women, we contain multitudes
plus, a Q&A with Morgan Pager, author of THE ART OF VANISHING
coming off International Women’s Day, I love how much of my inbox, podcast queue, IG feed, and DMs are filled with messages about the power of sisterhood. it’s no secret that it’s dreadfully complicated to navigate today’s world as a woman. and if America Ferrera’s Oscar-worthy monologue in Barbie (which poignantly opened with the line, “It is literally impossible to be a woman”) reminded us of anything, it’s that women will tie ourselves into knots on the sheer hope that people will like us. THE KICKER?? it doesn’t matter what we do, how we show up, or how small we make ourselves—literally or figuratively—there is absolutely zero way to guarantee likeability.
with that in mind, something I didn’t personally expect this past week was the imposter syndrome that came with putting myself out there when doing a book giveaway. while I’ve been sharing curated bits my life online for over a decade, dipping my toe more into the book world is a new realm altogether. somehow, I can’t help but hear these little voices in my head that sound a lot like “…who TF does she think she is?” as I consciously shift my content to be less rooted in where I’m traveling next and more about my everyday life in New York, including my love for the books that allow me to travel without ever leaving my studio apartment. that said, talking about my newsletter so frequently on my IG as I actively show up and try to grow this Substack community (compared to the three-plus years where I passively wrote a completely free newsletter and barely uttered a word about it for fear of annoying people) feels far more vulnerable than I expected.
if you’re receiving today’s sunday series for the first time because you entered my International Women’s Day book giveaway in collaboration with
, welcome! if you’ve been around for years and missed the aforementioned giveaway shared to IG, please check out the post embedded below—we’re gifting a stack of a dozen books plus a journal from twelve authors who’ve been featured on the sunday series! I’m in awe of the writers who were so generous with their time to be interviewed for my newsletter in the first place, and incredibly touched that they generously gifted books for this giveaway, so if you’re one of those people reading this, THANK YOU. you can enter over on IG by following @curatedbykayla and @kaylakleinman, subscribing to our Substacks and commenting on the post below. the giveaway will close tonight, March 10th, at 11:59p PT.
but back to my spiral, because I’m going somewhere with this, I promise! self-promotion is uncomfortable. showing up and actively trying at something you’re still in the process of figuring out in the first place is uncomfortable. being proud of something you worked hard on while trying to temper your excitement for fear of coming off as bragging is uncomfortable. but do you know what’s even more uncomfortable? doing the same thing you were doing last year. to me, the idea of staying stagnant sounds way more painful than the imposter syndrome that comes with evolving, so I’m choosing to sit in discomfort.
my word for 2024 is metamorphosis 🦋 I’ve spoken before about how change isn’t easy for me, but as I dive into my 30s, it feels like my identity is naturally shifting—and that’s exciting. I shared a little something on Instagram Stories last week about this season of life, and I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten more positive responses. it seems I’m not alone. my friend and writer Annie Fitzsimmons (cannot wait for her book coming out in December!) reminded me that women contain multitudes—we can be both/and. so this is my reminder to you that you can wake up one day and decide to pursue something new. you can be bad at it—because it’s cringe until it’s not. and in the process of letting people see you try, you may just inspire someone else to be brave enough to do the same.
meet Morgan Pager
in the spirit of containing multitudes, I couldn’t be more thrilled to bringing
to the sunday series. not only is she one of my personal favorite follows, but she’s beloved in the book world as the personality behind @nycbookgirl and Director of Marketing and Social Media at Atria Books. and most importantly, last week, Morgan announced her very own debut novel, THE ART OF VANISHING! our Q&A has been in the works for months, and I’m so excited that in it, we get to dig into the inspiration behind Morgan’s debut.
Kayla Douglas: Morgan, tell us a bit about your background and the path that led you to launch your blog and IG account, @nycbookgirl.
Morgan Pager: I started @nycbookgirl in the summer of 2017. I'd moved to the city the year before with big dreams of working in the theater industry (I majored in English and Theater Studies in college) and was assisting an amazing Broadway producer, but needed a creative outlet that was all my own. I was reading a lot in my personal time—I'd just graduated from school, and my eyes were opened to the many, many books published each week, and I was devouring them as quickly as I could. @nycbookgirl is what followed!
KD: What has been your favorite part of building a bookish community online?
MP: The people. I have made some incredible friendships from this amazing bookish community. There was an entire table at my wedding of friends who I first met in my DMs! And it's not just those special people; it's everyone I hear from consistently, who I'll never meet in real life, who share their latest reads, obsessions, and thoughts with me. There is no higher compliment for me than someone telling me they loved a book that I recommended.
KD: In your full-time roles, you've worked in many different roles at Simon & Schuster, most recently as Director of Marketing and Social Media at Atria Books. What does a day in the life look like?
MP: It's truly different every day. I'm in the office twice a week, so let's pick one of those days! I try to always set my alarm to give myself 15 extra minutes to read in the morning—once I get out of bed, all bets are off for where my attention is going to be pulled that day, so I have to give myself that time. Then I'll do a little workout—if I'm working from home and have more time, I'll take a SoulCycle class. If I'm off to the office, I'll do 10-20 minutes of yoga. My commute in is about 30 minutes, the perfect amount of time for a bit more reading.
My days are incredibly meeting heavy—strategy meetings for upcoming titles, kick-off meetings with authors, internal meetings with my team members to review various campaigns. In between, I try to make it through my inbox and to-do list as efficiently as possible. The work day normally passes in a blur, but I love going into the office because my favorite parts of the day are the few minutes of interaction with my colleagues or taking a small break to visit a friend on another floor. I'm pretty good about cooking at home and bringing in my lunch, but if I have to buy something, I slip away to Naya, which is my favorite fast casual spot. Oh, and every day at 3:30, I have "treat o'clock" which is when I have a little treat—sometimes it's something as special as a cookie, other times it's as small as a fountain Dr. Pepper from our office kitchen.
