Madonna and Me (36 page)

 

MARIA GAGLIANO
is an editor, publisher, and writer based in Brooklyn, NY. By day, she’s an editor at Perigee, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), where she edits everything from pop culture books to craft beer guides. She is also cofounder and copublisher of
Slice
, a nonprofit literary magazine dedicated to helping new writers have their voices heard. Her food and culture blog,
www.PomatoRe-vival.com
, has been praised by
Salon.com
and Martha Stewart’s blog network, Martha’s Circle. Her writing has also appeared in
BUST
magazine,
Edible Brooklyn
,
BrooklynBased.net
, and
Slice
, among other publications. She can be reached at
www.mariagagliano.com
.

 

KATE HARDING
is a Chicago-based feminist writer who coauthored
Lessons from the Fat-o-Sphere: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce with Your Body
, contributed to
The Book of Jezebel
, and blogged for the late, lamented Shapely Prose (which she founded in 2007) and Broadsheet. You might also know her from Twitter (@kateharding).

 

JEN HAZEN
is the music editor for
BUST
magazine in New York City. She’s also the founder of
ImitationObjects.com
, a website which is basically her daily make-out session with music, bikes, art, design, and the city. Jen’s work has appeared in
Time Out Chicago, JANE magazine, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicagoist,
and
Thought Catalog.
Other credits include a piece in the St. Martins book
Cassette From My Ex,
and quotes featured in the books
Girl Power: The ‘90s Revolution in Music,
and
How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time.

SONIAH KAMAL
was born in Pakistan and raised in England and Saudi Arabia. She came to the United States for her undergraduate degree and earned a B.A. in Philosophy with Honors from St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD. Soniah’s undergraduate thesis, an analysis of individual against society as seen in love and arranged marriages, was the recipient of the Susan B. Irene Award. Soniah wrote a weekly satire column (2002-2004) for the national newspaper
The Daily Times
in Pakistan. Soniah’s short stories have been published in the United States, Canada, Pakistan, and India, as well as in collections published by Penguin India, Harper Collins India, and in the United States, by The Feminist Press. Soniah has lived in New Mexico, Maryland, Virginia, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, California, and presently resides in Georgia. For more of Soniah’s work, visit
www.soniahkamal.com
.

 

COLLEEN KANE
would rather hang out with Cyndi Lauper than Madonna, but has been known to bring the house down at karaoke with “Like a Prayer.” She is a New Jersey-born writer who lives in Brooklyn, but is a citizen of the world. Read more at
www.ColleenKane.com
.

 

SHAWNA KENNEY
is the author of
Imposters
(Mark Batty Publisher) and the award-winning internationally translated memoir
I Was a Teenage Dominatrix
(Last Gasp). Her work has appeared in
Ms., BUST, Juxtapoz, AP,
the
Florida Review,
and various other outlets.

 

BEE LAVENDER
was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest but emigrated to Europe in 2004, where she lives in London with her family. Her books include a memoir about danger titled
Lessons in Taxidermy
and the anthologies
Breeder
and
Mamaphonic
. Other work appears in numerous magazines, newspapers, anthologies, and radio programs in both the United States and the United Kingdom. Bee is the publisher of the online edition of
Hip Mama
and created and publishes Girl-Mom, an advocacy website for teen parents.

 

CAROLINE LEAVITT
is the award-winning author of nine novels, most recently
Pictures of You.
A book critic for the
Boston Globe
and
People,
she lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, with her husband, the writer Jeff Tamarkin, and their young son, Max.

 

TAMARA LYNCH
is a freelance writer and blogger focusing on interracial culture in New York City.

 

AMANDA MARCOTTE
is a freelance writer and blogger who writes for Pandagon, Slate’s Double X, and RH Reality Check. She’s published two books,
It’s A Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments
and
Get Opinionated: A Progressive’s Guide to Finding Your Voice (And Taking a Little Action)
.

 

COURTNEY E. MARTIN
is a feminist commentator and nationally renowned speaker. She is the author of
Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists
and
Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: How the Quest for Perfection is Harming Young Women
. She is an editor at
Feministing.com
, and a senior correspondent at
The American Prospect.
She is also the coeditor of the anthology
Click: Moments When We Became Feminists.
Courtney lives in Brooklyn and owns a chin-length, platinum blonde wig in case the opportunity ever presents itself to dress like Madonna. You can read more about her work at
www.courtneyemartin.com
.

 

KRISTIN MCGONIGLE
lives in New York City. Her work has appeared in
Pindeldyboz, LIT
and various places online. She is currently at work on a novel.

 

EMILY NUSSBAUM
is a contributing editor at
New York
magazine and writes primarily about pop culture, technology, and women’s issues.

 

MARIA RAHA
is the author of
Cinderella’s Big Score: Women of the Punk and Indie Underground
and
Hellions: Pop Culture’s Rebel Women,
both published by Seal Press. Her work has also appeared in the anthologies
Young Wives’ Tales: New Adventures in Love and Partnership
and
The W Effect: Bush’s War on Women
. She lives in Philadelphia.

 

DANA ROSSI
’s work has appeared in
Time Out New York, InDigest, The Retroist, Broken Pencil
, and
New York Press,
where a feature she wrote on actors understudying celebrities on Broadway won a 2008 New York Press Association Award. Dana is the host of The Soundtrack Series, a live storytelling event in New York where writers tell stories based on a song from their past. She was in the front row at Madison Square Garden for the
Confessions on a Dance Floor
tour. She swears Madonna looked right at her.

