Celebrating the restoration of the new Dinan Hall, friends and family gathered in the heart of the Wharton School on a warm spring afternoon for a ceremonial ribbon-cutting The building received a substantial renovation thanks to a leadership gift by Penn Trustee Jamie Dinan a Wharton School alumnus and member of the School’s Board of Advisors he founded York Capital Management in 1991 and is currently chairman Dinan said that as an undergraduate finance and computer science major—then called “decision science”—he spent considerable time in the building which then housed a computer spanning half the floor “I actually lived in this building a lot writing code,” he said He also took as many graduate MBA classes as he could during his junior and senior years amazing four years laid ahead of me,” said Dinan “I not only learned about business and finance but more importantly I gained the confidence in my judgment and abilities that was the foundation of my career and my life successes.” several of whom are counted among Penn’s alumni thank you for your leadership in advancing Penn’s highest priorities You walk the walk of our values: Open-minded and curious It’s right that this historic Penn building here in the heart of campus now bears your name.” After the ceremonial ribbon-cutting, during which Dinan wielded the scissors, Wharton School Dean Erika H. James presented him with a watercolor image of the new building bearing his name “We are eternally grateful for the ways in which you have committed yourself and your generosity to the University of Pennsylvania and particularly the Wharton School,” James said “You bring deep knowledge and fondness for this University to every conversation the 102,000-square-foot building was formerly known as Vance Hall named after the late Wharton graduate and Trustee Henry T It runs along Spruce Street with the main entrance on the Tannenbaum Quad to the north and lighting; wall and floor treatments; open workspaces Jameson noted the building was originally designed in the Brutalist style by the Philadelphia architectural firm Bower & Fradley whose principals John Bower and Fred Fradley trained under leading architect and Penn faculty member Louis Kahn the Wharton faculty—with the insight from the boards—are thinking very hard about how to adapt to the current environment and the future and we see that happening every day,” Jameson said stands as a versatile destination for Wharton students “The Dinan name is a true pride point on campus today and forever in our University’s history.” the ambitious Dakar Greenbelt project seeks to create an extensive network of ecological infrastructure in and around the city to sustainably address environmental concerns and enhance urban life With support from David Gouverneur and Ellen Neises candidate Rob Levinthal in the Weitzman School of Design led two courses that included a field trip to Dakar that culminated in students presenting their visions for parts of the Greenbelt The new Vagelos Laboratory for Energy Science and Technology boasts adaptable laboratory spaces to support the dynamic needs of pioneering research Katie Dinan went into this year’s Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Final knowing it was going to be the biggest test yet for her mare Out Of The Blue SCF but hoped the experience would only strengthen for their 15-month partnership The pair emerged from the three-day championship finishers and the winners of the final day’s class as the only horse and rider to finish without a single penalty “Bridie,” an 11-year-old Belgian Warmblood (Verdi TN—Casa Blanca La Silla by Lisa Lourie and owned by Grant Road Partners LLC came up through Lourie’s young horse training program at Spy Coast Farm Irish Olympian Shane Sweetnam started riding her in bigger classes Dinan purchased Bridie as a coming 10-year-old and the pair was able to step right onto the international stage “She has so much power and ability; she has so much scope,” Dinan said She understands the sport; she understands that she should clear the jumps She has quite a competitive nature herself and she really wants to do the job really well and takes herself very seriously Especially this past week—what she put into it it just took my breath away how hard she tries to do the right thing but also so smart at the jumps is such an amazing combination.” already had five World Cup Final appearances under her belt paired with a little extra good luck in the form of memes of retired top mounts Brego R’N B and Nougat Du Vallet wishing her luck Bridie showed she was ready for the intense three days of jumping culminating with a pair of clear rounds on the final day of competition They were one of just three pairs to jump clean and the only ones not to have a time penalty that day boosting them to eighth overall and making them the highest-placed U.S “It was definitely a very exciting week,” said Dinan Sunday was definitely a really big day for me.” We caught up with Dinan to talk about Bridie their World Cup experience and Dinan’s research endeavors She was bred by Lisa Lourie at Spy Coast Farm which is not something you see that often in show jumping That was something really cool to be part of to have a horse that was bred in the States the stallion from Maikel van der Vleuten that had so much success and her mother has unbelievable results as a broodmare [who was] ridden by Edward Levy and Brianne Goutal-Marteau in big grand prix and Bridie’s younger sister by one year [Paso Doble SCF] is now ridden by Nayel Nassar the fact that the same mother had three babies that have all jumped 1.60 meters is pretty remarkable We got her at the end of her 9-year-old year She’s just an unbelievably fantastic horse and I am pinching myself that I am lucky enough to be her rider and that we have her in the stable She has so much blood and really wants to go and has so much just forward energy and is always looking to the next thing She’s the kind of horse that you could go galloping outside and she could canter for hours and hours who I’ve worked with for over 10 years now He had seen her with Shane that summer jumping some big classes I think he saw in her that she was a mare with a lot of blood and that really pulled you to the front and wanted to go and he thought it would be a really good combination for me and I’m always hesitant to make any assumptions [that] a horse will be a good fit for me or not based on their prior results She’s definitely a bit different than horses I’ve had in the past She’s the first mare I really competed at this level You don’t know until you go in the ring with them a few times I also have a huge respect for Shane Sweetnam and I knew the horse had a really good upbringing and that he had done a really good job producing her I felt really good that we were getting a horse that had had such a positive experience and been asked the right questions at the right time What made this was a good year to make a bid to go to World Cup I think the World Cup Final is always a really big deal and something that is great to aim for It’s been a priority of mine for many years and it’s the only championship we have this year I have an 11-year-old horse that I’ve had for just over a year and the experience of jumping this championship together I hoped would make us stronger and how she kept on jumping and got stronger and better as the week got on One of the toss-ups was that I did not jump for the last few weeks in Florida in preparation for the World Cup I wondered if I was making the right decision And I kind of jokingly said that I would know after the fact if I made the right decision; hindsight is always 20-20 You two hit the ground running last year and made the short list for the Paris Olympic Games How do you feel like your partnership has grown over the last 15 months We accomplished a lot and had a few really good rounds early on in our partnership towards the end of [the 2024 Winter Equestrian Festival (Florida)] which was a real vote of confidence from our chef d’equipe and selection committee and I was really honored by that and wanted to rise to that occasion And then we had the opportunity to go to Aachen [Germany] last summer and I think that experience made us stronger as a combination I really feel that we’ve been learning each other and growing together ever since She was clear in our last five-star grand prix we jumped and I felt like that was one of our best rounds we’ve had together We’re getting more and more in sync in the rounds and trusting each other more and more Lou Beudin has been taking care of my horses now for almost eight years and has been taking care of Bridie since we got her And she’s had really the same program now for 15 months and is getting more and more comfortable in our program We’ve just gotten all stronger together as a team You were the only person to go clear in both rounds on the last day of World Cup Can you talk about how it felt to pull that off I was really motivated to have a strong finish on Sunday I thought [the first round] walked very big “You live for that moment of exhilaration when you’ve done it and I think that’s what made it like such a special moment for me.” I didn’t actually watch anybody before I went and I wanted to just stick to that and focus on my warm-up just follow the plan; she’s right there.” The more we went the more confident the two of us got because she was giving me such a good feeling a test of endurance and fitness from the week which is a great position to be in as a rider just buckle up.” But I also so badly didn’t want to let her down because I knew that she was there to do it The whole team I had behind me—Beat and Lou and my parents and my fiancé also came for the weekend—I felt really supported and then I felt like she was jumping so well in the second round I thought [the course] was tough because the last two lines were like so interconnected and my horse