Best of 2016: Freelance AF

anna furman
Years in Review
Published in
3 min readDec 28, 2016
^ portrait of me, myself & my typewriter

I spent the start of 2016 in a dead-end, permalance position at a mag I love but in a department that was an odd fit for me. When I gave two weeks notice, my boss insinuated that I would’ve been let (!) go (!) soon (!) anyway (!) because capitalism is great and all companies are inherently good and stable!!! Especially media companies.

Deciding to go full-freelance meant (and continues to mean) standing up for myself and my worth. Also, diversifying my $ sources. I’ve been writing on the internet ~professionally~ for the last twoish years. Six months ago I started writing full-time. In June, I re-ordered my invoice and pitch spreadsheets and came up with a detailed color-coding system that will hopefully make taxes less painful. I filed stories from my closet floor, a public bathroom (with superstrong wifi), on a plane, in a mall, at nearly all the cafes within a 1–2 mile radius of my apartment, and most recently, at The Wing — a co-working space that has nice-smelling lotion.

I started the year writing short, assigned gallery reviews (for, tbh, not enough $) to working on several essays and longer arts/culture stories that excited and challenged me. My fiction writing group of the past year and a half fell apart (RIP “women’s group,” as my dad called it) but I joined a new one and will be co-hosting write night events with a friend (email me for deets if yr interested.) In 2017 I’m looking forward to (1) having health insurance (2) writing book reviews (3) working with sharp editors (4) continuing to write for pubs that pay me fairly and on time (5) writing essays and weird short stories for fun and not for pay (6) turning tinyletter drafts into tinyletter luvletters ha ha and (7) meeting more freelancers to commiserate/conspire/drink with!

Mmuseumm, NY Mag

I’ve been a longtime fan of Mmuseumm, so having the opp to preview the 2016 exhibit and interview Alex Kalman was a treat. I sipped on a tiny espresso shot from a tiny, on-site illy machine while talking to Alex about the value of tiny objects and it was really the tiny-best. This was my first piece for NY Mag (that wasn’t a 150-word restaurant listing or a branded content thang.)

Glampground, Fusion

I wrote about the casj culturally appropriative goods (“authentic” talisman, teepees & yurts, ersatz Native figurines) at a trendy campground hotel in Marfa, TX. After one outlet killed the piece, I re-worked it, re-reported parts of it, and shopped it around. I was happy to find a home for it at Fusion.

Meeting Edward Said, Guernica

This is a meandering account of a fantasy meeting with Edward Said. It was inspired by my friend Lucy’s beautifully written essay on meeting Joan Didion. I’ve been writing snippets of this piece for quite a while, so it was satisfying to finally stitch the snippets together and make sense of them as a whole.

Dawn to Dusk, Artnet

Another piece about Marfa, but specifically about Robert Irwin’s installation at Chinati. I’m itching to do more travel-oriented arts stories in 2017 that aren’t about old white men(:

Mail Order Catalogs, Racked

In an old diary, I wrote about how “inspiring” and “fun” Coldwater Creek product descriptions are — which reminded me of the thrill of getting mail order catalogs. This essay made my sister laugh out loud, and so I’m happy with it.

Victorian Sex Manual, The Guardian

Read this book review if you’re interested in learned about lard-coated sheep’s wool menstrual pads, lead facial wafers, hysteria, and a game called “nug-a-nug.” (Spoiler: it means sex.)

Marilyn Minter, NY Mag

I, like many dumb 20 somethings, read I Love Dick for only the first time this year. Chris Kraus’s meta-fiction about female desire and the gender gap and failed artists feels perma-relevant. I was happy to be able to sneak in Krausisms into this write-up on Marilyn Minter’s show at the Brooklyn Museum.

On the Female Gaze, Broadly

Jill Soloway! Petra Collins! Lauren Greenfield! I just wanta write about women. And art. And this messy, evolving, cultural concept of a “female gaze.”

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Will I publish a luvletter in 2017? Stay tuned.

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