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‘Beloved’ Author and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison Is Dead at 88


The Nobel Prize–winning novelist Toni Morrison died last night (August 5) at the age of 88, according to CNN. The cause of death has not been announced.

Morrison, the author of such acclaimed books as Beloved (for which she won both the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award in 1988), The Bluest Eye, Sula, and Song of Solomon, has been a celebrated force in American literature for decades, helping to document the black experience in the United States from her unique perspective.

In 1993 she became the first black woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize in literature and, in 2012 then President Barack Obama honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Describing her impact ahead of her Nobel acceptance, the Swedish Academy, which bestows the prize, said her work “gives life to an essential aspect of American reality.”

The author was born in 1931 in Lorain, Ohio, where she was raised and lived until she enrolled at Howard University in 1949. Morrison went on to earn a master’s degree from Cornell University and became a professor before becoming a book editor at Random House, where she helped to elevate a number of black writers like Chinua Achebe and Angela Davis.

Toni Morrison with President Barack Obama before being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.Andrew Harrer/Getty Images

She didn’t publish her first novel, The Bluest Eye, until the age of 39 in 1970. Oprah Winfrey selected both Song of Solomon and The Bluest Eye for her famous book club during her talk-show era, which helped bring Morrison’s work to a new generation of readers. Winfrey also coproduced a film adaptation of Beloved. “It’s impossible to actually imagine the American literary landscape without a Toni Morrison,” Winfrey said of Morrison in 2018. “She is our conscience, she is our seer, she is our truth-teller.”

In 2007, Glamour named Morrison one of its Women of the Year. In talking about her work, she said, “There were a lot of books by black writers that were very political and confrontational and all about guys. What about young black girls who had never been the center of anybody’s literary intention?

“No one had written them yet,” she said, “so I wrote them.”

Morrison also wrote a number of children’s books, and her last novel, God Help the Child, was published in 2015.

“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives,” Morrison said in her Nobel acceptance speech.



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Dead to Me Season 2: Here's Everything We Know So Far About the Netflix Series


Fans of Netflix’s hit show Dead to Me, starring Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini, can relax because it has officially been renewed for a second season. The series follows the complicated friendship between Jen (Applegate) and Judy (Cardellini) after they meet each other in a grief support group.

Without giving away too much about the plot of season one—and seriously, get to Netflix ASAP to watch this addicting show—Dead to Me is at once a comedy, an emotional drama, and a thriller. Personally, I’m thrilled that we’ll get some answers in the aftermath of last season’s shocking cliffhanger.

Showrunner Jen Feldman wrote for Glamour earlier this year about how the series was inspired by some major events in her own life. “Jen (Christina Applegate) and Judy (Linda Cardellini) have suffered immense loss, but they gain strength and comfort from their newfound friendship. The story, though not autobiographical, is deeply personal,” she wrote. “The facts are made up. The feelings are real.”

I can’t wait to see where she takes the characters next. Here’s what we know, so far at least, about what to expect from season two of Dead to Me. We’ll keep updating as more information becomes available.

1. The premiere date. Netflix hasn’t announced when, exactly, the show will return, but Feldman tweeted that it will be in 2020.

2. Jen and Judy’s friendship will become deeper and even more complicated. “It will be about the further exploration of this friendship, and relationship, and now very complicated dynamic, or even more complicated dynamic between these two women,” Feldman told Entertainment Weekly. “What I wanted to do was create a situation where they’re forced together, and they need each other now in some ways more than they did at the beginning of season 1.”

Saeed Adyani / Netflix

3. The cast. Not much is known on this front yet, but it’s safe to say Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini will likely reprise their roles.



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How Netflix's Dead to Me Was Inspired by Creator Liz Feldman's Life


Liz Feldman created Dead to Me, Netflix’s new dark and twisty dramedy, during a tumultuous time: She was dealing with the sudden death of a cousin, a frustrating fertility journey, and turning 40. Here, she explains how all of that inspired a show about grief, loss, and friendship.

I’ve been trying to have a baby for six years. And I won’t save the worst for last: I haven’t been successful yet.

My fertility journey has felt more like an odyssey, or if I’m being really honest, a full-on Greek tragedy. There have been painful procedures, infections, and miscarriage. Just when I thought things might be looking up, a lab technician at my Fertility Clinic lost the one egg they were able to retrieve from me. Yes, you read that right. I made one egg and they lost it. And yes, you’re totally allowed to laugh. It was my eighth egg retrieval. I had to laugh too, because I was so tired of crying.

I have learned to look at the darkest moments in life and see the comic aura around them. It’s become more than a coping mechanism; it’s my ethos. And now it’s a TV show.

I created Dead To Me, a deep, dark, twisty dramedy, in the weeks following my fortieth birthday. Turning forty can be a real mind bender, especially if you’re on fertility hormones and trying to get pregnant for what feels like the 600th time. Staring down my own mortality while trying to create life put me in a pretty dark headspace.

And then, on the day of my fortieth birthday, my cousin David died unexpectedly of a heart attack. He was fifty. I absolutely adored David. He was the heart of our family, the life of every party, and a great dad to two sweet kids. And yes, you are totally allowed to cry. I am as I write this.

Christina Applegate, Liz Feldman, and Linda Cardellini at Netflix’s Dead To Me premiere.

