Fast Funny Women - by Gina Barreca (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Winner, 2021 Foreword INDIES award

"Every man should read this book." --Jay Heinrichs, author of Thank You for Arguing

75 women writers, ages 20 to 89, were invited by editor Gina Barreca to make a party out of their life's most unnerving, challenging, illuminating, desperate, and hilarious moments. You know many of these brilliant women, but you've never heard them like this! With new works commissioned for the book from:

• Marge Piercy, NYT Bestseller and member of the American Academy of Poets
• Jane Smiley, Pulitzer-Prize winner
• Mimi Pond, NYT bestseller graphic artist
• Liza Donnelly, New Yorker staff cartoonist
• Fay Weldon, Commander of the British Empire
• Ilene Beckerman, bestselling author of Love, Loss, and What I Wore
• Nicole Hollander, Sylvia creator
• Lisa Landry and Leighann Lord, stand-up comics

And many more! Political campaigners, devoted teachers, lousy daughters, good mothers, would-be nuns, admired sportswriters, grad-school-wanna-bes, revenge-driven sisters, frustrated roommates, body-fluid-sorting professionals, lace-loving fashion mavens, intrepid daters, hungry lovers, justice-seeking nasty-women, ACE wedding celebrants, trapped wives, and women with all kinds of ammunition tell their stories--and their stories are all under 750 words.

Review Quotes

"Like funny women themselves, Fast Funny Women contains multitudes. Barreca -- feminist, humorist, teacher and writer -- has assembled an impressive group of funny ladies for this book. Their essays peek into classrooms, careers, care packages, and the unique and special hell of online dating. It's a sampler of humor and humanity that will appeal to everyone, no matter their experience." --A.J. O'Connell, author of A Perfect Facebook Life and Beware the Hawk

"With its punchline, the Hollander story is like a stand-up comedian's joke. Most of the Fast Funny Women essays, however, aren't so laugh-out-loud. Instead, they tend to be wry takes on the many aspects of life as a modern woman." --Third Coast Review

"Every man should read this book. I learned that nail polish is a form of self-care and that one should not travel overseas with a vibrator in case TSA mistakes it for a bomb. That it's possible to write a poem to Barbie, or to describe sex as an act where 'people stick their genitals together for no apparent gain.' And I learned much, much more." --Jay Heinrichs, author of Thank You for Arguing

About the Author

Hailed as "smart and funny" by People, Gina Barreca was deemed a "feminist humor maven" by Ms. She has written for most major publications, including The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Cosmopolitan, and The Harvard Business Review. Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor at UCONN as well as winner of its highest award for excellence in teaching, Gina's written ten books including the bestselling They Used to Call Me Snow White...but I Drifted.