Read Like a Feminist Bookclub is back in April with ‘Difficult Women' by Roxane Gay.

Brought to you by the folks at Feminartsy, this monthly book club brings like minded readers together at Smiths’ Alternative each month to discuss a different book with the help of a panel discussion. 

Grab the book, grab a coffee and meet fellow book nerds all while feeling the warm glow of supporting women writers and their awesome words. 

APRIL DETAILS

THE BOOK: Difficult Women by Roxane Gay


“Difficult Women is a collection of stories of rare force and beauty, of hardscrabble lives, passionate loves, and quirky and vexed human connection.

The women in these stories live lives of privilege and of poverty, are in marriages both loving and haunted by past crimes or emotional blackmail. A pair of sisters, grown now, have been inseparable ever since they were abducted together as children and must negotiate the elder sister’s marriage. A woman married to a twin pretends not to realize when her husband and his brother impersonate each other. A stripper putting herself through college fends off the advances of an overzealous customer. A black engineer moves to Upper Michigan for a job and faces the malign curiosity of her colleagues and the difficulty of leaving her past behind. From a girls’ fight club to a wealthy subdivision in Florida where neighbors conform, compete, and spy on each other, Gay gives voice to a chorus of unforgettable women in a scintillating collection reminiscent of Merritt Tierce, Jamie Quatro, and Miranda July.” [Description taken from Grove Atlantic].

We recommend supporting Canberra’s independent booksellers, and grabbing a copy of ‘Difficult Women' from Muse Canberra or Paperchain Bookstore Manuka. 

YOUR HOSTS

Each month, Read Like a Feminist will feature your regular hosts, Zoya Patel and Yen Eriksen, as well as a special guest speaker. 

ZOYA PATEL is the editor and founder of Feminartsy. She writes fiction and non-fiction, reads voraciously, and loves nothing more than waxing lyrical about her favourite books. 

YEN ERIKSEN is an advocate, writer and radio producer. They are experienced in LGBTIQ advocacy and community development and are a loud and proud champion for intersectional feminism. 

Our April guest speaker will be the wonderful:

GEMMA KILLEN
Gemma Killen is a PhD candidate in Sociology and teaches Gender Studies at the Australian National University. In 2015, she moved to Canberra from Adelaide where she wrote for the Adelaide University magazine OnDit. In 2016, she was a writer in residence for Feminartsy. Her words have also been published in Wet Ink and Autostraddle. She is currently Feminartsy's Features Editor. Outside of writing, her interests include cats, queers and various crafts.

Entry is by gold coin donation and all funds raised will be donated to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.