made that easy for me because she was just simply spectacular I had an overwhelming sense of joy and relief because it’s what you dream of and what you work hard for through ups and downs and you live for that moment of exhilaration when you’ve done it and I think that’s what made it like such a special moment for me I am a third year Ph.D student at Rockefeller University which is a research institute in New York City I am working in the lab of a guy named Mike Young who won the Nobel Prize in 2017 for discovering basically the molecular mechanisms for circadian rhythms of our body’s clock The lab does all their work with fruit flies and I am studying sleep and sleep deprivation in fruit flies to try to better understand the genetics and epigenetics of why we’re so affected by sleep deprivation I’m really interested in sleep and different like sleep cycles. I also sometimes wonder how the sleep patterns of different types of animals have evolved, and it’s given me a new perspective on some of my horses’ behavior, [on an] evolutionary biology level. They have made new rules about how you need to have the stable areas at shows dark at night and things like that Everything from a fruit fly to a dog to a horse to a person has this internal molecular clock in them that’s operating on a 24-hour cycle and that’s something that I think about in myself and in my horses you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse Copyright © 2025 The Chronicle of the Horse We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze how you use this website and provide the content and advertisements that are relevant to you These cookies will only be stored in your browser with your prior consent You can choose to enable or disable some or all of these cookies but disabling some of them may affect your browsing experience Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns Learn how to describe the purpose of the image (opens in a new tab) Leave empty if the image is purely decorative This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page The author on the short stories that taught her about grief The writer who changed my mindTeju Cole in Tremor we often have banal lessons thrown at us – about not using adverbs for example – which can become very ingrained The book that made me want to be a writerMy Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh I opted for more “realistic” goals – study science I basically stopped reading fiction when I went to university I read only nonfiction and “classics” – Tolstoy Those books didn’t leave me much room to contemplate my own voice and so when I turned back to contemporary fiction in adulthood The author I came back toMaggie Nelson I’m trying to let go of applying rigid logic to understand everything I read as if words are a puzzle with a defined solution Free weekly newsletterThe only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns My comfort readA Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan There are so many complete lives in this novel which could also be described as a set of interweaving stories I would put it in a time capsule for whatever civilisation follows ours “I’ve lost many friends to heteronormativity in the last couple of years. Even queer ones. Engagements. Cardigans. Looking out at the sea while rubbing the outside of their arms.” So says Max, the complicated, vulnerable and intimidatingly astute protagonist of Disappoint Me, the follow-up to Nicola Dinan’s critically acclaimed first novel Bellies clever and well-paid but she’s also kind of sad: her new year begins in hospital after falling down a flight of stairs at a party but she’s feeling emotionally bruised after a breakup while the tricky relationship she has with her father gnaws at her She questions what her future holds with jaded scepticism The novel tracks Max’s new relationship with Vincent – a good guy kind and a lawyer – and Dinan explores to what extent the mistakes from someone’s past should define who they are now Moving between Max’s present and Vincent’s past Dinan skillfully sets the stakes for a shattering reckoning questions around gender and race recur alongside ruminations about what it means to belong These are big ticket issues but Dinan’s prose is knowing funny and by turns both cynical and tender Nicola Dinan talks more about her writing process and what she hopes readers will take away from Disappoint Me Martha Alexander: What prompted you to write Disappoint Me Nicola Dinan: I turned 27 and started noticing a shift in energy People were talking about the future in a way they hadn’t before Friends’ relationships were getting serious As a trans woman I wasn’t really sure how I fit into this world Heteronormativity is something I have felt alienated from I wanted to write a book which spoke to that tension between the comforts of heteronormativity but also its teeth My opinions on the matter shifted in real time as I wrote the novel because I was growing up MA: How did you come up with the title Disappoint Me I was thinking about feelings of romantic and interpersonal disappointment and how we can preempt or anticipate disappointment in order to try to lessen the pain of it Max in many ways spends her life waiting for the other shoe to drop And if you’re always waiting for the other shoe to drop The title might be sexy but it’s also an invitation by Max for others to disappoint her She’s trying to immunise herself against disappointment by asking for it I wanted a title that got to the root of that jadedness which I think many of us move into when we turn 30 and feel isolated and unsure about what life has in store What happens when your dreams don’t materialise how you wanted to and you have not just gone through one heartbreak but several MA: Can you tell me a little about your process And how do you know when you’ve finished a novel ND: I usually know where the start is and roughly the end but I don’t really know what happens in between I am not a hugely spontaneous person in my life but I am in my writing I like to experience a lot of what I’m writing about at the same time as my characters This means I’m reacting at the same time as they are and really thinking about how I would feel about certain things rather than working from a pre-determined space I like deliberately ambiguous endings that don’t spell out what’s in store for the rest of the characters’ lives There’s a part in Disappoint Me that describes life as a series of happy endings and sad endings Life continues and happens in sequence and we have all these epochs adjoining one another knowing that the characters’ lives will continue after the novel in a way that even as the author I can’t and don’t want to define “Heteronormativity is something I have felt alienated from I wanted to write a book which spoke to that tension” – Nicola Dinan MA: How has your background in science and law informed your career as a novelist ND: In both of those fields you are required to write in a really direct way I have always aspired to a style of writing that is imaginative but is still clear in the communication of the emotional message Those years of training and then working as a lawyer honed that It’s also provided me with a lot of material: I find myself returning to lawyers constantly Max and Vincent are both lawyers and Max’s mum was also a lawyer I’m finishing a third book which is also about lawyers but in the 1980s in Hong Kong I find myself drawn to aspects of the profession: its rigidity And working in law introduced me to such wild personalities Max explains that she switched private practice for a cushier job in a tech firm because she wanted to leave an environment which rewarded undiagnosed personality disorders which is essentially pretending to be a robot Can you tell me more about what inspired it I reviewed contracts for a company who wanted to make their clients think we had AI I tell people I had this job and they just can’t believe it – one of those moments the truth is stranger than fiction Of all the things in the book people might assume are based on reality this feels the most fanciful but it’s the one I borrowed most closely from Science has provided a lot of source material for me MA: How much attention do you pay to reviews ND: I am almost ashamed to admit that I’ve read my own Goodreads [reviews] for Bellies I don’t read a bad review and think I need to make changes it just feels like being part of a literary workshop en masse There’s sometimes negative criticism that probably speaks to an intuition I’ve already had about my work – and I don’t think that’s a bad thing I’m still in a place of wanting to grow and develop my voice and style It doesn’t make sense to me to turn off what people are saying about my novel and sometimes that means seeking broader feedback than just congratulatory reviews of my work “What happens when your dreams don’t materialise how you wanted to and you have not just gone through one heartbreak but several?” – Nicola Dinan MA: Some sections of the media have abhorrent views of trans people how cautious are you about how you present your trans characters I shouldn’t have to characterise trans people as virtuous or shy away from them having nasty thoughts or opinions because that’s denying them their humanity There’s a line in Disappoint Me that says that “there always comes a time where you can’t deny the bones their flesh” and the reality is that people always grow beyond our initial impressions of them and that depth is not totally defined by good I want to offer full and complex characterisations of trans people: I’m not in the business of trying to convince anyone that trans people are deserving of basic human rights I can’t cater my work to people who don’t have a basic level of empathy for trans people To write with the goal of converting transphobes feels like a fruitless exercise and too much of a burden MA: What do you hope readers