• Nothing like a prominent life in public service to help your other career as a romance novelist. At least that's the case for Stacey Abrams. Berkley announced Tuesday that it had acquired rights to three out-of-print novels by Abrams that she wrote nearly 20 years ago under the name Selena Montgomery. Berkley, a Penguin Random House imprint, will begin reissuing the books -- "Rules of Engagement," "The Art of Desire" and "Power of Persuasion" -- in 2022. "As my first novels, they remain incredibly special to me," Abrams, 47, said in a statement. "The characters and their adventures are what I'd wished to read as a young Black woman -- stories that showcase women of color as nuanced, determined, and exciting. As Selena and as Stacey, I am proud to be a part of the romance writing community and excited that Berkley is reintroducing these stories for new readers and faithful fans." Abrams, a Democrat from Georgia, became a national figure after narrowly losing the state's gubernatorial race in 2018. She is widely credited as a leading organizer behind the election earlier this year of Georgia Democrats Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock to the U.S. Senate.
• When the Met Gala returns in September, it will feature a heavy-hitting contingent of celebrity co-chairmen: musician Billie Eilish, actor Timothee Chalamet, poet Amanda Gorman and tennis star Naomi Osaka. Honorary chairmen for the evening will include designer Tom Ford, sponsor Instagram's Adam Mosseri, and Vogue's Anna Wintour. The museum made the announcement Monday on the traditional day of the Met Gala -- the first Monday in May. While this year's plans were upended by the coronavirus pandemic, the Sept. 13 gala will be a more intimate affair, to be followed by a larger one on May 2, 2022. Both will open a two-part exhibition, a survey of American fashion to be on view for almost a year. "In America: A Lexicon of Fashion," opening Sept. 18, will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the museum's Costume Institute and "explore a modern vocabulary of American fashion," the museum has said. Part two, "In America: An Anthology of Fashion," will open in the museum's popular American Wing period rooms on May 5, 2022, and will explore American fashion, with collaborations with film directors, by "presenting narratives that relate to the complex and layered histories of those spaces." Both parts will close on Sept. 5, 2022. Filmmaker Melina Matsoukas ("Queen & Slim") has been commissioned to create an open-ended film to project in the galleries, with content changing during the course of the exhibition. The gala, which was canceled last year, is a major fundraiser, providing the Costume Institute with its primary source of funding.