Books

10 Essential Books About Writing

An illustration shows a person with brown skin and brown hair with a pencil in their mouth, bookshelves with blue, purple, yellow, and pink book covers behind them, and a laptop in front of them.
by Nylah Burton
April 6, 2022 at 12:07pm
Must-read titles for writers include works by Elena Ferrante, Akwaeke Emezi, Meg Wolitzer, Yoko Ogawa, and more.

Let Freedom Reign: Meet America’s First Feminists

by katie.klabusich@gmail.com
November 21, 2017 at 8:46am
The beginning of the women’s rights movement was not the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. Read more »
A book cover featuring the lower half of a female torso with flowers where pubic hair would be

Friday's Children: Revisiting—and Rethinking—the Sex-Positive 1970s

by Andi Zeisler
November 16, 2017 at 3:46pm
Nancy Friday’s bestselling collection of women’s erotic fantasies contradicted the staunch conviction that women lacked the rich sexual fantasy lives enjoyed by men. Read more »
Janet Mock, a transgender Hawaiian woman with curly, brown hair, smiles

7 Books To Read During Trans Awareness Week

by Evette Dionne
November 14, 2017 at 1:07pm
Trans Awareness Week has reads on reads on reads. Read more »

No More White Girl Tales: “Mean” Reimagines Memoirs for Women of Color

by Kristin Sanders
November 13, 2017 at 9:22am
Myriam Gurba’s criticism of white America’s racial myopia couldn’t be better timed. Read more »
Rupi Kaur period-shaming

Loud, Proud, and Bleeding: “Periods Gone Public” Fights For Menstrual Equity

by Erynn Porter
November 9, 2017 at 9:11am
Menstrual products are seen as a luxury rather than a necessity. Read more »
Samhita Mukhopadhyay and Kate Harding talk on CSPAN's Book TV

As Nasty as We Want to Be: Samhita Mukhopadhyay and Kate Harding ponder the Post-Hillary Future

by Bitch HQ
November 8, 2017 at 10:35am
A new anthology asks how feminism will move forward in Trump times. Read more »
stock photo of girl reading outside in autumn

BitchReads: 7 Books You Must Read in November

by Evette Dionne
October 31, 2017 at 3:36pm
Pair these books with cider.  Read more »
The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed

White Trauma: How YA Books About Rape Ignore Girls of Color

by Nicole Froio
October 25, 2017 at 4:33pm
All survivors aren’t white, straight, and cisgender girls. Read more »
Kimberly Elise, Oprah Winfrey, and Thandie Newton in Beloved

Get Out: 9 Black Horror Classics That Will Keep You Up At Night

by Evette Dionne
October 25, 2017 at 3:58pm
Get Out isn’t an anomaly. Read more »

“A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun” Reveals the Warmth of Gwendolyn Brooks

by Dara Mathis
October 24, 2017 at 9:25am
Angela Jackson’s new biography of Gwendolyn Brooks is a lovingly written genealogy of Black activism and art. Read more »

Pages

Best of Bitch

Eat, Pray, Spend: Priv-Lit and the New, Enlightened American Dream

Elizabeth Gilbert, a white woman wearing a navy blue jumpsuit, leans forward and holds hand with and Oprah Winfrey, a Black woman wearing a gray cardigan and jeans
by Joshunda Sanders
Summer 2010 • Action
Even as reports on joblessness, economic recovery, and home foreclosures suggest that no one is immune to risk during this recession, the popularity of women’s wellness media has persisted and, indeed, grown stronger.  Read more »

Know & Tell: The Literary Renaissance of Trans Women Writers

by Katherine Cross
Winter 2015 • (Re)Vision
For so long, the people who wrote about us were not us. Finally, that is beginning to change. 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 »

Rewriting the Future: Using Science Fiction to Re-Envision Justice

by Walidah Imarisha
Spring 2015 • Law & Order
Our justice movements desperately need science fiction. Read more »