beat. “I guess I am one.” Erik Maza interviews 90-year-old Rita Moreno for Town and Country.
“Margaret Atwood has earned her place as a literary seer, a prophet, a sage elder — or, as she recently described herself, ‘elderly icon or scary witchy granny.’” At the L.A. Times, book critic Carolyn Kellogg profiles the 82-year-old author, who’s just published an essay collection, Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2021.
“I still feel like I haven’t lived up to my full potential. I’ve had success, but there’s still something in my soul that’s, like, “I feel like I can do more, somehow.” In the New Yorker, Jia Tolentino interviews 63-year-old Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell.
“The main reason women lie about their age is fear—fear of judgment, fear that they'll be seen as less valuable, less viable, simply as less. It's a real fear: Ageism is still an acceptable prejudice in this country…” At Yahoo Life!, Oldster Questionnaire-taker Jennifer Romolini and others talk to Beth Greenfield about why many women lie about their age.
“Faced with escalating home prices and rents in tight housing markets, as well as careers or earnings curtailed by age or the pandemic, some boomers are looking to share their homes. Enter the boommates.” At The Washington Post, Soo Youn writes about Baby Boomers becoming housemates, a la The Golden Girls, to save money.
“Kathleen Stone is a writer whose debut, They Called Us Girls: Stories of Female Ambition from Suffrage to Mad Men, is out now from Cynren Press. With a career in law behind her and over 60 herself, she was thrilled to discover 11 other writers who debuted between 60 and 93 years of age.” At LitHub, Kathleen Courtenay Stone features 11 debut authors who are 60 and older.
“Women ultrarunners age like fine wine.” In the running world, 40 is old. But “ulstrarunner” Camille Herron isn’t slowing down—instead she’s setting new records. In The New York Times, she talks with Victor Mather.
The tee-shirt photographed above (which I’ve ordered for myself!) comes from I Love You So Much It Hurts, an Instagram account that offers irreverent sayings on up-cycled second-hand tops.
There are still some spots open for the Oldster/Revel storytelling event to be held on International Women’s Day. The theme is “The Women Who Came Before Us” and four authors—Abigail Thomas, Naz Riahi, Emily Rubin, and Blaise Allysen Kearsley—will read from their Oldster essays published this week in a virtual reading to be held on the Revel site on Tuesday, March 8th at 7pm EST. (This event is for women and women-identifying people only.)
“Do you have a Substack Pro Deal?” “No, I do not have a Substack Pro Deal.” I answer this and other Frequently Asked Questions on the updated About page.