After work, there's always something to do! My husband works in theater, so oftentimes, it's catching a show with him. Other options include dinner with friends, watching Survivor with my group text, going to some sort of bookish event, or a game night! Once a week, I reserve a night to do nothing, which I call a potato night. On those nights, I'll catch up on meal prep, writing work, exercise, or sleep :)
KD: What do you think would surprise readers about what happens BTS at an imprint to market a book?
MP: This is an amazing question. I think it's how many people have to be involved for a book to come to life! What readers often refer to as "marketing" is the work of many departments. We work extremely collaboratively with our colleagues in publicity, editorial, art, advertising and promotion, subrights, production, and the publishing office to make any book a reality.
KD: When our personal and professional lives begin to blend, it can be difficult to find boundaries. How have you approached content consumption and creation to stay creative both at work and when working on your personal projects?
MP: It is a frequently moving target. If anything, I just have to recognize that there are seasons of life where creativity is going to come easily on all fronts and times where it takes more effort. When it's harder, and I feel spread more thin, I just try to give myself some grace and forgiveness. When I started at Atria, I threw myself headfirst into the work there and into my writing projects and @nycbookgirl just had to come in second position.
I am a Virgo and would like to be perfect at everything, but it was easier for me when I admitted to myself that not all balls had to be as high in the air at the same time. Now that I've been on the team for almost two years and the book is slated for release next year, it's time to reorganize my thoughts so I can be present on the social media and engagement track! In order to make writing a priority, I am protective of my time on weekends. In heavy seasons of writing or revising, I set aside most of the daytime hours on Saturday and Sunday so I can really immerse myself in that headspace, working for 6-8 hours at a time.
KD: You just announced that your debut novel, THE ART OF VANISHING, will be released in summer 2025. What's the premise, and what inspired the story?
MP: The novel is about a member of a museum's janitorial staff who learns that she can cross through the frames of the paintings and into their invented worlds. She falls for the subject of one of the paintings, the son of Henri Matisse, and they begin a whirlwind unconventional romance against the setting of the museum's works of art. The book explores the boundaries of what we imagine to be possible.
I am obsessed with art and museums and I have been since I was a small child. My grandmother (the coolest woman ever) majored in art history and I used to go spend some weeks of the summer at her house when I was a kid. Each year, we'd pick a new period of art to study. She's handicapped so we would spend most of the summer studying the art at home out of books she owned and what the internet could show us in 2002. At the end of my time there, we'd psych ourselves up for one big trip to a Boston museum to see some of the art we'd studied in person. She taught me to love those special institutions and the art they contained.
KD: What do you know now that you wish you'd known when you embarked on your author journey?
MP: Gosh, I am so lucky to understand so much about the industry from my role within it, but there are still so many things that are new to me. I wish I could go back in time and tell myself that it's ok if the rejections sting alongside the acceptances. I really believe that every part of my journey happened the way it did for a reason; I don't think I could have found a better editorial home for this work. But the rejections from the agents I queried and the editors we submitted to along the way were harder for me to cope with than I expected. Everyone around me was so ready to celebrate the incredible wins I feel really grateful for, but I needed time to let myself experience the sadness alongside it too.
KD: Tell us about the most recent work of fiction that left you with a book hangover.
MP: REAL AMERICANS by Rachel Khong is a freaking revelation of a novel. It's out on April 30th, and it is one of the best books I've ever read—part family saga, part coming of age, part magical realism. I am obsessed and am already considering a reread.
KD: What book is on your TBR pile that you're most excited to pick up?
MP: There are SO many! But I cannot wait to dive into ANITA DE MONTE LAUGHS LAST by Xochitl Gonzalez and HERE AFTER by Amy Lin. I'm also doing Reggie Bailey's 10 Books 10 Decades challenge this year, and I've completed 5 decades so far. Next up on my TBR for that challenge are FORBIDDEN NOTEBOOK by Alba de Céspedes and THE UNCENSORED PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY by Oscar Wilde.
KD: The Sunday Series was conceptualized as a love letter to my favorite day of the week. If we were with you in your neighborhood on Sunday, where would you take us to spend the afternoon?
MP: There is no better place than the Upper West Side on a Sunday. And we are going to pick a Sunday where I don't have to work on writing, so I can spend the day with you!
We are absolutely starting the day with a group fitness class at either SoulCycle, one of my favorite hot yoga studios, or a tennis class on the courts at 119th St. Then we'll pick up an iced pistachio latte with oat milk while we decide where to eat breakfast. It doesn't matter if it's after noon at this point; breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. If it's nice out and we're not in a rush, maybe we'll brave the line at Absolute Bagel, but it's more likely we tuck ourselves into a booth at Metro Diner. Then we're popping into a bookstore—I do this almost every weekend whether I'm buying something or not! We're probably browsing at either Book Culture or Westsider Books.
Finally, we are 100% spending some time outside. I am so lucky to live by both Central Park and Riverside Park. Riverside Park is near and dear to my heart, so I'll probably take you there and giddily point out the spot where my husband proposed. We'll wander down towards the 70s, where we'll stop for a class of orange wine and maybe crack into the books we didn't need but bought anyway earlier.
What a treat to wake up to! Thank you for the balance of inspiration and book recommendations! Keep doing what you're doing... imposter syndrome be damned!!