Author of Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music
with Allison Wolfe of Bratmobile
and Denise Oswald, editor and director of Soft Skull Press
The early nineties was the time of the riot grrl. Girls across the country put down gender roles and classic feminist critiques, and picked up instruments, zines, and revolutionary politics. For years the best bands were almost exclusively girl bands.
Author Marisa Meltzer is the coauthor of How Sassy Changed My Life (Faber, 2007). Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Elle, and Teen Vogue. She lives in Brooklyn. She'll be here with the legendary Allison Wolfe of Bratmobile and editor Denise Oswald to talk about the book, the music and the movement.
News of Note
Staff Picks
Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters
Written by Dustin
By Louis Begley (Yale UP, $24.00)
I've come by my knowledge of the Dreyfus affair as, I suppose, have many of us a century and an ocean away, through Proust and his contemporaries. What we know, then, feels like tired salon gossip. The truth of the thing is that the crimes committed against Captain Alfred Dreyfus and the coincident rise in violent anti-semitism are problems that have not gone away, indeed are mirrored everywhere, not least in America in the past decade. Begley does an admirable job here of writing down concisely, engagingly, the hows and whys.
The American Painter Emma Dial
Written by Adjua
By Samantha Peale (W. W. Norton, $24.95)
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, and at first it seemed like light, well-written, forgettable fare. But, all of a sudden, I was in up to my neck in our protagonist's dilemma, rooting for her sorely needed extrication as if it were my own. Then I burst into tears reading the last words and realized it was. Magical stuff this fiction thing.
American Primitive
Written by Gabi
By Mary Oliver (Back Bay Books, $13.99)
Mary Oliver talks about nature as a living thing, as a body, with movements and emotions. Nature is an animal. Simple, yet profound, American Primitive showcases why Mary Oliver is one of the more popular poets around today. In a time of disconnection from nature, Mary Oliver goes back to what our society has discarded, making it new and magical again.
I've come by my knowledge of the Dreyfus affair as, I suppose, have many of us a century and an ocean away, through Proust and his contemporaries. What we know, then, feels like tired salon gossip. The truth of the thing is that the crimes committed against Captain Alfred Dreyfus and the coincident rise in violent anti-semitism are problems that have not gone away, indeed are mirrored everywhere, not least in America in the past decade. Begley does an admirable job here of writing down concisely, engagingly, the hows and whys.
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, and at first it seemed like light, well-written, forgettable fare. But, all of a sudden, I was in up to my neck in our protagonist's dilemma, rooting for her sorely needed extrication as if it were my own. Then I burst into tears reading the last words and realized it was. Magical stuff this fiction thing.
Mary Oliver talks about nature as a living thing, as a body, with movements and emotions. Nature is an animal. Simple, yet profound, American Primitive showcases why Mary Oliver is one of the more popular poets around today. In a time of disconnection from nature, Mary Oliver goes back to what our society has discarded, making it new and magical again.