So Much Sinéad

A brief promotional update

You may be seeing this book jacket a lot in the coming months.

Hello!

I am bouncing into your midweek inbox to share a couple of exciting bits of news.

For the past month or two I’ve been feeling a lot of free-floating anxiety around the upcoming publication of NOTHING COMPARES TO YOU. The period between final edits and publication can be quietly agonizing — this liminal space in which the book is “done” but doesn’t really quite exist in the world yet. As I’ve said to anyone who asked me how it’s going: “I know the book is good, but psychologically I just need one person, somewhere, to tell me that they think it’s good too.” Honestly, anyone would do. But this week that anyone turned out to be an anonymous Publishers Weekly reviewer, from whose lovely assessment we pulled the following quote:

“An eclectic tribute to Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor, who died in 2023. … While many of the essays focus on the same incidents—including O’Connor’s famous 1992 SNL performance, during which she tore up a photograph of Pope John Paul II—the book’s varied registers (some lyrical, others analytical) ensure that the perspective is never repetitive, and the composite effectively reveals the intimate ways in which an artist can shape her listeners’ lives. The result is a vivid and multifaceted ode to a trailblazing musician.”

You can read the full review here!

Also, plans are shaping up for some public events around our July 22 pub date. To wit:

On June 12 Sonya Huber and I are hosting a casual pre-launch get-together at Danny Boy Draft Works as part of the Nonfiction Now conference in South Bend, Indiana. Many of our contributors will be there, and it’s free and open to all. Come hang with us if you’re in town!

On July 17 I’ll be speaking about the book, along with contributors Mieke Eerkens and Allyson McCabe, at the West Cork Literary Festival in, well, West Cork, Ireland. Squee!

On July 28 we celebrate the book’s release in Chicago at Gman Tavern. Sonya and I will join host Jill Hopkins and contributors Zoe Zolbrod, Megan Stielstra, and Gina Frangello to read from and talk about the book and, as a HUGE bonus, we’ll be joined by some of the best Chicago vocalists — Nora O’Connor! Marydee Reynolds! Amalea Tshilds! Eiren Caffall! So many more! — covering their favorite Sinéad songs. That this is even happening warms me to the core already; I’ll probably be a puddly mess by the actual event date.

On August 7 Sonya and contributors Sharbari Ahmed and Nalini Jones will be at the Westport public library for a Connecticut launch party!

Other events are in the works, including (we hope) an NYC launch party. More to come! Watch this space, or see this page on Sonya’s website for updates.

Digital galleys are now available on NetGalley, if that’s your thing. And if you are a member of the media, legacy or new or social, and would like an advance copy of the book for consideration, please reach out to me or to Sonya, or to our publicist Maria Mann at Simon & Schuster. Contact info on that page I just linked above.

I have so many other thoughts about the state of the world. Insert requisite “it’s hard to be publicizing a book in the midst of an autocratic takeover” apology here. I do think that our book is painfully relevant to the moment — more so than we realized when we started down this path 18 months ago. It celebrates the rippling influence of one prescient, fearless woman so far ahead of her time that she was mocked and marginalized for the courage of her convictions, and still created transcendent art.

One last note: This public google doc (h/t Anne Trubek) in which organizations across the country self-report how much NEA funding they’ve lost as grants have been rescinded in the past five days, is chilling in its plain, unnarrated facts. Writers all get so wound up “storytelling” but truly, sometimes a spreadsheet can tell the most powerful story of all. That story is this: it is imperative to support the independent arts — small presses, shoestring dance companies, storefront theaters, indie record labels, self-touring musicians. It is coming clearer by the day just how much we stand to lose.