Madonna and Me

LESLEY ARFIN is the author of the drug-addled memoir Dear Diary. She has written for Jane, Paper, Jezebel.com, iD, NYLON, Russh, and is the former editor-in-chief of Missbehave magazine. She has also written many things on the Internet, which you can find by googling her name. Lesley is currently working on a television show and by the time this comes out, may or may not be based in Los Angeles.

CHRISTINE BACHMAN is a recent graduate of Middlebury College and currently works in the nonprofit sector in Boston. At Middlebury, she majored in Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies, and plans to attend graduate school to continue her studies in the Sociology and Queer Theory fields. She is deeply passionate about queer theory, queer culture, and feminism, and wishes to thank her parents for raising her in a world that constantly tests the boundaries between queer and normative.

JAMIE BECKMAN is a New York City–based freelance writer and the author of The Frisky 30-Day Breakup Guide. She has written about relationships, health, and lifestyle trends for magazines including Glamour, Redbook, