“Courtney Preiss is an essayist and memoirist who knows the best cheap seats in Yankee Stadium. She is the Creative Director at Team Epiphany and a founding member of the Times Up organization and Times Up Advertising.”
ON HER MORNING ROUTINE
During the week I abstain from grain, dairy, added sugar, and alcohol so on my very best days I’m able to spring out of bed and start singing like Debbie Reynolds. My anxiety spikes in the morning, so easing myself into the routine and staying calm is my priority. I wake up, make my bed immediately, hop into the shower, and listen to a podcast. I keep it pretty simple with Rook Coffee’s Nicaragua ground coffee in the French press with Califia’s coffee creamer. Otherwise I’ll make tea (Stash Tea Earl Grey). In the winter I use a light therapy box from Verilux for Seasonal Affective Disorder, which could totally be a placebo effect, but I really enjoy the twenty minutes of basking in its glow while I put on my makeup.
on growing up in the suburbs and her path to writing
I was born on Dekalb Avenue, a fourth generation Brooklynite, but my parents soon moved to New Jersey in pursuit of public school and proper grass to play baseball on. I grew up in the heart of Springsteen country— with shopping malls and rec centers. There was enough suburban malaise to make me eager to leave, so as soon as high school was over I went to Emerson College to earn my BFA in Writing, Literature, and Publishing. I focused primarily on fiction writing and magazine publishing, but my final semester I took an Introduction to Non-Fiction course as a fluke. My professor, Meta Wagner, pulled me aside after our third class and said, “Hate to break it to you so late in the game, but you’re a memoirist.”
on her early days in New york
After college, my friends and I got scrappy and moved to New York. These were our true salad days. There was a lot of screaming from the cheap seats at Yankees games, skulking around improv shows, and kissing strange people in the streets after dark. I lived in an attic apartment in Midwood, which was cost-effective and spacious, but too deep into Brooklyn to be considered socially acceptable. I took a temp job which couldn’t have been further from my skill set or what I aspired to, but my best friend from college, Rachel, worked the front desk, so we had each other to cry to during lunch breaks. We wrote post-it notes to remind each other that Brad Pitt once had to dance in a chicken suit selling fast food on the side of the road. I finally got my foot in the door as a PR intern at Team Epiphany and worked my way up to Creative Director. And Rachel is a novelist now.
““There’s a thread of similarity between my job at Team Epiphany and my life as a memoirist, this essential question: what are you bringing to the table that is unlike what anyone else brings? What is the story only you can tell? Where can you draw inspiration from that no one else would think to look? What actually influences and compels you? What are you obsessed with? More often than not, I am part of my own target. If a campaign idea doesn’t sound like something I’d naturally engage with as a consumer, I throw it out.””
on her work at team epiphany
Our shop is young and sharp, women and minority owned, and we were the first out the gate with influencer marketing before such a thing even existed fifteen years ago. I’m driven by my desire to deliver on our agency’s mission: create something no other agency is capable of. When brands bring Team Epiphany into the mix, the choice is deliberate. They want to be at the heart of culture and I’m dedicated to getting them there. Having a point of view is essential. All great clients know they’re not paying us to be ‘yes’ed to death. The work requires going against the grain, not for the sake of being contrarian but because you can’t be afraid to challenge what every other agency is passing off as given information.
on her favorite bookstore
My father discovered Yellow Umbrella Books in Chatham almost two decades on our first family vacation to Cape Cod. It became an instant tradition for him to take me there and buy me a book to read for each trip. Walking that serene stretch of street at dusk is a hallmark of my youth. I still buy books there whenever I’m in town.
on making time for her writing
There’s an Onion headline that goes something like “Find what you love and then do it on nights and weekends until you’re dead,”which I relate to acutely. I’m working on striking a balance in perpetuity. Making time to write and keeping that promise to yourself is essential. Once or twice a year I will go on a writing retreat and totally immerse myself in this parallel universe where my craft is the focal point. No matter the forum or format, I find this practice crucial to maintaining the precious balance between my day job and my overall life pursuit.
