Deep Read with Phoebe Lovatt

Deep Read #51 is with New York-based author Stephanie Wambugu. Her debut novel Lonely Crowds centres on the intense bond between two young women, Ruth and Maria, who meet at a Catholic girls’ school in Rhode Island and remain entangled in one another’s lives into adulthood.

We spoke about the discomfort of ugly emotions, the dangers of ‘staying too long at the fair’, and the realities of navigating artistic ambition while trying to establish stability, intimacy, and a truly “adult” life.

-

@phoebelovatt

@deepread.phoebelovatt

@stephaniejeriwambugu

Zakia Sewell is a broadcaster, DJ and writer, and the author of a remarkable new book, Finding Albion: Myth, Folklore and the Quest for a Hidden Britain.

In this conversation we talk about national identity, immigration, paganism, Notting Hill Carnival, radical histories, British humour, and what happens when love of place is ceded entirely to the right.

-

Deep Reading Lists are available at phoebe.substack.com

@phoebelovatt

@deepread.phoebelovatt

@zzzakia

Find Deep Reading lists for each episode at phoebe.substack.com

-

Deep Read #49 is with Annie Kreighbaum, a creative director and beauty-world architect who helped shape Glossier in its defining era and is now building KRAUM, a brand that begins with five exquisitely small makeup brushes made to her exacting specifications in Japan — what she half-jokingly calls a “vanity project,” for reasons that become clear as we talk. We revisit the optimism and extravagant funding energy of 2016, and the skills she honed in that moment — instinct, language, taste, and the discipline of editing — before turning to the bigger thesis behind KRAUM: not just better tools, but a slower, more intentional approach to getting ready. We also discuss fast beauty, permanence, her resistance to AI as a shortcut in creative work, and the books that shape her thinking.

-

@phoebelovatt

@deepread.phoebelovatt

@annieokay

@kraum.co

Amil Niazi is the writer behind The Cut’s column 'The Hard Part' and author of a new book: Life After Ambition: A “Good Enough” Memoir.

 

You might’ve read Amil’s piece Losing My Ambition, which went viral back in 2022— partly because it named something that was already in the air post-pandemic: this creeping disillusionment, not just with our jobs, but with the whole story we were sold about work.

 

In this conversation we talk about the shift from ambition as aspiration to ambition as survival strategy, and what it means to work hard and still find that the doors don’t open. We also talk about motherhood vs. work. vs. meaning, the burgeoning Millennial mid-life crisis, and of course Amil shares her favourite books.

-

@phoebelovatt

@deepread.phoebelovatt

@amilniazi

phoebe.substack.com

Zoe Dubno is the author of Happiness and Love – a buzzy new novel set inside the decadent but spiritually empty downtown New York art world, where artists, collectors, and social climbers circle each other in pursuit of status and survival.

Our chat that moves between New York and London, artists and patrons, boredom and desire. We also covered the performance of taste, the emotional cost of ambition, and what it means to live inside a culture that rewards image over substance. And, of course, Zoe shared some of her favourite books.

I hope you enjoy the conversation.

-

@phoebelovatt

@deepread.phoebelovatt

@zoedubno

phoebe.substack.com