Melissa Febos

Melissa Febos is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Whip Smart (S. Martin’s Press 2010) and two essay collections: Abandon Me (Bloomsbury 2017), which was an Indie Next Pick, a LAMBDA Literary Award finalist, and a Publishing Triangle Award finalist; and Girlhood (Bloomsbury 2021), a national bestseller and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism. Her craft book, Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative (Catapult 2022), was a national bestseller. She is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, LAMBDA Literary, MacDowell, Bread Loaf, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Vermont Studio Center, The Barbara Deming Foundation, and others. Her essays have appeared in The Paris Review, The Believer, McSweeney’s Quarterly, Granta, Tin House, The Sun, New York Review of Books, and The New York Times Magazine. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Iowa, where she teaches in the Nonfiction Writing Program.