With this issue, I set out to curate a collection of work that made me feel less alone. Which is maybe a leap from “Audacity,” but when you think about it, audaciousness can often be perceived as scandalousness, and scandal can translate to shame, which can make us feel isolated in a way that prevents us from seeing how our own brazen behaviour is echoed by our peers.
I wanted to choose something within my own creative wheelhouse, so at first I was thinking something around “shame.” But then I realized shame isn’t actually what I’m interested in; the really good stuff has to do with anti-shame. So I went down a thesaurus hole and threw some options out to the team, like “brazen,” “scandalous,” and “exposed,” but audacity seemed to be the word everyone connected with the most. I also like that when you say “The Audacity Issue” it sounds like an exclamation as well as a title.
We invite you to submit your unpublished work to the “Audacity” issue of Room—an issue we hope will dare to risk normalcy and politeness in the name of bold and uncompromising truth. “Audacity” will be edited by Molly Cross-Blanchard (author of Exhibitionist) and...