will take away from Disappoint Me I can’t say that I write didactically and I can’t say I have a specific moral point Rather I hope the work can challenge people’s thinking or preconceptions around the nature of change in others and in ourselves Books are an amazing way to affect an emotional change in the reader That is the holy grail for me – to encourage people to turn inward and reflect Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan is published by Doubleday, and is out now. Eric Winer interviewed cancer researcher with the Yale School of Public Health She discussesd her research into cancer outcomes and experiences such as access Dinan is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology in the Yale School of Public Health and Co-Leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program at the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center She is also a member of the Cancer Outcomes and Effectiveness Research (COPPER) Center Dinan has extensive research expertise in leveraging existing real-world data sources as well as novel data linkages to examine oncology outcomes « Back 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dinan Capital Advisors (“Dinan”) is pleased to welcome Michael Brill as Managing Director where he will lead the private capital markets practice Brill and his team will establish Dinan’s New York office providing sponsors and entrepreneurs with capital solutions supporting a wide range of corporate initiatives “We’re thrilled to have Michael on board,” said Michael Dinan “Private capital solutions are a strong complement to Dinan’s existing buy-side and sell-side services and Michael's capital markets expertise and proven track record across industries will be invaluable as we continue to expand our value-added services to more fully serve our clients.” Brill brings over 25 years of experience from both bulge bracket and boutique firms he served as Senior Managing Director in the investment banking practice at B Brill launched the New York office of FocalPoint and headed the private capital markets practice at Duff & Phelps He also led private financing practices at Lehman Brothers and Barclays as well as the fixed income practice at Canaccord Genuity Brill has structured and executed transactions across a variety of sectors Brill's expertise spans the full spectrum of the private capital markets He has extensive experience working with entrepreneurs and private equity firms to develop and implement innovative capital structures that drive strategic growth “I’m excited to join Dinan and contribute to the firm’s continued success,” said Brill “Dinan has built a strong reputation for delivering M&A solutions to the middle market Brill’s addition to the Dinan team and the expansion of Dinan’s private capital markets practice marks an important step in the firm’s ongoing evolution as the M&A partner of choice for middle-market companies LLC is an established middle-market investment bank specializing in merger “Dinan” is the brand under which Dinan & Company and its subsidiary Dinan offers Wall Street-caliber expertise to the thriving middle market business owners and investors have relied on Dinan to turn M&A opportunities into results Let Dinan help unlock your next success story of being the only rider to jump flawlessly on the final day of the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Final—including the day’s daunting jump-off with fences up to 1.65 meters—but it was Julien Epaillard whose performances over three days earned him the overall trophy as France’s first World Cup Finals winner in 21 years Epaillard employed some daring tactics along the way forgoing his place in day two’s jump-off (and some considerable prize-money) in preference of conserving the energy of his homebred equine partner having worked out that he would still hold onto his lead without contesting Friday’s second round against the clock as his 12-year-old Selle Français gelding Donatello D’Auge (Jarnac—Tequila D’Auge Hello Pierville) returned in Sunday’s first round in Basel to produce a crucial clear round that saw them hold a 3-fault advantage with just one round remaining “Today I felt him a little tired already in the first round,” Epaillard said but he has a super head and with this he always wants to help me Then he was maybe more fresh for the second round.” rider Lillie Keenan were the athletes poised perilously close to Epaillard less than a fence behind him before Sunday’s second and final round Of the 20 combinations qualified for the final round only four delivered a faultless performance but none were close enough in the overall standings to catch the podium That included Dinan and Out Of The Blue SCF who won the day with the only double clear round.  “I am over the moon with my horse,” Dinan said of the 11-year-old Belgian Warmblood mare (Verdi TN—Casa Blanca La Silla San Patrignano Cassini) owned by Grant Road Partners LLC and cared for by Lou Beudin and she just jumped her heart out this week I felt like today she was going to go clear with or without me so I just did the best I could to help her do her job and she absolutely delivered by Lisa Lourie at Spy Coast Farm and developed through their young horse program and we bought her at the end of her 9-year-old year,” she continued “I feel like being here representing the USA on an American-bred horse isn’t something that you see very often and it makes it a really special way to represent the country.” With her performance Sunday, Dinan became the top-placed U.S. rider in the overall standings finishing on 13 total penalties for eighth place overall three fences on the floor in the first round put an end to her podium dreams—she finished 11th in the overall standings contingent—but took nothing away from her eye-catching performances in her first Longines FEI World Cup Final with the relatively inexperienced Kick On Staut returned with 4 faults guaranteeing himself a podium position with his final score of 7 faults albeit gifting Maher and Epaillard some breathing room When Maher’s Point Break breathed on the final element of the ornate Cherry Blossom combination he too completed on 7 faults and the door was left ajar for Epaillard as he knew he could afford to have one fence down “Donny,” undoubtedly benefitting from the energy conserved by not jumping off on Friday returned to the stadium once more where the audience was perched on the edge of their seats waiting for history unfold The little gelding with the heart of lion matched the enthusiasm of his pilot while demonstrating his incredible athleticism and immaculate technique but so many rounds had fallen apart after this An extra stride around the corner from fence 9 to 10 made the three strides down to 11A a little flat a rub here saw the partnership notch up their first fault of the week one being the final towering 1.65-meter vertical 6,500 spectators held their breath in anticipation With nerves of steel and riding on a partnership built on a lifetime of trust Epaillard and Donny kept their composure to sail over the final two formidable obstacles securing France’s first Longines FEI World Cup Final title in 21 years “I totally lost concentration before the last line,” he said and I lost concentration and came too deep to the double “It’s a dream for all the staff working with me and my family There’s a lot of people around this performance so I’d like to thank everybody.”   who finished second despite jumping three days with a recently broken foot was philosophical in his reflection of his performance over the week and final result “A small mistake from myself on Friday meant I didn’t get it done enough early on and put myself on the back foot with no room for error,” he said “Point Break deserved a little more from me maybe a little more support going in there Today he jumped perhaps the best he’s ever jumped Julien is an incredible competitor and hard to beat on any given day Staut was overjoyed with his horse and his second Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Final podium finish despite coming tantalizingly close to victory with Visconti Du Telman “I can’t be sad because it was a really great competition,” he said It’s also two podiums for France at this final We’d have signed for that at the beginning of the week.” four riders contested the final day of competition Kristen VanderVeen and Bull Run’s Jireh completed their first FEI Jumping World Cup Final together on a total combined score of 31 (19th overall) Kaitlin Campbell and Castlefield Cornelious punched their ticket to Sunday’s Round B in their first World Cup Final appearance together but a miscommunication at Fence 3 dislodged Campbell from the saddle Both Campbell and Castlefield Cornelious left the ring unharmed still earning a spot inside the top 20 to conclude the week “We had some really great results this week in Basel and a few of our younger combinations really stepped up and showed off some class riding,” Chef d’Equipe Robert Ridland said “I was really impressed today in the first round when all four of our combinations laid down clear rounds For Katie to finish the way she did with Out Of The Blue SCF was very impressive considering none of the other combinations in the whole class delivered two consecutive clear rounds today.” See complete results for Sunday’s competition.See complete overall results The author of Bellies explores contemporary questions of sex relationship etiquette and gender identity Disappoint Me is a novel structured around meals, whether assembled distractedly or seasoned with care, and people making strained conversation over birthday barbecues or overpriced small plates in Hackney restaurants. Like her cult debut Bellies Nicola Dinan’s highly readable and engrossing second novel paints mealtimes as a sociocultural ritual as much as a means of giving characters something to chew on while they reach new understandings