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.
Zaira Arafat, a Palestinian American writer with shoulder-length brown hair, sits in front of a concrete wall and smiles

Rupture and Reform: “You Exist Too Much” Is a Meditation on Queerness and Desire

by Katherine Connell
June 16, 2020 at 9:00am
Obsession serves a two-pronged function in queer stories. Read more »
A Black woman holds a book. The text overlay reads: They paid you how much?

Very Online: The Literary World May Never Recover from #PublishingPaidMe

by Rachel Charlene Lewis
June 12, 2020 at 12:45pm
For Black writers, Twitter acts as a guiding force. Read more »
These Women, a book cover that features a teenage Latinx girl sitting on a bed and smoking a cigarette while a teen boy lays behind her

Detangling the Web: “These Women” Breaks the Crime Thriller Mold

by Joline Faujour
June 12, 2020 at 9:59am
Ivy Pochoda’s book is about the pitfalls sex workers face and how their precarious position prevents them from seeking and obtaining justice. Read more »
painting of a warrior woman riding a lion about to shoot an arrow into a distant floating eye surrounded by a ring of fire

Gilead Is Now: For Feminist Authors, Dystopia Is Already Here

by Abby Neufeld
June 11, 2020 at 10:00am
In modern times, dystopian fiction is an outlet for authors to imagine the world as it already is. Read more »
A collage of four books: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, Hurricane Child by Kacen Callender, Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas, Wild Beauty by Anna Marie McLemore.

Safe and Seen: Leave Potter Nostalgia behind in Favor of Trans Authors

by Alaina Leary
June 10, 2020 at 3:15pm
It’s heartbreaking to learn that one of your icons is transphobic. Read more »
Jenara Nerenberg, a white person with shoulder-length brown hair, stares at the camera

Collective Softening: Jenara Nerenberg Seeks to Empower Neurodivergent Women

by Maya Dusenbery
June 9, 2020 at 10:09am
A flawed medical system leaves women with neurological differences, such as ADHD and autism, overlooked and misunderstood. Read more »
an Indian teenage girl sits on the curb, holding a white and black book in her hands

BitchReads: 17 Books Feminists Should Read in June

by Evette Dionne
June 8, 2020 at 12:37pm
When all else fails, we still have pop culture to give us comfort, but right now, even that doesn’t seem as if it’s enough. Read more »
A Burning, red, yellow, and orange book cover that features an illustration of a train engulfed in smoke

Three Lives Intertwined: “A Burning” Challenges Islamophobia and Political Neglect

by Dilshanie Perera
June 5, 2020 at 9:43am
The violence of the crowd and the violence of poverty don’t simply happen; they’re created and maintained by the decision-making of those in power. Read more »
Photo of author Bethany C. Morrow wearing glasses and patterned headband sitting in a bookstore

Bethany C. Morrow Rewrites the Siren Song

by Evette Dionne
June 2, 2020 at 9:00am
There’s no way to opt out of oppression and dehumanization, and no way to opt in to the power majority. Read more »
Author Mia Mercado, who has dark brown hair with blond highlights, smiles at the camera.

Intentionally Hidden: Mia Mercado’s “Weird but Normal” Honors Shame

by Rachel Charlene Lewis
May 28, 2020 at 2:19pm
“The idea of female sexuality is scary to a lot of people.” Read more »

Pages

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »