The Weird Sister Collection - by Marisa Crawford (Paperback)

About the Book

"Edited by the blog's founder, Marisa Crawford, The Weird Sister Collection brings together essays about literature, feminism, and contemporary social issues by contributors to the Weird Sister blog such as Morgan Parker, Christopher Soto, Soleil Ho, Juliâan Delgado Lopera, Virgie Tovar, Jennif(f)er Tamayo, and more, alongside new original essays and a foreword by Michelle Tea"--

Book Synopsis

Collecting the best of the underground blog Weird Sister, these unapologetic and insightful essays link contemporary feminism to literature and pop culture.

Launched in 2014, Weird Sister proudly staked out a corner of the internet where feminist writers could engage with the literary and popular culture that excited or enraged them. The blog made space amid book websites dominated by white male editors and contributors, and also committed to covering literary topics in-depth when larger feminist outlets rarely could. Throughout its decade-long run, Weird Sister served as an early platform for some of contemporary literature's most striking voices, naming itself a website that "speaks its mind and snaps its gum and doesn't apologize."

Edited by founder Marisa Crawford, The Weird Sister Collection brings together the work of longtime contributors such as Morgan Parker, Christopher Soto, Soleil Ho, Julián Delgado Lopera, Virgie Tovar, Jennif(f)er Tamayo, and more, alongside new original essays. Offering nuanced insight into contemporary and historical literature, in conversation with real-life and timely social issues, these pieces mark a transitional and transformative moment in online and feminist writing.

Review Quotes

"Weird Sister stands the test of time... the great variety of voices, topics, and approaches within this collection make it immensely appealing and important reading." --BUST ("Lit Pick" Winter 2024)

"In this stimulating anthology, pieces balance a breezy style with intelligent interrogations of what it means to be a woman today. The result is an approachable examination of contemporary feminism." --Publishers Weekly

"The Weird Sister Collection is a hilarious, delicious, and earnest dive into the intersection of feminism and culture. Reminiscent of not just zine-style writing but era-defining collections like To Be Real and Making Face, Making Soul, this experimental collection of writing is a must-have for anyone asking questions about identity, belonging, and the current and future state of not just feminism but all the intersectional 'isms' that can either hold our imaginations captive or free us." --Samhita Mukhopadhyay, former executive editor of Teen Vogue

"Feminist thought is alive and well in The Weird Sister Collection. Whether it drives you to start a zine or tear down a statue of a Confederate general, one thing's for sure: after you read this book, you won't want to just sit there and suffer anymore." --Rax King, author of Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer

"The Weird Sister Collection captures with audacious wit and unapologetic earnestness the zeitgeist of the eponymous blogging community that published at the intersection of the feminist and the literary. To read this book is to know that I am not alone in reading passionately in feminist community outside of the academy and traditional literary establishment. I am grateful for the space that Weird Sister made online and am immensely thankful now to have this collection with so many fierce writers in one place, recreating the delightfully weird online village that continues to inspire so many." --Susana M. Morris, coauthor of Feminist AF: A Guide to Crushing Girlhood

About the Author

Marisa Crawford is the author of the poetry collections Diary (Spuyten Duyvil, forthcoming 2023), Reversible, and The Haunted House, and coeditor, with Megan Milks, of We Are the Baby-Sitters Club: Essays & Artwork from Grown-Up Readers. Marisa's writing has appeared in The Nation, Harper's Bazaar, Hyperallergic, BUST, and elsewhere. Marisa is the creator and editor-in-chief of Weird Sister, a website and organization that explores the intersections of feminism, literature, and pop culture, and cohost of the nineties rock podcast All Our Pretty Songs. She lives in New York.