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.
Rachel True, a Black woman with curly brown hair, poses against a turquoise background

In the Stars: Rachel True Wades into the World of Tarot

by Vilissa Thompson
December 15, 2020 at 10:01am
The magic isn’t really in the paper, the cards, or the ink. Read more »
a light-skinned Black woman with a short afro reads a book while sitting on the couch

BitchReads: 7 Books Feminists Should Read in December

by Evette Dionne
December 14, 2020 at 3:30pm
We hope that our monthly BitchReads list has served as even a small distraction. Read more »
Ijeoma Oluo, a light-skinned Black woman with short brown hair, poses in a red shirt and a leopard-print headband

Ijeoma Oluo’s “Mediocre” Explores the Disaster of White Male Supremacy

by Shannon Weber
December 14, 2020 at 3:11pm
Mediocre resists the naive and coddling notion that simply loving white men out of their brittle rage and self-hatred will turn things around. Read more »
A person with light brown hair and glasses reads a book while wearing a white sweater.

BitchReads: 7 YA Books Feminists Should Read in December

by Rachel Charlene Lewis
December 3, 2020 at 12:30pm
As we wrap up 2020, we’ll be reading. Read more »
illustration of a sad woman’s face surrounded by a carousel of galloping horses

Sobering Realities: Women Write Their Way into the Addiction Canon

by Britni de la Cretaz
December 2, 2020 at 9:31am
Slowly but surely, women have been adding their stories to the memoir canon. Read more »
two young women standing side-by-side in an open parking lot

The Corn-Fed Whiteness of Rural Literature

by s.e. smith
November 24, 2020 at 9:00am
Much of this canon is white and male, fetishizing a version of rural life that never truly existed. Read more »
A brown woman with brown hair wears an orange blouse and reads a book on a sofa.

9 Political Novels That Help Us Understand Our Current Chaos

by Rachel Charlene Lewis
November 23, 2020 at 11:48am
These nine novels help us better understand how we got here. Read more »
a collage of four book covers: Lives of Great Men, Welcome to Lagos, The Death of Vivek Oji, and Under the Udala Trees

4 Nigerian Authors to Read Who Haven’t Been Proudly Transphobic

by Gloria Oladipo
November 20, 2020 at 1:58pm
Continue investing in other Nigerian authors seeking to challenge some of Nigeria’s cultural norms. Read more »
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

White Rage, White Guilt: How Long Do We Wait for White Women to Learn?

by Katherine Morgan
November 20, 2020 at 12:31pm
I believe that the intentions were good, but the worst thing about good intentions is that sometimes the energy can be misplaced. Read more »
I Want to Be Where the Normal People book cover features an illustration of Rachel Bloom, a white woman with short, brown hair looking longingly out the window with a small dog

BitchReads: 7 Books Feminists Should Read in November

by Evette Dionne
November 10, 2020 at 12:50pm
It feels as if I can focus again—and I hope this is true for our readers too. Read more »

Pages

Best of Bitch

A Look at How Media Writes Women of Color

by Victoria Law
November 17, 2014 at 5:07pm
Nearly every Saturday morning, feminists of color hold Twitter discussions taking a deeper look at issues, such as gender violence. It’s the... 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 »

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 »