““If I’m feeling blocked, I set a timer for ten minutes and handwrite without stopping. No phone, no distractions. If I’m feeling intimidated by the laptop screen, switching over to a notebook, an iPhone note or even writing a few paragraphs in an email works wonders. I believe the process is arbitrary because everyone is so singular and unique, but I do try and glean useful bits from prolific writers I admire. I recently took a one-day intensive with T Kira Madden at Center For Fiction and she talked about composing downdrafts on an electric typewriter. I’m only mildly ashamed to admit I bought an old electric Smith-Corona off Etsy the next day.””
on being a founding member of times up
Shortly after the Weinstein story broke, Team Epiphany’s managing partners, were approached by some entertainment world friends of the agency to take part in this seedling of an idea that would become Times Up. They sent me to Los Angeles that week to lead the project and I helped build the organization in its infancy, in the company of some of the world’s best-known and most accomplished women. With a small, scrappy satellite Team Epiphany squad plugging away diligently through the holiday season leading up to the global reveal, we created the Times Up launch strategy, visual center, digital and social platforms, and talent communications strategy. I’ll never forget the intensity and energy and hope that working on Times Up bred in me. I’ll be proud of that work for the rest of my life.
on her style
My uniform for the last decade has been a black dress, so my closet looked like one of those cartoon character closets—Judy Funnie with a hundred identical dresses to her name. But in the last year my Saturn Return has pushed me into new territory and I’ve begun integrating black jumpsuits and jeans into the mix. Lately I’ve been inspired by photographs of my mother and her friends in the 90s: headbands, mom jeans, tank tops. I crave simplicity and structure. Right now my go-to’s are Madewell for dresses, ASOS for jumpsuits, and Topshop for jeans.
on her beauty routine
My mother gifted me Bobbi Brown’s Teenage Beauty when I was twelve and as a result I’m a bit of a lifelong Bobbi Brown devotee. I love her natural approach and her mission to make girls and women ultimately look like themselves. I still wear her brand’s tinted moisturizer every day in lieu of full face makeup.
My skin is miraculously clear, but sensitive and prone to dehydration. I use Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Moisturizer with SPF during the day and CeraVe Skin Renewing Night Cream before bed. I’m pretty promiscuous with cleansers— Right now I like Glossier’s Milky Jelly Cleanser and I’ll always love good old fashioned Pond’s Cold Cream in the green jar. Like every other millennial who spent a semester abroad, I keep a bottle of Bioderma Micellar Water on my sink. I swear by Skin Trip body lotion, which looks like it came from the lot at a Dead concert but is available at most health food stores. I never go a day without Le Labo’s black tea perfume oil.
““In the face of rejection I think about Stephen King hanging each rejection letter on a long rusty nail above his desk before he sold Carrie and became an icon. I think about Lisa Ko setting out to get fifty rejections in a year and ending up with a book deal. I think about Maya Angelou saying when she wasn’t wanted, she knew it meant something better was lined up. “Good on you,” she said to her hypothetical detractors. “And very good on me. ‘Cause what I’m going to get, darling, you would long for.””
courtney’s favorite books
I’ve read Judy Blume’s Summer Sisters every year since I was fourteen. It’s crazy how a static narrative can change so much when I change—I glean new things from it every year. Also, The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky by Jana Casale, and Commonwealth by Ann Patchett.
Jo Ann Beard’s Boys of My Youth is my holy grail. When I read “The Fourth State of Matter” in that Intro to Non-Fiction class all those years ago, it changed the course of my life. People always say good writing won’t let you put it down, but I find great writing makes me want to throw the book across the room and start working on my own stuff immediately. T Kira Madden’s Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is this exact species of great writing. I also recommend The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion by Meghan Daum, Self Help by Lorrie Moore, I’ll Tell You In Person by Chloe Caldwell and Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett.
courtney’s favorite films
The World According to Garp by George Roy Hill, Almost Famous by Cameron Crowe, When Harry Met Sally by Rob Reiner and Mermaids by Richard Benjamin. Perhaps my favorite film of all time is Penny Marshall’s A League of Their Own. As a kid being raised in an insane baseball house, that movie made me so proud to be a ballplayer and a girl. It also helped breed my lifelong aspiration to become Madonna. Penny was a Bronx native, a casual genius, and the queen of my heart.
courtney’s favorite places in nyc
Taqueria St. Marks for margaritas-as-anesthetic. Farm on Adderley for fries with curry mayo, and Roll N’ Roaster for cheese friends. Cafe Luluc and Vinegar Hill House for pancakes in Brooklyn. The Odeon is the best former Keith Mcnally join.
The Angelika for catching a movie alone. Washington Mews and Ditmas Park for taking a walk and pretending you’re not in New York. Grandstand 428, row 2 for the best cheap seats in Yankee Stadium.
