Thank you so much for being here! I am a full-time freelance writer and paid subscriptions to this newsletter allow me to continue to do work like this, as well as support the community that we are building here, which includes events like the book club and our (very active) paid subscriber Discord server. You can upgrade here:

And thank you, as always, to Gus Andrews for the gorgeous branding and upgraded graphics!

The April selection for the Out of Your League Book Club is here! The link to register for this event is at the bottom of this newsletter, below the paywall.

This book is unlike any we’ve ever done and I can’t wait to talk about it with you all. We’ll be reading Hot Girls With Balls by Benedict Nguyễn.

Benedict’s writing is satirical, weird, urgent, funny, and transcendent. Hot Girls With Balls is a volleyball novel about trans girls but it’s so much more than that, too.

From the book’s description:

Six is 6′7″, scheming to rejoin the starting lineup, and barely checks her phone. Green is 6′1″, always building her brand, and secretly jealous of her more famous girlfriend. Together, they’re going where no Asian American trans woman has gone before: the men’s pro indoor volleyball league. Our hot girls with balls just thought playing with the boys would spare them some controversy . . . haha.

In between their rival teams’ away games across the globe, Six and Green stay connected on SpaceTime and selflessly broadcast their romance to fans on their weekly Instagraph live show. After a long season, they’ll finally reunite for the championship tournament, the first to accommodate in-person fans since the COVIS pandemic struck the world a year ago. Just as they enter an airtight bro bubble of the world’s best, they’re faced with a crisis that demands an indisputably humiliating task: make a public statement online.

Can Green stock up enough clout for her post-ball future? Can Six girlboss her team’s seniority politics? Can they both take a time-out to just grieve? Their rabid fans and horny haters await their next move. We’re all just desperate for a whiff of the sweaty feminine energy that makes that ball thwack with such spectacular force.

Benedict is an athlete herself—a dancer and a gym rat—and the way she writes about sports, bodies, and space reflects an intimate knowledge of the experience.

Our Zoom event will be on Saturday, April 25th at 1 PM ET/10 AM PT. Benedict will be joining us for that conversation, which is only open to VIP All-Access or Biggest Fan tier paid subscribers. The conversation will be recorded and sent out to everyone who registered for the event, so you can watch it even if you can’t join us live.

Access to the Zoom event requires registration. You can register for ‘HOT GIRLS WITH BALLS’ BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION at the link below:

logo

Subscribe to All-Access VIP to read the rest.

Become a paying subscriber of All-Access VIP to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content.

Upgrade

Keep Reading