Books

Laugh at My Pain: Finding the Humor in Being a “Black Widow”

Leslie Gray Streeter, a Black woman with short, brown hair, smiles at the camera while posed against a green background
by Evette Dionne
April 7, 2020 at 10:37am
Grief is a thing that will live, in some way, in our DNA and our body and be triggered by the wrong song or the wrong turn down the street where you see someone that looks like the person you lost.
a side-by-side collage of three books: I Don't Want to Die Poor, Hood Feminism, and Wow, No Thank You

BitchReads: 9 Essay Collections Feminists Should Read in 2020

by Evette Dionne
January 6, 2020 at 1:40pm
Writing an essay collection requires an enhanced level of self-interrogation as well as an ability to weave myriad ideas together through a single theme. Read more »
a side-by-side collage of three books: The Dragons, the Giant, the Women, All Boys Aren't Blue, and Fairest

BitchReads: 17 Memoirs Feminists Should Read in 2020

by Evette Dionne
January 3, 2020 at 5:59pm
Tapping into a person’s unique experience and seeing the world through their eyes for a few hundred pages can expand our individual worldview. Read more »
Robert Pattinson, a pale white man wearing a blue shirt, crouches beside Kristen Stewart, a pale white, thin woman with shoulder-length brown hair, on a rock in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2

Staking Capitalism: The Undead Will Rise as Our Economy Spirals Into Chaos

by s.e. smith
December 19, 2019 at 11:26am
Vampires aren’t the only thing returning in the near future: an economic recession is coming as well. Read more »
Close up images from three books, including an image of a white nonbinary person leaning their head on a brown boy's shoulder; a Black girl in pajamas with natural hair; a pair of queer girls standing close to each other, one's hand on the other's neck.

The Best Queer YA Novels of 2019

by Rachel Charlene Lewis
December 10, 2019 at 12:13pm
It’s been a stunning year for queer young-adult novels. Read more »
a placard in British Columbia, Canada, warns Indigenous women and girls about hitchhiking along the Trail of Tears

Racism and Apathy along the “Highway of Tears”

by Abaki Beck
November 27, 2019 at 3:13pm
How long will families be forced to relive the trauma of their loved ones death or disappearance, with empty promises of justice? Read more »
illustration of mixed Indigenous space wayfarers on an orange planet

An Old New World: When One People’s Sci-Fi Is Another People’s Past

by Abaki Beck
November 27, 2019 at 9:56am
Colonization and marginalization are commonly used as plot points, but for Native Americans these are not fantastical, imagined scenarios. We live them. Read more »
a photo of a Black woman with short brown hair smiles at the camera

Feminista Jones Wants Black Women to Reclaim Their Space

by Joshunda Sanders
November 25, 2019 at 11:30am
Reclaiming Our Space is a reminder that Black feminists have been using Twitter and Facebook to build offline movements. Read more »
A photo of author Author Bassey Ikpi, a Black woman. She looks at the camera with a soft smile and has a colorful necklace and bright earrings.

Writing Toward Truth: Bassey Ikpi’s New Book Reckons with the Lies Mental Illness Weaves

by Yaasmeen Piper
November 25, 2019 at 10:30am
“…the lie that sustained itself for so long becomes true in its own way. It becomes a part of the story.” Read more »
A photo of books with the text, "f*ck that f*cking b*tch."

Very Online: When Authors Behave Badly on Twitter

by Rachel Charlene Lewis
November 22, 2019 at 3:24pm
Do authors have a responsibility to be more careful with how they wield social media? Read more »
Amanda Rosenberg, a British Chinese comedian, with shoulder-length blond hair and glasses wryly smiles at the camera

Blue Humor: “That’s Mental” Is a Hilarious Meditation on Life with—and Stigma against—Bipolar Disorder

by Evette Dionne
November 21, 2019 at 3:39pm
Comedian Amanda Rosenberg is doing something extremely important: disrupting the stigma that keeps so many people silent about their pain. Read more »

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Best of Bitch

Black Girls Hunger for Heroes, Too: A Black Feminist Conversation on Fantasy Fiction for Teens

by Zetta Elliott
December 17, 2013 at 3:19pm
What happens when two great black women fiction writers get together to talk about race in young adult literature? That's exactly what happens... Read more »

Demanding the Impossible: Walidah Imarisha Talks About Science Fiction and Social Change

by Kristian Williams
April 13, 2015 at 2:23pm
Before she was a poet, journalist, documentary filmmaker, anti-prison activist, and college instructor, Walidah Imarisha was fascinated... Read more »

Mock & Awe: Janet Mock on Truth-Telling, Community Building, and Writing the Story She Had Been Waiting for Her Whole Life

Janet Mock, a transgender Hawaiian woman with curly, brown hair, smiles
by Tina Vasquez
Spring 2014 • Maps & Legends
“Redefining Realness” is written with astounding honesty and heart. Read more »

Hot Under the Bonnet: The Cooptation of Amish Culture in Mass-Market Fiction

a blue and white illustration of a woman in Amish attire standing next to a fan and a chicken
by Audrey deCoursey
Spring 2014 • Maps & Legends
Dubbed “Amish romance novels,” “Amish fiction,” or the more waggish “bonnet rippers,” these novels just one entry point into the varying images of Amish communities in U.S. popular culture. Read more »