or fail to connect the heart and the stomach are deftly entwined in this deeply contemporary story which explores friendship the pacifying allure of couplehood and evolving social mores among millennial Londoners Reformed party girl Max meets gallant lawyer Vincent over a sushi date in the opening pages: not so much a meet cute as a swipe right Dinan is adept at capturing the apathy and cynicism engrained in dating via “the apps” where the paradox of choice gives rise to a second-guessing diffidence and a shirking of real intimacy The two bond over their shared Chinese heritage and corporate backgrounds and to her surprise Max finds an understated attraction and the promise of something meaningful growing between them Max is used to people making reductive assumptions about her identity Her prickliness and understandable sensitivity make her a contradictory and complicated protagonist; both dissociative and painfully attuned to those around her drolly sarcastic yet striving for sincerity and transcendence through writing A poet who works as the overpaid legal counsel for a tech company her disillusionment at her job aggravates her longstanding dysphoria and existential malaise often hovering between irony and outright melancholy Her zingers are cutting and camp: an annoying acquaintance is a “Poundland Arca”- referring to the uber-cool non-binary Venezuelan music producer – and a hangover is “like an angry twink has poured poppers into my skull” Disappoint Me cements Dinan as one of the UK’s most perceptive young novelistsAn ugly breakup and minor accident have left Max’s already fragile self-esteem in tatters and Vincent represents a light at the end of a tunnel “a stab at good old-fashioned heteronormativity” Max ponders her new partner – “a Chinese lawyer If anyone says he’s gay for dating a trans woman show that picture of him in a shacket at the pub setting the reader up for the question of when and how the seemingly wholesome and evolved Vincent will be revealed as a less than ideal partner Or is it Max herself who will act out a self-destructive prophecy of romantic failure Max’s narration in 2023 is interspersed with Vincent’s point of view during a pivotal gap year trip to Thailand in 2012 While bar hopping with strangers from his hostel someone cracks a crass joke about ladyboys and refers to trans women as “it” – a reflection of the era’s dehumanising views the novel poses the question of whether those views have merely been obscured by virtue-signalling niceties; camouflaged under modern etiquette It does the same with attitudes towards race and otherness: Vincent meets a beautiful and warm young woman named Alex at the hostel and confides that as a Chinese boy growing up in Britain people called him “Vincent Ching Chong all the way through primary school” His infatuation with Alex forms the crux of Vincent’s storyline complicated when his aggressively straight best friend Fred and Vincent are still friends in the 2023 sections but the narrative lacuna left by Alex intrigues and unsettles The inarticulacy and passive aggressiveness that can clog longstanding male friendships is especially well drawn as is the portrayal of Max’s brother Jamie: all steam-rolling privilege Max and Vincent may not be the most endearing of protagonists and they are certainly not fun at parties – but as a couple they are believable and easy to root for as they struggle with how best to love each other despite their messiness and the secrets Vincent is keeping from Max about his past paramour and less than stellar behaviour Disappoint Me is a refreshingly unsentimental and moving exploration of millennial ennui It eschews essentialism by depicting modern relationships and the flow of power and secrecy with astuteness and compassion cementing Dinan as one of the UK’s most perceptive young novelists with her finger firmly on the pulse of contemporary behaviour Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan is published by Doubleday (£16.99). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com And what does it have to do with this $135,000 Only the most down-bad of BMW nerds will know: CarBahn is Steve Dinan’s newest venture after selling off his previous company The mission is the same: It takes new BMWs and thoroughly optimizes them for balance and function without going for ridiculous internet-breaking power numbers or lap times The car operates fundamentally as it did from the factory this particular CarBahn M4 (which happens to be Dinan's personal car) does have Hellcat levels of horsepower But it also has extraordinarily wide Michelin Cup 2R tires custom springs and sway bars personally tuned by Dinan himself and a host of other upgrades meant to support that immense power This is a tuner car that achieves what the factory should've The story goes much deeper than simple tuning parts the CarBahn CB3 treatment on paper does not necessarily warrant its $20,599 price tag save for the abundance of carbon fiber aero parts which nets the aforementioned 735 horsepower and 668 pound-feet of torque through an intake Then you get a host of suspension updates built around Dinan's IMSA-winning magic Dinan retuned everything to meet his handling expectations and the stickier tires he "better matched the spring energy required" of the stock dampers in Sport+ mode and spent eight months carefully iterating the thickness of both sway bars and rates of the springs Dinan spent considerable time tuning the bump stop characteristics to finely control every inch of suspension travel "We spent months figuring out the best packer for the car as it's essentially another tunable spring rate." He makes it clear that a nice bump stop engagement makes a meaningful difference in ride and handling Where the M4’s normal springs have a linear rate—stiffness remains the same throughout suspension travel—bump stops have a progressive rate meaning that stiffness increases as they compress bump stops can give the suspension a nice end-of-travel landing pad that helps further control the body over large bumps they can even act as a supplemental spring to aid handling—which is what Dinan achieved a set of spherical front bushings remove needless rubber from the front control arms the rear toe links are converted to sealed spherical bushings of the Lemforder type and a five-point carbon-fiber front strut-tower brace aids overall rigidity While the CarBahn suspension is called "coilover," it’s actually a height-adjustable spring on the stock M4 Competition damper both sway bars are four-position adjustable accelerating as hard as 735 horsepower should it is easily the least interesting thing about the CarBahn M4 What truly sent my coccyx and brain into another dimension was the handling; How this car conquered every situation I threw at it was core-shakingly impressive I took this brute on my roads of choice—the canyons surrounding Los Angeles—before even speaking to Dinan I was convinced he used some highly bespoke and ludicrously expensive dampers not a relatively simple retune of springs and sway bars built around factory dampers What he achieved with stock dampers is exceptional The CarBahn M4 dispatches huge bumps with the suppleness of an S-Class minus the annoying secondary motion of an overly soft suspension It has the transient response and direction changes of a much smaller sports car all while maintaining pinpoint-perfect mid-corner attitude control and balance is weightier and more precise than stock thanks to the wide rubber—295mm front and 305mm rear Michelin Cup 2Rs—and it works better with the new chassis tuning It’s easier to feel the wheel tighten up thean lighten with brake pressure and overall grip Those looking for actual steering feel should still look elsewhere; there isn’t any extra granularity or texture through the wheel and the front spherical bushings communicate road surface information through the car’s body the M4’s steering matches the effortless character of the CarBahn powertrain The tune and throttle mapping are reassuringly progressive while the linear pedal feels refreshingly intuitive What was loveliest about the CarBahn M4 was how organic it all felt—it wasn’t an exercise in defeating physics through electronics The handoff between every stage of cornering and braking was beautifully controlled and the value of old-school chassis tuning All of CarBahn’s parts interfaced well with what already existed from BMW The all-wheel-drive and adaptive dampers helped Dinan tune more rotation and aggression into the car all while keeping it relaxed enough for everyday use Surprisingly little else is changed; The gearbox tune for the ZF eight-speed is stock as is the all-wheel drive torque distribution It’s a marriage of what’s so good about BMW It feels like a return to form that could’ve been from BMW full of character that made old M cars so spectacular BMW's Centerlock Wheels Are Stupid Expensive The New Jeep Compass Faces an Uncertain Future in America We Asked Every Automaker How Many Customers Went for Manuals in 2024 The Toyota Corolla Looks Even Better With White Wheels The BMW M4 is Reportedly Going Electric-Only The New Audi A6 Plug-In Hybrid Has a Decent Electric Range Every Manual Car You Can Still Buy in 2025 © 2025 Country & Town House.All rights reserved Nicola is nominated for the Polari First Book Prize ‘It always just feels nice to be recognised,’ says Nicola Dinan, who is on the shortlist for the Polari First Book Prize alongside Munroe Bergdorf, Rachel Dawson, Joshua Jones and more – a prize which was bagged by Jon Ransom last year and Julia Armfield the year before Ahead of the winner’s big reveal this Friday (29 November) Olivia Emily sat down with Nicola to talk all things Bellies as well as her follow-up Disappoint Me and delving into sci-fi for book three I’ve had a busy week with press things I’m in a bit of a weird spot where I have a new book coming out in January [Disappoint