 

J. VICTORIA SANDERS
is a journalist, lecturer, writer and librarian who lives in Austin, Texas. Her feminist criticism, personal essays, and book reviews have appeared in several anthologies, including
Click: When We Knew We Were Feminists
and
Homelands
. She has written for
Publisher’s Weekly, Bitch
magazine,
VIBE,
half a dozen newspapers, and online for Feministing and The Root. She blogs at
jvictoriawrites.tumblr.com
.

 

ADA SCOTT
received her MFA in writing from Brooklyn College. She has been published in numerous literary journals and is at work on a novel about boxing.

 

WENDY SHANKER
’s humorous, hopeful memoir about women and body image,
The Fat Girl’s Guide to Life
(Bloomsbury USA) changed the way women around the world relate to their bodies. It has been published in ten languages including Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, and Polish (but not French—because French women don’t get fat). Wendy’s byline has appeared in
Glamour, Self, Shape, Cosmopolitan, Us Weekly
(Fashion Police), alternative mags like
BUST
and
Bitch
, and on MTV. Her latest book,
Are You My Guru? How Medicine, Meditation
& Madonna Saved My Life
, was published by NAL Trade/Penguin. Find her online at
www.wendyshanker.com
.

 

SUSAN SHAPIRO
is a popular Manhattan writing professor and the author of eight books, including
Overexposed
,
Lighting Up
,
Only As Good As Your Word
,
Secrets of a Fix-Up Fanatic
and the upcoming
Unhooked
.
Speed Shrinking
and
Five Men Who Broke My Heart
have both been optioned for films. Find her online at
www.susanshapiro.net
.

 

SARAH STODOLA
is a writer and editor living in New York. She has written for
The New York Times, New York magazine, The Fiscal Times, Forbes Traveler, Slate, Stop Smiling
magazine and others.

 

SARAH SWEENEY
is a North Carolina-bred poet and essayist. Her works have been featured in
Barrelhouse, PANK, Quarterly West, Best of the Web
, and more. Find her online at
www.sarah-sweeney.com
.

 

WENDY NELSON TOKUNAGA
is the author of the novels
Love in Translation
and
Midori by Moonlight,
both published by St. Martin’s Press. She is also the author of the nonfiction e-book
Marriage in Translation: Foreign Wife, Japanese Husband
. She holds an MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco and teaches writing at Stanford University’s Online Writer’s Studio. Her favorite Madonna song is “Into the Groove.”

 

ERIN TRAHAN
was born in the same town as Madonna, grew up in the Cherry Capital of the World, and now lives next door to a descendant of a persecuted Salem witch. By day she is a writer and editor specializing in film and travel. She has contributed to
The Boston Globe
, New Hampshire Public Radio,
Girl Scout Leader Magazine
,
NewEnglandFilm.com
and has co-authored three Frommer’s Guides to Montreal and Quebec City. As the editor of The Independent, an
online magazine about film and its related books on filmmaking, she often serves on film festival panels and juries. By night she writes essays and poems and reads poetry submissions for AGNI. She earned an MFA in poetry from Bennington College in 2010.

 

REBECCA TRAISTER
writes for Salon. She is the author of
Big Girls Don’t Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women
(Free Press).

 

KELLY KEENAN TRUMPBOUR
is currently working on a memoir about her experience with infertility. She has published personal essays on Lifetime Television’s
mylifetime.com
, the NPR-affiliated Stoop Storytelling Series, and D.C. Story League, audaciousideas. org, and
Urbanite
magazine. Her first book,
Working at Interest Groups and Nonprofits
, was praised by author and former White House Social Secretary Letitia Bladridge as “a walking primer of information . . . inspiring in its message.”

 

JESSICA VALENTI
, who was called the “poster girl for third-wave feminism” by Salon and one of the Top 100 Inspiring Women in the world by The Guardian, is the author of three books:
Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman’s Guide to Why Feminism Matters, He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut . . . and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know
, and
The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women
, which is being made into a documentary by the Media Education Foundation. She is the editor of the anthology
Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape,
which was named one of Publishers Weekly’s Top 100 Books of 2009. Jessica is also the founder of
Feministing.com
, which
Columbia Journalism Review
calls “head and shoulders above almost any writing on women’s issues in mainstream media.” Jessica won the 2011 Hillman Journalism Prize for her work with Feministing.

 

CINTRA WILSON
is a culture critic, author, and frequent contributor to
The New York Times
. Her books include
A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Re-Examined As a Grotesque, Crippling Disease
, the novels
Colors Insulting to Nature
,
Caligula for President: Better American Living through Tyranny
and the upcoming
Fear and Clothing: Unbuckling America’s Fashion Destiny
, which will be released by WW Norton in 2012.

 

JAMIA WILSON
is a feminist activist, organizer, expat-brat, networker, cartwheeler, truth seeker, and storyteller. She is currently Vice President of Programs at the Women’s Media Center, where she amplifies women’s voices and changes the conversation in the media. She trains women and girls so they are media-ready and media-savvy, exposes sexism in the media, and directs the WMC’s social media strategy. Learn more at
www.jamiawilson.com
.

 

KIM WINDYKA
also told her mom she was starring as Dorothy in a school production of
The Wizard of Oz
in order to get red shoes (she wasn’t). She has written for
Metro Boston
, the
New Hampshire Visitors Guide,
the
Nashua Telegraph,
Orbitz and more, and still counts “Vogue” among her favorite songs of all time.