Name: Against Memoir
ISBN: 9781911508625

MICHELLE. TEA

Against Memoir

Michelle Tea

The PEN Award-winning essay collection about queer lives: “Gorgeously punk-rock rebellious.”—The A.V. Club The razor-sharp but damaged Valerie Solanas; a doomed lesbian biker gang; recovering alcoholics; and teenagers barely surviving at an ice creamery: these are some of the larger-than-life, yet all-too-human figures populating America’s fringes. Rife with never-ending fights and failures, theirs are the stories we too often try to forget. But in the process of excavating and documenting these queer lives, Michelle Tea also reveals herself in unexpected and heartbreaking ways. Delivered with her signature honesty and dark humor, this is the first-ever collection of journalistic writing by the author of How to Grow Up and Valencia. As she blurs the line between telling other people’s stories and her own, she turns an investigative eye to the genre that’s nurtured her entire career—memoir—and considers the price that art demands be paid from life. “Eclectic and wide-ranging…A palpable pain animates many of these essays, as well as a raucous joy and bright curiosity.” —The New York Times “Queer counterculture beats loud and proud in Tea’s stellar collection.” —Publishers Weekly (starred) “The best essay collection I've read in years.”—The New Republic Winner of the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay

Complaints, Confessions & Criticisms

went straight to the psyche of 17 year old me who was so angry at the world and trying to find herself out of it.. the way michelle tea writes about queerness, lesbian culture, and coming of age is so fucking special and many of the essays in this book feel like a reminder that during a time of crackdown on queer and marginalized communities, all we have is each other. i laughed at the essays about queer communities policing each other because why is that literally true!! anyway, i'm excited to revisit these essays - when i need to remember why it's important to write, to record everything i see, feel, think, so that the memories of the people and communities i love and am indebted to remain sharp in my brain.

Against Memoir

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