Me but I’m still doing press for Bellies So I’m sort of promoting two books concurrently has been nominated for the Polari First Book Prize It always just feels nice to be recognised particularly for a prize that has a very specific vision in uplifting certain stories it feels very special because there aren’t a lot of trans writers in the UK or even globally who are recognized in mainstream publishing Have you read any of the other books on the shortlist I’ve read Monroe Bergdorf’s book [Transitional] and I read quite a few in the long list as well including Liv Little’s book Rose Water She and I have done a few events in the past where we’ve discussed our books together so it was really nice to see us both on that initial long list How would you describe Bellies to anyone who hasn’t read it Bellies starts initially as a boy meets boy You meet Tom who’s a middle class white boy from South London who loves Mark Fisher From across the room at a university drag night But when they move to London to start the next chapter of their lives Ming comes out as trans – and so suddenly it’s not a boy who meets boy anymore and they’re forced to reconcile what Ming’s transition means for their relationship It definitely felt good… But for the majority of the time I’ve known Bellies as a project It’s been something I’ve written in my own home whether that’s with my agent or selected friends And suddenly it was sort of thrust into the world The wonderful thing about that is that people can finally read it but it feels very scary and vulnerable to open yourself to criticism that process of making your book a target for any opinion is a scary thing I feel very adjusted to the fact that it’s out in the world and just really happy when people read it and tell me that they’ve enjoyed it But even now I have a habit of going on the Goodreads of my own book which I think is sort of bad behavior from an author But even seeing people who maybe haven’t loved it and people who have more critical things to say about it I really do on the whole enjoy reading those things Having produced something which people can engage with on a critical level is really rewarding It makes me feel like I’m contributing something to the culture You don’t come from a writing background on paper You studied Natural Sciences at university Have you always wanted to be a writer despite all of that me and my best friend – who’s still one of my best friends today – would send each other bits of creative writing But I didn’t know any authors growing up and I didn’t see it as something that would be possible for myself so I eventually packed that dream away along with that really lovely process of sending things to my friend to read I didn’t revisit it until I maybe reached my mid 20s By that time I had finished that science degree and then trained and qualified as a lawyer and began practicing in a very corporate law firm I started to feel as if I had more of a voice and something to say as an adult and started to really consider not necessarily writing as a career and ended up writing Bellies while I was still working as a lawyer I quit my job after finishing my first draft of Bellies because I just had a really good feeling that it was going to work out you don’t quit your job after the first draft!’ But it was just such an exciting time to reconnect to this part of me which really craved creating things and writing things that felt meaningful What was the process like after you’d written that first draft I was actually on a workshop run by Faber for aspiring novelists The agent who I’m with now at the time had said ‘no for now but please make these changes to the novel’ we just edited and edited and sent it out to publishers what would be around a year and a half after I started writing the book So it all came together really quickly; I hear stories of people writing debut novels over 10 years it ended up being quicker because I was just really hungry not only to leave a career that I wasn’t enjoying I also think some books take as long as they need to write really caught up in the excitement of being young I think I was quite possessed by that spirit as I was writing and managed to get through it quite quickly Do you remember when you were growing up the kinds of things that you would write and did it feel like returning to an almost childlike magic I was trying to imitate the writers that I was reading and trying to attempt at something that was profound I didn’t really focus on writing what I knew and what was familiar to me and I didn’t see much interest in my own life or the circumstances around me But that writing felt a bit flat – it was often a bit too fantastical When I got to the stage in my 20s when I was trying to write again it was almost more childlike than it was when I initially was writing when I was a teenager because I really let go of that pressure to imitate any writer beyond myself I gave myself permission to just write like myself That’s not to say we shouldn’t aspire for greater things – we absolutely should – with our writing I didn’t feel the pressure to aspire at the profound but allowed that to work its way into the writing over time Did writing that come with a new sense of pressure or did you still feel quite free after writing Bellies I’m so lucky because I started writing Disappoint Me about three years ago so I was completely free of the pressures of having had a novel out there in the world I had a draft of Disappoint Me that was substantially done I was able to use the style I’d created for myself in writing Bellies and carried it over to Disappoint Me but without the pressure of other people’s expectations for what my work should be I think that’s why second novels can be so difficult: because people feel as if they’re writing a follow up to whereas I was just writing a follow up to a novel that was going to be published in a couple of years time you do just carry the experience of writing the first novel into the second I find that having written a third novel now – that I’m starting the third draft of – I feel much more confident in experimentation and much freer and that’s grounded in a belief that I can write what I want to write but can you tease any details about novel number three It’s so funny because people always ask that question with the expectation I’ll be really protective over my intellectual property It always makes me question if I am too loose-lipped about what I’m writing The third book is actually a sci-fi novel set in pre-handover Hong Kong in the ‘80s It’s very loosely drawn from some of my parents’ experiences who met in Hong Kong That sounds amazing – and coincidentally I was going to ask you about how your education feeds into your writing Did you think your science education would ever feed into your writing Is that something that you always wanted to do And my third book follows two air stewardesses and their barrister husbands and I find myself interested in the legal field… I find myself writing about lawyers continually I think just because I find it interesting There was a reason I was drawn to it initially – maybe not drawn enough to it to want it as a career but certainly interested enough in it as a profession and also the personalities in particular that are drawn to that profession to find it worthwhile writing about I actually specialised in the history and philosophy of science and moved away from what I’d initially started doing I did that because I was really interested in it – not enough to pursue it thereafter But in my third novel I’m returning to a lot of those ideas – the philosophy of memory theories of personal identity – that I found myself reading about when I was 21 at university I think much like people and like friends; some friends move out of your life and come back into it unexpectedly I also find that with what I write and the themes encoded in what I write Is there then another genre that you would love to tackle that you haven’t engaged with yet I’ve started to think about what I might do for a fourth novel though it sounds very insane that I haven’t even had my second novel come out yet and I’m already planning number four I’m thinking about returning to the style in Bellies and Disappoint Me But I think I’m particularly interested in sibling relationships… In Disappoint Me I sort of explored that a bit through the main character there wasn’t quite enough room to fully develop that relationship in the way I could in a separate novel So I’m thinking of going back to very relationship-driven fiction I hope it always speaks to something very human or deals in very human problems Genre is a really amazing tool for that; it provides such useful metaphors for human experiences I certainly found that in writing the third book I hope that will be an ongoing theme in my work Do you have an idea book where you store things you’d like to come back to They’re very bemused by the fact that I spend a lot of my working day walking with headphones in or just sitting at a desk or watching movies because so much of the testing that comes with an idea is about letting it marinate watch movies and allow those inputs to sort of shape that idea I decide whether or not it’s worthwhile The ideas that stick with me are the ones I deem worthy But the ones I keep returning to in my brain or continue to turn over as I’m going on these walks are the ones that I find I end up writing about Are your reading and watching quite varied Is there anyone that you repeatedly reach to I obviously have some of my favorite writers: Rachel Cusk But that’s not really representative of all the fiction that I read and I have quite wide tastes for things like film and television as well I just started teaching at Royal Holloway only for a short period of time on their creative writing MA and I actually told the students to watch The Real Housewives There’s some fantastic dialogue in there and also just