48 Minutes With Essayist Elizabeth Laura Nelson: Join our LIVE VIDEO CHAT Tomorrow

The Jenny co-founder wrote a Modern Love essay that led her to getting an agent, working on a book and publishing a moving essay with us. Join us on Friday while we chat about all this and more.

Mar 06, 2025

*Editor’s note: This live video chat has already taken place; you can watch a full replay of the conversation here.*

I wrote about this a bit when we first published Elizabeth Laura Nelson’s piece, “What’s the Opposite of Taking Someone’s Virginity?” a few weeks ago, but this essay first came about after I read Elizabeth’s recent Modern Love essay and adored it. I reached out to her hoping she might have more to say about Jeff, the best-friend-turned-lover she wrote about who (spoiler alert!) died shortly after they finally got together, and she did! I was in luck.

Unsurprisingly, I wasn’t the only one who took notice of Elizabeth’s Modern Love story — after publishing it, she scored not one, but two agents, and began to expand the piece into a larger manuscript that she’s working on now. I wanted to talk to her about all of these things: the Modern-Love-to-agent(s) pipeline, how her writing is going and more, and much to my delight, she agreed.

Enter our live conversation tomorrow, Friday, March 7, at 1 p.m. Eastern.

I encourage you to read Elizabeth’s wonderful essay if you haven’t already and then come join the chat — which is free and open to everyone — tomorrow. We will be taking questions from readers and fans at the end of the chat, so bring them if you’ve got ’em! Lastly — and this is important — Substack’s live-video feature is still fairly new, and for now it’s only available in the Substack app on mobile. Which means in order to attend the convo, you’ll have to download the app in advance. You’ll receive a notification with a link to join the chat tomorrow, once we’re live.

Available for iOS and Android

Here again is Elizabeth’s unpaywalled piece if you want to give it a read in advance of the live chat (and we definitely think you should!):

NRLY x CNF

What’s the Opposite of Taking Someone’s Virginity?

Elizabeth Laura Nelson

Feb 14

What’s the Opposite of Taking Someone’s Virginity?

“A hike isn’t a hike unless you fear for your life somewhere along the way,” I once told someone. “There has to be a moment when you think, If I step the wrong way here, I’ll die.” I’d lived in New York City for almost 20 years and wasn’t particularly outdoorsy, but I was from Colorado and felt that my Rocky Mountain roots made me an authority.

This little speech came back to me at the top of Crag Crest, on Grand Mesa in western Colorado, as I wondered how to navigate the narrow ridge ahead of me, acutely aware that if I didn’t pay close attention and wasn’t careful, I could tumble to a swift, sharp death. I was alone, and I was tired. I’d already lost a couple of hours on the way up, after missing a turn on a section of trail I should have known like the back of my hand.

If I made it past this ridge, with its steep drop-offs on either side, I’d still have several miles to hike before I got back to my car. I dropped to all fours and crawled toward the ridge, summoning that steadfast “I’m from Colorado” resolve to keep myself going.

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48 Minutes With Essayist Elizabeth Laura Nelson: Join our LIVE VIDEO CHAT Tomorrow

The Jenny co-founder wrote a Modern Love essay that led her to getting an agent, working on a book and publishing a moving essay with us. Join us on Friday while we chat about all this and more.

Enter our live conversation tomorrow, Friday, March 7, at 1 p.m. Eastern.

What’s the Opposite of Taking Someone’s Virginity?

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