Ten Badass Women Coming to Miami Book Fair 2016

Need a dose of feminism in this postelection-funhouse version of reality? Yeah, us too. Luckily, the Miami Book Fair launches Sunday at Miami Dade College's Wolfson Campus, bringing these inspiring women writers to push back against the nightmare of Election 2016 — or at least distract us from it for a bit.

Carol Anderson
Carol Anderson responded to the Ferguson, Missouri crisis in August 2014 through an op-ed published in the Washington Post. While commentators deemed the response of African-Americans as representative of “black rage,” Anderson responded that there was another source of anger. In her nonfiction book White Rage, Anderson explores structural racism in the United States and the underlying “white rage” that lies beneath coverups in American democracy and the economy. She's also an associate professor of African-American studies and history at Emory University.

Anderson will read excerpts and answer questions at “Racism in America: Investigations on the Way to Effectuating Change” Sunday, November 20, at 12:30 p.m. in Building 8, third floor, room 8302.

Luvvie Ajayi
Luvvie Ajayi is a comedian, pop culture blogger, and activist — and the undisputed straight-talk queen of social media. You've likely seen your Facebook friends share her responses to issues of race, which take "it's funny because it's true" to another level. Her book of essays, I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual, critiques bad behavior in the digital age and debunks pop culture obsessions. The essays explore a diverse array of topics, including race, media representation, and cult television shows. Ajayi has been named part of Oprah's inaugural "Supersoul 100" list. She was awarded the Women’s Media Center’s Social Media Award and shares her insights on her blog, awesomelyluvvie.com.

Ajayi will read excerpts and answer questions at An Afternoon With Media Sensation Luvvie Ajayi Sunday, November 20, at 3 p.m. in Building 3, second floor, room 3209.

Kate Bornstein
Kate Bornstein is the antidote to Trump's America. Her book Gender Outlaw: Men, Women, and the Rest of Us is both a coming-of-age story and a manifesto on gender and sexuality. She's also been an engaged anti-bullying activist, drawing on her own experiences as a trans woman. She is a writer, performance artist, and playwright and is the author of My Gender Workbook, Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws and the memoir A Queer and Present Danger.

Bornstein will present her work and speak at Gender Transitions: Two Memoirs Saturday, November 19, at 4:30 p.m. in Building 8, second floor, room 8201.

Susan Faludi
Today, when feminists are looking for something to read, they turn to Lindy West or Rebecca Traister. In the 1990s, feminist readers had Susan Faludi and her seminal book, Backlash, which skewered unfounded media hysteria on topics such as the alleged "man shortage" and "infertility epidemic." Today the journalist and author writes about her estranged 76-year-old father’s sex-reassignment surgery in her recent work, In the Darkroom. Faludi struggles to unearth her own history and emotions as she tries to connect her father’s violent past and his new identity as a woman. Faludi has won the Pulitzer Prize for journalism and is the author of several other nonfiction books, including Stiffed and The Terror Dream.

Faludi will read excepts and speak at An Afternoon with Susan Faludi Sunday, November 20, at 3 p.m. at the Chapman Conference Center, Building 3, second floor, room 3210.

Laura Jane Grace
It doesn't get more badass than a punk-rock woman. Transgender musician Laura Jane Grace reveals a harrowing story in her memoir, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout. Grace’s memoir combines unpublished childhood journal entries with reflections on struggles with addiction and identity. Grace is the founder, lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the punk-rock band Against Me! Grace came out as transgender in a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone.

Grace will speak with Kate Bornstein at Gender Transitions: Two Memoirs Saturday, November 19, at 4:30 p.m. in Building 8, second floor, room 8201.

Janna Levin
In a world where women are still underrepresented in STEM, Guggenheim fellow Janna Levin is killing it. The professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College of Columbia University in New York City has authored both nonfiction and fiction books, including How the Universe Got Its Spots and A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines. Her latest nonfiction book, Black Hole Blues and Other Songs From Outer Space, documents the discovery of gravitational waves, which Einstein first predicted in 1916. The book follows scientists' 50-year journey to prove Einstein’s initial idea.

Levin will speak at An Afternoon With Astrophysicist Janna Levin in Conversation With Brain Pickings’ Maria Popova Sunday, November 20, at 1 p.m. in the Chapman Conference Center, Building 3, second floor, room 3210.

Lois Lowry
Lois Lowry is one of the widest-read young-adult fiction authors in the world. Her book The Giver, a Newbery Medal winner, is a modern classic, taught in many schools nationwide. And she's no one-hit wonder either. Lowry has received a multitude of awards for her books, including the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the California Young Readers' Medal, and the Mark Twain Award. Lowry has completed a memoir, Looking Back: A Book of Memories, which explores her family history and the pivotal moments that inspired her writing through recollections of childhood friendships, photos, and memories.

Lowry will speak at Lois Lowry Looks Back Saturday, November 19, at 10 a.m. in Building 2, first floor, room 2106.

Eileen Myles
Poet, nonfiction and fiction writer, and playwright Eileen Myles has written more than 20 books in her long career. But until the second season of the Amazon series Transparent — which features a character based on Myles, lines of Myles' poetry written into the script, and a cameo by Myles herself — her work had stayed largely outside the mainstream. But for many feminists, including girlfriend and Transparent showrunner Jill Soloway, works like Chelsea Girl, a memoir about how she struggled with her conservative Catholic upbringing, her “lesbianity,” and her art, are essential texts.

In An Afternoon with Eileen Myles, Myles will read from her new work, I Must Be Living Twice: New & Selected Poems Saturday, November 19, at 3:30 p.m. in the auditorium, Building 1, second floor, room 1261.

Jacqueline Woodson
You know Jacqueline Woodson from Brown Girl Dreaming, the memoir in verse that wowed the lit world in 2014 before going on to win the National Book Award. She's coming to the Miami Book Fair in support of her first adult novel in 20 years, Another Brooklyn: A Novel, about the hopeful yet dark side of Brooklyn in the 1970s. The novel follows the relationship of four friends as they transition from childhood to adulthood.

Woodson will read from her novel at NYC: Tales of the City — A Reading From Three Novels Sunday, November 20, at 11:30 a.m. in the auditorium, Building 1, second floor, room 1261.

Nicola Yoon
Everything, Everything, Yoon's debut novel, was a hit pretty much the moment it hit the shelves. It debuted at number one on the New York Times Bestsellers list, and will soon get the motion picture treatment, with Amandla Stenberg and Nick Robinson in the starring roles. Yoon's bringing her latest book, the National Book Award-nominated The Sun Is Also a Star, to Miami this year.

Yoon will read along with other National Book Award-nominated authors of young people's literature Saturday, November 19, at 12:30 p.m. in Building 3, third floor, room 3314. Sunday, November 20, at MDC Arts Lab, she'll join the Get Caught Up in the Magic panel.

Miami Book Fair
Sunday, November 13, through Sunday, November 29, at Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus, 300 NE Second Ave., Miami. Ticket prices vary. Visit miamibookfair.com.