NYWIFT Blog

#SummerHours Memoirs: Sheila Nevins

Goodbye, winter caps—hello, summer hats! It’s that glorious time of year where many of us can switch from content creators to content consumers. NYWIFT members Mellini Kantayya and Kathryn O’Kane have put together #SummerHours, a series of fun summer books, movies, and TV shows by or about women.


By Kathryn O’Kane

When Sheila Nevins presented her book You Don’t Look Your Age…and Other Fairy Tales to a full house of NYWIFT members at HBO ahead of her book launch, she read the poignant last chapter about a pivotal moment in her life involving her mother. It was both vivid and heartbreaking. Nevins, a long-time members and friend of NYWIFT, has written a book that defies categorization. Part memoir, part fantasy, it provides a window into the life of a career woman whose name is synonymous with HBO Documentary Films. The book is filled with stories about the hopes of a young woman starting out in the business, the guilt of a working mother, and the fears of aging in an industry that celebrates youth. She manages to be honest even when she’s lying.

Nevins.png

At the end of her presentation, Nevins insisted that everyone listen to the audiobook version. And why not, since so many of her fabulous friends lent their voices: from Glenn Close and Gloria Vanderbilt, to Lena Dunham and Gayle King. So when Meryl Streep read the last chapter, I already knew how it ended, and fresh tears astonished me, nonetheless.

 

(Cover photo by Bridgette Matthews)
PUBLISHED BY

busyk

busyk Kathryn O’Kane is a director and producer with over 20 years of experience in television and advertising. She directed season 2 of the Emmy nominated series The World According to Jeff Goldblum for Disney+. She was the showrunner of the James Beard award-winning Netflix series Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, and she produced six seasons of the Emmy award-winning series Friday Night Tykes. Her episodes of Iconoclasts for Sundance and Oprah Presents Masterclass for OWN have won NAACP Imagine awards. Kathryn has crafted short form narratives as diverse as Mission Juno for NASA, segments of AMC’s Talking Dead, and commercial assignments for Apple, Meta, United Airlines, and SAP. Kathryn served two terms on the board of New York Women in Film and Television, championing equal pay, diversity and inclusion, and safety in the workplace. She is a member of the Directors Guild of America and Television Academy. Learn more at www.busyk.com.

View all posts by busyk

1 Comment

Mellini_Kantayya

Definitely putting on my list—the audiobook sounds amazing.

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