very absurd conversations that still feel very realistic I think it’s a really good lesson in dialogue for absurdist comedy but I think they were sort of dumbfounded that that would be my homework for them I think inspiration for writing exists everywhere in the world for whether something might actually inspire what I write or are you someone who dives in and just lets it spill out I often find that the plot points reveal themselves to me as I’m writing because then I sometimes feel as if I’m the characters and I’m making these decisions with them and the things are happening to me as they’re happening to the characters because I’m deciding as I’m writing I often have a sense of roughly where it’s going to start and then roughly where the novel may end but whatever lies in between always feels up for grabs because I’ve gone in a direction that has made that initial planned end impossible I struggle with character planning as well; I struggle to know who my characters are fully at the outset I’ve described writing characters as a bit like dating: you don’t know who the characters are from the beginning and you have to give yourself time to get them to know them I find as I move through iterations of the novel from draft to draft I gain this understanding of who a character is and write that into the novel – but that can only be done with time and redrafting So I think planning would have limited use for the way that I write and the way that I understand the characters that I write Do you find writing an emotional experience if you’re experiencing the plot along with the characters Definitely – and particularly with Bellies and the novel follows Tom and Ming from when they’re 20 to around 24/25 and I often remember what it’s like to write the books and to feel what those characters were feeling both in terms of reaching into my own experiences but also just through empathising with what’s on the page I definitely find the process quite emotional I feel a lot of character empathy and connection ‘what are Tom and Ming doing now that they might be I feel as if they’re a part of my life That’s probably because all my characters are Even though they might seem very different by the time they reach the page they have to start from me or my experiences – or what I know and what I’ve observed So I feel a huge emotional tie to them that’s very difficult to let go of Are there any writers that really inspire you or writers you would almost want to write like I spent so much time as a teenager trying to write like other writers ‘I wish I wrote that’ – but then I always add a dash of caution and that’s the platform from which you jump off’ imaginative novel; I have a lot of admiration for it A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan is one of my favorite novels I love the way she has woven so many different stories together across so many different times; it feels so cohesive and if you read a bit about how that novel was published – her publisher’s initial and then how it blew up after – it’s very inspiring as a writer to read her story Also Han Kang: I think she’s an incredible writer when it comes to perspective which is about a blind man and a mute woman taking ancient Greek lessons together and how they’re able to communicate and build a relationship Another writer who I absolutely love is Banana Yoshimoto who wrote Kitchen and more recently Premonition and as someone who writes quite heavily realist fiction she embodies some of what I’d like to have in my own writing later on – something a little bit more imaginative and maybe without the pressures of being so grounded in reality there are things I’d like to take from all of them – but I still have to stand in my own style and my own voice Bellies has been shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. Find out more here The winner will be revealed on Friday 29 November 2024 BUY IT Disappoint Me will be published on 23 January 2025 PRE-ORDER Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Subscribe to Country & Town House in print or the app to make sure you get the very best of property Country & Town House is an introducer appointed representative of Wealthify Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority Country & Town House acts as an introducer appointed representative for the purpose of promoting Wealthify products and introducing customers to Wealthify If you’ve ever modified a vehicle produced by the Volkswagen Group these two mainstays of the Euro tuning scene operate under the Holley brand umbrella combining their respective experiences to serve a modern market that increasingly favors software tweaks over hardware replacements and package deals over bespoke builds To get some insight into how APR and Dinan have joined forces in their approach to the evolving tuning landscape Director of Euro Product Strategy at Holley Performance Brands starting when the company was privately owned and very small I have seen it go through every stage since then first with private equity and now under public ownership Dinan joined us at our headquarters in Opelika and we’ve been growing together ever since “Lately we’ve both been seeing more consumers that just want the easy button especially when they’re buying a new car and Dinan’s neatly packaged upgrade approach is something we’re taking to the APR side: We’re going pick out core vehicles like a Volkswagen GTI and Golf R and sell them with an APR powertrain warranty at a discount through our dealer network compared to people buying all the components separately and making them work together correctly.  “We will work directly with the dealership and even if the failure item is covered by the factory warranty first we’ll still just replace it if it’s part of our warranty package The idea is just to make it easy for customers to modify their cars without the typical risks of doing so There are still people that go down the full custom build route but we’re seeing less of that; we’re basically selling solutions that people know will work They know what they’re going to get.” But what about the parts and packages themselves with marketing and brand management roles being the only real silos there’s a good chance a Dinan engineer worked on it and vice versa if you’ve fitted a new exhaust to your Bimmer The two brands understand their customers and choose which products to develop accordingly (Arin is the APR counterpart to Dinan’s brand manager but the actual development is a one-team effort and other physical products are still in demand but ECU tuning has grown significantly over the years as a means of unlocking and sharpening the inherent potential in late-model performance cars The range of what’s adjustable is huge too: from fully remapping a Golf R to simply controlling how much you want the exhaust valve to open when you put your new Porsche in Sport mode you would have to physically bring your car to APR or a certified dealer to flash the ECU every time you wanted to make a change APR’s latest tuning toy is called the Ultralink (A Dinan version is on the way) It plugs into your car’s OBD2 port via a USB dongle and pairs with an internet-connected laptop to give owners access to the APR Ultralink Marketplace where they can select from “more than 10,000 popular high-performance tunes for leading European-brand makes.” Per the APR website: “APR Ultralink will support vehicles manufactured by Volkswagen and is designed for vehicle models ranging from the early 2000s to new 2024 models Customers can buy and tune an unlimited number of vehicles with one Ultralink device.” Cost depends on your application with the physical Ultralink unit coming in at $129.95 APR claims you can go from buying to completing a tune installation in as little as 15 minutes As Arin puts it: “Here’s an example: You have a newer GTI with some mods it will show you all the different tunes you can apply to your car depending on the hardware configuration you have Then you can buy and install the tune of your choosing without needing anything more than an internet-connected laptop Then you can swap between the tunes and maps that you own without having to spend the time to bring the car to us.” And the Ultralink is not just for modified cars Say you have a new Audi S4 but want more adjustability than the factory-designated settings: You can tweak the stock hardware to dial the car’s behavior to your liking without turning a wrench you can just dial the existing suspension to your liking Because newer cars have more sensors and settings and therefore more inherent adjustability baked in being able to tap into that OEM hardware with aftermarket software is an increasingly appealing option for drivers who’d rather not take a deep plunge into hardware swaps let alone cracking a modern ECU’s nest of interconnected systems The hardcore tuning crowd will always exist but there are a lot more enthusiasts out there who prefer manipulating OEM parts than doing something drastic like bolting a turbo onto an engine that didn’t come with one.  If you’re at SEMA this week and would like to check out the latest APR and Dinan upgrades the demo cars with all the latest products can be found at the Holley booth How long before the government goes after them and website in this browser for the next time I comment Sign up to receive our Daily Driver newsletter Dinan Captures ACC Performers of the Week10/15/2024 3:59:00 PM | Men's Cross Country TALLAHASSEE, Fla.- Florida State cross country student-athletes Lucas Bouquot and Nicole Dinan collected ACC Performers of the Week on Tuesday following their performances at the FSU XC Invitational on Friday at Apalachee Regional Park Dinan was named the Women's Freshman of the Week while Bouquot was named Men's Performer of the Week "This is a huge honor for Lucas and another great vote of confidence for our program," said FSU assistant coach Ian Frazier " Lucas has been incredibly diligent and trusting in our program this fall and the confidence he raced with on Saturday to earn this honor was proof of that It's hard to ask for more here as he got a course best team win and now ACC Performer of the Week."  