Presley Ann/Getty Images

The day after David passed away, my best friend Sarah told me she was pregnant with her second child. I love Sarah madly, but I had to excuse myself to go cry in the bathroom. It’s not that I begrudged her luck, I was just so ready to have some of my own. That night, I flew to New York for David’s funeral.

The following day, I had lunch in Brooklyn with my other best friend, Kelly, who told me she was pregnant. This time I didn’t cry. Instead, I was filled with a weird kind of tingly hope. Maybe this is why it took so long for me to get pregnant—so Sarah, Kelly, and I could have our kids together! Of course! I was buoyed by this thought and reinvigorated. Life does have a way of working out, I thought, until the following day, when I got my period.

A week later, I pitched the beginnings of Dead To Me, a show about two women who meet in a grief support group. Jen (Christina Applegate) and Judy (Linda Cardellini) have suffered immense loss, but they gain strength and comfort from their newfound friendship. The story, though not autobiographical, is deeply personal. The facts are made up. The feelings are real.

With Dead To Me, I have definitely experienced some incredible luck. I got to birth an idea and grow it into a show that I now get to share with the world, via Netflix. Of course, my luck didn’t come in the form I had hoped for, but life is full of twists and turns. Just ask my best friend Kelly. Tragically, five months into her pregnancy, she lost her baby. It was a devastating time. None of it made sense. Here was my beautiful, kind, wonderful friend experiencing a level of pain and loss she did not deserve. It was impossible not to be furious at the cruelty and relentlessness of life.



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Fashion Designer Kate Spade Found Dead After Apparent Suicide


Fashion designer Kate Spade was found dead on Tuesday morning in her New York City home. Though few details have emerged authorities are reporting her death was an apparent suicide.

According to a New York Police Department spokesman, a housekeeper discovered Spade, who was “unconscious” and “unresponsive” in her Park Avenue apartment at around 10:20 a.m. Tuesday and was pronounced dead at the scene. She was 55 years old.

Spade launched her eponymously named handbag line in 1993 alongside her then-boyfriend Andy Spade who she met while attending Arizona State University. As TMZ reported, the two got married one year later in 1994 and watched their brand flourish over the years to include both clothing and jewelry lines. The pair also had one daughter together, Frances Spade.

The pair sold a majority stake of the company in 1999, CNBC reported, to the department store Neiman Marcus for an undisclosed amount of money. In 2007, the brand was then sold for $125 million to a group then known as Liz Claiborne. In 2017, the brand was sold again to Coach for $2.4 billion, however, neither Kate nor Andy saw a dime from that acquisition as they had both relinquished any remaining shares, according to Forbes.

“When we sold the company in 2007, it was really to focus on our family. It really was. It was a grind. I had just had a baby,” Spade told CNBC in 2016.

Following the sale of Kate Spade, the pair went on to launch a new line named after their daughter, Frances Valentine.

“My grandfather, father, brother, and my daughter’s name is Frances. And then Valentine was my mom’s dad’s middle name because he was born on Valentine’s Day,” Spade told WWD in November 2015 about the line’s name. Both the Kate Spade and Frances Valentine brands continue to be sold in stores and beloved by fans around the world today.

If you or someone know are in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or reach out to the Crisis Text Line by texting ‘Home’ to 741741.

This story is developing.



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Church Shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas Leaves at Least 20 Dead


A mass shooting took place in a Texas church on Sunday and has left more than 20 dead and at least 20 injured, according to reports from local, national, and international outlets. The act of domestic terrorism occurred at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, a small rural community located 35 miles east of San Antonio. Local reports say a gunman walked into the church during the morning service and began shooting. The gunman has since been killed, though further details are still breaking.

Albert Gamez Jr., a commissioner in Wilson County, where Sutherland Springs is located, told CNN that he’d been told by police that the shooter was chased into the next county, where he was killed, though it’s unclear whether he killed himself or whether police killed him.

Although it’s not an officially confirmed estimate, he told the BBC that “what they’re telling me, [there are] like 27 deceased and over 20, 25 injured.” The editor of the area’s Wilson County News has said there are children among the fatalities; one of whom is reportedly the pastor’s 14-year-old daughter (he was in Oklahoma over the weekend, a rarity). Residents also told the BBC that about 50 people usually attend the service at this church on a given Sunday, making the high numbers even more heartbreaking.

Sutherland Springs, population 643, is a close-knit town, according to reports. Locals describe it as having a gas station and a post office. “That’s about all there really is,” one told the Times.

“You never expect something like this,” Gamez told the New York Times. “My heart is broken.”

“This is something that happens in a big city,” said a local who works at a gas station nearby. “I would never have thought this would have taken place here. It’s just too tight a community. It doesn’t make sense.”

President Donald Trump tweeted about the shooting soon after news broke. He’s currently on a diplomatic tour of Asia. His daughter and informal White House adviser, Ivanka Trump, also tweeted a statement.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tweeted a statement sending the “thoughts and prayers of all Texans.” Texas Governor Greg Abbott echoed his sentiments in his own post.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) also tweeted, expressing gratitude for the first responders:

Las Vegas’ mayor, Carolyn Goodman, also offered her solidarity to the town:

The hospital continues to receive more injured in the shooting as the story breaks. We’ll update the story as we know more.





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