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The Hickory Stick Bookshop is delighted to host Gina Barreca, editor of the recently released book “Fast Famous Women” who will be discussing the book with two of the contributing authors, Mary Lasley and Elizabeth Norton. This event, which will include a book signing, will take place at the bookshop on Thursday May 15th at 5.00 pm.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Famous women become symbols of social insecurity, embody expectations of what we might become, and models of how women should – or should not – behave. In 75 brilliant new pieces of flash nonfiction, “Fast Famous Women” offers sharp, insightful, and delightfully necessary examinations of the often absurd, sometimes thrilling, and frequently crushing experience of being a woman in the public eye. It’s not enough for a woman simply to be wildly talented or sublimely accomplished, after all. She must be fast in her rise, conspicuous in her ascent, and utterly undeniable in her achievements. (She should probably also be cute, right? It can’t hurt if she’s cute.)

Written with wonder, insight, and respect, famous women from Taylor Swift, Mary Shelley, Annie Oakley, Shirley Chisholm, and Lizzie Borden are subjects which allow us to grasp the perilous excitement of wanting fame – or perhaps, wanting to step away from it. To be a woman in the spotlight is to walk a tightrope, to balance on the narrowest of beams, where every misstep or excess is magnified, and every achievement is fraught with the potential for ridicule or resentment.

With new and original short, seductive, and sometimes shocking works by Caroline Leavitt, Jane Smiley, Mimi Pond, Molly Peacock, Dimple Dhabalia, Phillis Levin, and Leighann Lord, alongside other ground-breaking journalists, novelists, and writers, you’ll find emerging authors whose creative non-fiction is appearing on the page for the first time – you will find within these pages a celebration of the fallen woman long overdue.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Hailed as “smart and funny” by People, Gina Barreca was deemed a “feminist humor maven” by Ms. She has written ten booking including “Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Coeducation in the Ivy League” and the bestselling “They Used To Call Me Snow White But I Drifted”. She’s a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of English at UCONN.

Elizabeth Norton is a writer and singer. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, she worked for many years as a science writer for MCI Communications, the Charles A. Dana Foundation, and Science Magazine. Drawing on her experience with singing, breath work, stage fright, and neurobiology, she coauthored “The End Of Stress As We Know It”, a book about the science of stress. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she is a longtime resident of Connecticut.

Mary Elaine Lasley is a writer and artist. After receiving her degree in English from the University of Connecticut, where she worked as the promotions director for WHUS Radio, she managed the social media campaign for “Fast Fallen Women (2023)”, the third installment in Gina Barreca’s Fast Women series. She is thrilled to be making her print debut in “Fast Famous Women”, for which she also provided the cover design.

This event is free and open to the public. If you are unable to attend this event, you may reserve signed copies of “Fast Famous Women” by calling The Hickory Stick Bookshop at (860) 868 0525, or shop our website 24/7 at www.hickorystickbookshop.com.