Dinan turned in the top time for the Noles in the women's 5k "Nicole had a great performance at home last week and it was a testament to all the hard work that she and the ladies have been putting under coach Halsey," said FSU Director of Cross Country Matt Kane "Very excited to see what she can do heading into Pre-Nationals this coming weekend."  For more information on Florida State cross country follow Twitter @FSU_Track and Instagram @FSU_Track BMW M3 Home » E46 BMW M3 Enhanced with H&R Suspension Few BMW models command respect and admiration like the iconic E46 M3. Renowned for its superb balance, naturally aspirated engine, and timeless design, the E46 M3 has become a modern classic among BMW enthusiasts. With carefully chosen upgrades, this iconic M3 coupe can be even better—combining enhanced performance, handling, and visual improvements. This is precisely the case with this stunning E46 M3 Coupe Central to this E46 M3’s transformation is the installation of an H&R Sport Spring Set The Sport Spring Set lowers the car by approximately -1.2 inches in the front and -0.5 inches in the rear providing a more aggressive stance while effectively eliminating wheel gap The result dramatically enhances both the aesthetics and handling characteristics of the E46 M3 It’s also one of the most popular upgrades on the E46 H&R’s progressive spring rate ensures the car maintains a compliant and comfortable ride while significantly reducing body roll and eliminating the “slop” experienced with stock springs Installation of the H&R Sport Spring Set is straightforward designed to work seamlessly with either the stock shocks or upgraded performance aftermarket shocks H&R offers a variant of this kit featuring an adjustable rear spring perch ideal for drivers who prefer more precise control over the rear ride height H&R is committed not only to providing suspension solutions for the newest BMW models but also continues to support iconic and classic models such as the E46 M3 which is exactly what owners of BMW classic owners would like to hear this E46 M3 has been thoroughly enhanced with a suite of performance parts from Dinan Included in this upgrade package is a Dinan carbon-fiber intake system and exhaust flow to amplify the performance of BMW’s legendary 3.2-liter inline-six engine (S54) renowned for its high-revving character and distinctive sound the S54 produces 333 horsepower and 262 lb-ft of torque achieving a 0–60 mph sprint in under five seconds Matching the improved handling and acceleration capabilities this E46 M3 features a premium braking upgrade in the form of Dinan brakes based on Brembo’s highly respected GT system these brakes deliver improved stopping power and fade-resistant performance—perfect for spirited road driving or occasional track days Adding further visual and performance enhancements this E46 M3 rides on iconic BBS LM wheels—lightweight forged wheels recognized for their motorsport heritage and classic mesh design Paired with high-performance Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires The E46 M3 is beloved for its muscular yet elegant design and subtle aerodynamic elements that have gracefully aged into automotive history This particular build perfectly blends that timeless design with a selection of upgrades that significantly elevate both its performance and aesthetics And these photos showcase why the E46 M3 will always be a top choice for BMW enthusiasts [Photos: Photos: @seamusjhickey / Owner: @jonnyslasher] More from BMW M3 2025 BMWBLOG | Change consent We deliver! Get curated industry news straight to your inbox. Subscribe to Adweek newsletters Chris Dinan will be the new executive producer of ABC World News Tonight with David Muir. ABC News announced his new role on Monday; he fills the role vacated by Almin Karamehedovic, who was promoted to ABC News president in August.   “With three decades of network news experience Chris brings a wealth of knowledge and insight to his new role,” Karamehedovic wrote in a note to staff alongside the incredible ‘World News Tonight’ team he will help us continue our legacy as the No 1 newscast for nine consecutive years and counting.” Dinan has been with ABC News since 2011 and served as WNT’s senior broadcast producer prior to this promotion he was the senior broadcast producer of the CBS Evening News and also worked as a senior and field producer with anchors Dan Rather and Katie Couric ABC News notes that senior producers Enjoli Francis and Brian Reiferson will take on additional live broadcast producing duties in the WNT control room Read  Karamehedovic’s note to staff below: I’m thrilled to share some fantastic news with all of you: Chris Dinan has been promoted to executive producer of “World News Tonight with David Muir.”  Chris has become an indispensable part of the “World News Tonight” team He has tackled some of the most significant stories of our time from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East His dedication to journalism shines through in his extensive experience covering war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan Chris has built a well-deserved reputation as a straightforward journalist who knows brilliantly how to navigate a control room with skill and confidence.   With three decades of network news experience Chris brings a wealth of knowledge and insight to his new role alongside the incredible “World News Tonight” team 1 newscast for nine consecutive years and counting.   Having worked closely with Chris for over a decade I can genuinely attest to his leadership and collaborative spirit I have no doubt that his partnership with David and the entire team will elevate our show even further ensuring we deliver the very best to our audience It’s a testament to the team’s hard work that “World News Tonight” has earned two back-to-back Emmys for Outstanding Live News Program and Murrow Awards for Best Newscast.  I truly feel fortunate to continue collaborating with Chris David and all of you at “World News Tonight” and across ABC News and Brian shine as they take on additional roles in the control room I’m so proud of our amazing “World News Tonight” team — from our seniors to producers editors and the brilliant technical and support staff.  and I can’t wait to see what we’ll accomplish together in this next chapter.   Let’s all take a moment to congratulate Chris on his new role!  Mark Mwachiro is a TVNewser contributor who has been writing for the blog since March 2022 Adweek is the leading source of news and insight serving the brand marketing ecosystem Chris Dinan has been named executive producer of “World News Tonight with David Muir,” announced today by ABC News President Almin Karamehmedovic Dinan will report into Karamehmedovic and will be leading the team previously overseen by Karamehmedovic Dinan will oversee all aspects of “World News Tonight.” “Chris is an accomplished producer and gifted storyteller who has been a part of the ‘World News Tonight’ DNA for over 13 years helping to shape the newscast and deliver the best reporting to serve our viewers,” said Karamehmedovic “His strong leadership and deep collaboration with David and the entire team across ABC News will continue to take the broadcast to new heights.” Dinan is an award-winning journalist with over three decades of network news experience he served as senior broadcast producer of “World News Tonight with David Muir,” the No 1 newscast across all broadcast and cable for the ninth year in a row and oftentimes the most-watched program on all television His work with the team earned “World News Tonight with David Muir” an Emmy® for Outstanding Live News Program and an Edward R Murrow Award for Best Newscast in 2023 and 2024 where he held positions in both radio and television He worked as a senior and field producer for anchors Dan Rather and Katie Couric covering breaking news stories from hurricanes and tornadoes to presidential elections he rose to the position of senior broadcast producer at “CBS Evening News.” Dinan has traveled and produced stories from around the world including from war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan He has overseen extensive coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war for “World News Tonight.” Jennifer Metz and Brian Reiferson will take on additional live broadcast producing duties in the control room for “World News Tonight with David Muir.” All photography is copyrighted material and is for editorial use only retransmitted or used for any other purposes without written permission of ABC Images are distributed to the press to publicize current programming Congratulations on winning the Polari Debut Prize for Bellies. Tell us about that novel and what winning the prize means to you.Bellies follows two young adults, Tom and Ming, who fall in love at university. When they move to London to start the next chapter of their lives It’s a novel about fumbling through your early 20s and the mistakes excitement and heartbreak which comes with that It’s a huge honour to win the Polari debut prize – especially because it’s an award for books written within the queer community I’m particularly happy because my book centres the experiences of a trans character and I can only hope that and I think part of that is also a result of being a poor planner I don’t know what shape my novels will take when I start them other than a vague sense of where they begin and may end I’m often navigating difficult conversations and decisions at what feels like the same time as my characters – it’s hard not to find that emotional But if I didn’t feel much for my characters [ Bellies by Nicola Dinan: A beautiful love storyOpens in new window ] and to stop feeling embarrassed by taking writing seriously Both fields value unambiguous communication and working as a lawyer taught me how much can turn on a single word I was always too clumsy to actually be a scientist – I was awful at labs – but I think my previous education and career means I’m a lot less clumsy with words I’ve also done some work to let go of this Not all words are a puzzle with a clear and defined solution It’s important because people are fallible – nobody believes anyone is flatly pleasant Being gentle with representing Ming because she’s trans would be unfair to her I didn’t want Ming to fall into the long history of trans characters in literature and film who are not complete people I don’t write my books with the expectation that anyone hugely opposed to the rights and autonomy of trans people will be totally changed by my fiction I do think that if there’s some openness in a reader – and I’d say this is true for the great majority of them – fiction can be transformative I’m not sure I want to explain that I’m a trans woman to Dostoevsky who falls down the stairs at a New Year’s Eve party wakes up in hospital and decides to find a boyfriend and finds herself drawn to the allure of heteronormativity even if she feels deeply alienated from it The novel also follows Vincent during his gap year in Thailand in 2012 opening a dialogue between two relationships over a decade apart Disappoint Me is about how and when we accept change in others how we reckon with our complicated histories and what it is we are actually seeking when we look for a partner I’m writing a speculative novel set in 1987 Hong Kong 10 years before its handover from the United Kingdom to China but also stylistically – it’s the first novel I’ve written in third person and this has had surprising effects on voice and tone I’ve really loved writing it and it’s made me feel hopeful about where my fiction can go next I haven’t. Should I have? The closest I’ve come is with the artist James Turrell If there’s an installation of his remotely close to somewhere I’m visiting Two of his installations appear in my second novel which I think makes those trips literary pilgrimages of sorts To not judge myself for how I work – advice from my therapist My life as a writer is very different to many of my friends’ who are working steady jobs with defined hours and doubt myself and my career as a result I repeat the mantra that I write when I like and when I can [ ‘It’s been quite the journey’ – Life as a trans person in IrelandOpens in new window ] and while she has always been a national treasure my heart swells each time I see her in a new movie Ban arms sales and military aid to genocidal regimes Book: Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa; Film: Crossing; Podcast: The Kill List and watching world leaders line-up to support it through action and inaction A tiny island filled with incredible galleries housing installations and sculptures by artists like (you guessed it) James Turrell A watch which belonged to my deceased father and which my mother passed down to me for my 25th birthday I treasure it so much that it actually causes me a great deal of stress thinking I’ve lost it when in reality I just haven’t worn it that day books are incredibly expensive in Denmark and it definitely shows in the paper quality Oh, no. I think if I were to invite some of my favourite writers to dinner – Rachel Cusk or James Baldwin, for example – I would crumble beneath the weight of their penetrating observation. I’m not sure how I’d hold up, or how much fun I would have. That being said, I’d love to meet Jennifer Egan, Sally RooneyJennifer Egan: ‘I was astonished to find I made a lot of factual errors’Opens in new window ] it’s the epigraph for my third book – a quote from Chungking Express Disappoint Me is published by Doubleday on January 23rd Facebook pageTwitter feed© 2025 The Irish Times DAC Thanks for visiting The use of software that blocks ads hinders our ability to serve you the content you came here to enjoy We ask that you consider turning off your ad blocker so we can deliver you the best experience possible while you are here illustrating how these fusion-powered craft can attach to large space vehicles and tow them vast distances.Pulsar Fusion has a history of groundbreaking achievements in propulsion including its 2023 UK Space Agency-funded work on integrated nuclear fission power systems for electric propulsion developed in collaboration with leading institutions such as the Universities of Southampton and Cambridge Pulsar is reaffirming Britain’s role as a global hub for advanced space technology Sunbird is already being closely analysed by our global competitors,” said Richard Dinan “Pulsar has built a reputation for delivering real technology—not just concepts but two of the largest space propulsion testing chambers in the UK Pulsar is now an international space propulsion testing powerhouse and we have ambitious plans to expand rapidly We actively welcome visits from appropriate partners and prospective international clients and look forward to sharing more exciting developments we have in the pipeline.” Pulsar Fusion is advancing towards in-orbit testing with components of Sunbird’s power system set for demonstration later this year The company aims to achieve nuclear fusion in space as early as 2027—an ambitious milestone that underscores the growing global interest in fusion-based propulsion By maintaining a fleet of heavily shielded fusion-powered spacecraft stationed in orbit the Sunbird concept offers a scalable solution to support interplanetary missions for international partners For more information, visit https://pulsarfusion.com Established in 2013 as Applied Fusion Systems, Pulsar Fusion develops hyper-fast space propulsion systems using nuclear fusion. Fusion offers the best alternative with sufficient exhaust speed and thrust to propel spacecraft beyond our solar system. In 2022, Pulsar Fusion was awarded funds from the UK Space Agency to conduct research into nuclear electric propulsion Pulsar is creating an ecosystem of propulsion systems and services that advance the use of fusion as a near-limitless For more information, visit https://pulsarfusion.com Danielle PerezFirecracker PRdanielle@firecrackerpr.com (888) 317-4687 ext Photos accompanying this announcement are available at: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1d1765a9-f287-41e2-938c-d00ad9a22318https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f53e394c-c0f8-41e6-8943-6d6aa30a448f A video accompanying this announcement is available at: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/914f7b5e-676f-482f-aa3a-c45133401fcf The ABC vet takes over for Almin Karamehmedovic ABC News has named Chris Dinan executive producer of “World News Tonight with David Muir,” taking over for Almin Karamehmedovic Dinan will report to Karamehmedovic and lead his former team overseeing all aspects of “World News Tonight.” “Chris is an accomplished producer and gifted storyteller who has been a part of the ‘World News Tonight’ DNA for over 13 years helping to shape the newscast and deliver the best reporting to serve our viewers,” Karamehmedovic said in ABC News’ statement “His strong leadership and deep collaboration with David and the entire team across ABC News will continue to take the broadcast to new heights.” and has served as senior broadcast producer of “World News Tonight with David Muir” since 2014 His team won Emmys for live news broadcast in 2023 and 2024 has produced stories from around the world Timothy Dinan has become co-managing partner of Laddey Clark & Ryan with Thomas Ryan Ryan has served as solo managing partner of the Sparta law firm for the past 30 years Dinan is the practice leader of Laddey Clark & Ryan’s personal injury practice he joined the firm in 2010 and has taken on increasing responsibility for his practice’s and the firm’s leadership he is active in the local business and legal community including serving as a member of the Newton Medical Center’s Community Advisory Board and Community Health Subcommittee the board of directors of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Northwest New Jersey the Sussex County Bar Association and the New Jersey Association for Justice Renata Mizak has become a certified elder law attorney the only organization approved by the American Bar Association to offer certification in the area said Mizak completed its examination leading to the certification Elder law of the fastest-growing fields in the legal profession Mizak has practiced elder law for nearly her entire legal career 2024 at 9:50 am ET.css-79elbk{position:relative;}Thomas J (West Milford Police Department)BRIDGEWATER NJ — The Bridgewater community is mourning the death of highly decorated retired police lieutenant Thomas J "It is with deep regret that I announce the passing of retired police Lt Tom Dinan who died in a boating accident on Greenwood Lake I ask for thoughts and prayers for the family and friends in this tragic incident and ask for a moment of silence," said Bridgewater Councilman Howard Norgalis at the Aug Dinan served for 27 years with the Bridgewater Police Department Detective including Narcotics Investigator Bias Crimes Officer & Counter-Terrorism Liason Patrol Sergeant & Administrative Sergeant and Patrol Lieutenant Dinan also served 6 years as an Officer and then Detective with the UMDNJ Police Department Dinan leaves behind his wife Gloria (O'Donnell) Dinan children Mariah J Dinan and Thomas P Dinan Services for Dinan will be held at Richards Funeral Home A Funeral Mass will be held at Our Lady Queen of Peace Church Interment will follow at Warwick Cemetery in Warwick If any department is planning to send Officers or Vehicles for the services Stephen Herzog at 973-728-4218 or S.Herzog@WMTPD.Org Have a news tip? 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