Selling Opportunity: The Story of Mary Kay, published by Viking in April 2026, is this author’s latest book, which grew out of a fellowship at the Leon Levy Center for Biography. It’s a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and the book was praised by The Wall Street Journal, Texas Monthly, Lit Hub, and other outlets for its lively cultural history of midcentury America, making Kirkus’s list of “Nonfiction Books That Read Like Novels.” A former editor at Glamour, Mirabella, and InStyle and columnist at ELLE, Gavenas has contributed to Fast Company, Health, The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times Magazine, Salon, and other national outlets. Her previous books include Color Stories: Behind the Scenes in America’s Billion-Dollar Beauty Industry and The Fairchild Encyclopedia of Menswear. Fellow biographer and BIO member Lisa Napoli interviewed Mary Lisa Gavenas.