Sloane Crosley

New York

Author of I Was Told There'd Be Cake, How Did You Get This Number, The Clasp, Look Alive Out There, Cult Classic and Grief Is for People

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Articles

Sloane Crosley's Ode to the Humble Paperback

2 months ago | airmail.news | Sloane Crosley

When I worked in book publicity, my boss liked to trot out the following fun fact, though I suppose it depends on your definitions of “fun” and “fact”: the reason hardcovers sell well in L.A. and paperbacks don’t is because no one in L.A. is reading the books. At best, they’re wondering if they can be optioned. At worst, they’re lining their untouched bookshelves. True or not (in my experience, not), this theory always made me laugh, because it bolstered our sense of ourselves as underdogs.
Sloane Crosley: On the Fine Art of Saying “No”

Mar 12, 2025 | lithub.com | Sloane Crosley

Many years ago, right before I quit my job as a book publicist, a coworker knocked on my office door and asked me if I wanted to accompany her to a reading. Stressed, distracted and with one tote bag out the door, I didn’t have the bandwidth to formulate a remorseful reply. “Oh, I would,” I said, breaking a manic typing streak, “but I don’t want to.” A pure response tends to get a laugh. So does a rare one: Honesty may be the backbone of effective book publicity but succinctness is not.
Sloane Crosley: Why It’s Always OK to Just Say “No”

Mar 3, 2025 | lithub.com | Sloane Crosley

Many years ago, right before I quit my job as a book publicist, a coworker knocked on my office door and asked me if I wanted to accompany her to a reading. Stressed, distracted and with one tote bag out the door, I didn’t have the bandwidth to formulate a remorseful reply. “Oh, I would,” I said, breaking a manic typing streak, “but I don’t want to.” A pure response tends to get a laugh. So does a rare one: Honesty may be the backbone of effective book publicity but succinctness is not.
I Wrote a Memoir About Grief. That Was the Beginning.

Dec 29, 2024 | nytimes.com | Sloane Crosley

We'd better start learning. In 2022, the last year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published finalized statistics for suicides, over 49,000 Americans died by their own hand, an uptick from over 48,100 of these deaths in 2021. Statistics tend to create a distancing effect, especially when it comes to suicide. Halve the number or double it, and you would still be reading this, wondering: Is that a lot or a little? What does it have to do with my person, my loss?
'Grief Is for People' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024

Nov 13, 2024 | time.com | Meg Zukin |Sloane Crosley

These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser. By Meg ZukinNovember 13, 2024 8:07 AM ESTIn 2019, Sloane Crosley’s home was burglarized. On a nondescript afternoon, a robber broke into her New York City apartment and stole all her jewelry—41 pieces, including her grandmother’s vivid green cocktail ring.
Dorothy Parker and the Art of the Literary Takedown

Oct 31, 2024 | newyorker.com | Sloane Crosley

When I think of Dorothy Parker’s hangovers, and I do, the image that comes to mind is that of the U.S.S. Arizona. A sunken battleship resting at the bottom of Pearl Harbor, the Arizona is slowly leaking oil as you read this. The ship loaded up on 1.5 million gallons of fuel on December 6, 1941, and has approximately half a million gallons to go.
The Tail End

Aug 4, 2024 | newyorker.com | Sloane Crosley

Here is a good story: It’s 2003 and a childhood friend is stationed at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina—which will be renamed Fort Liberty in 2023—where she’s in the 82nd Airborne Division. She is done jumping out of planes for the day, heading off the base, when she hears meowing coming from a warehouse. Inside, she finds a stray cat, proud but mangy, and decides to take her home. The cat is pregnant. My friend e-mails me a photograph of the kittens, arranged on her lap, one surfing on her kneecap.
The Napkin Project (Summer Vacation Edition): Sloane Crosley

Jul 10, 2024 | esquire.com | Sloane Crosley

StuckNot one member of the family had slept when they were supposed to sleep. Her husband had stayed up the night before the flight, watching a show that glowed differently with each piece of dialogue, which meant it was either reality TV or the news, some story that had to be shown, not told. Her toddler was now vacillating between delight at each airplane spotted from inside the terminal window and hysterics upon realizing no one was willing to muster equal pause or enthusiasm.
The Napkin Project (Summer Vacation Edition): Sloane Crosley

Jul 10, 2024 | sg.style.yahoo.com | Sloane Crosley

Sloane Crosley11 July 2024 at 5:55 am·1-min readThe Napkin Project: Sloane CrosleyPhilip FriedmanStuckNot one member of the family had slept when they were supposed to sleep. Her husband had stayed up the night before the flight, watching a show that glowed differently with each piece of dialogue, which meant it was either reality TV or the news, some story that had to be shown, not told.
Resisting Catharsis with Sloane Crosley

May 1, 2024 | themonthly.com.au | Michael Williams |Sloane Crosley

Just a heads’ up before we get started that this week’s episode is extensively concerned with suicide. Please take care, and if anything you hear raises issues or challenges call Lifeline on 13 11 14, or a local service wherever you’re listening. BH: Are you doing OK? TK: I’m doing great. I have this wonderful boyfriend. I got an advance on a book of personal essays. Me! Personal essays! I mean, who am I? Sloane Crosley? BH: Who’s Sloane Crosley? TK: Good point, who’s Sloane Crosley?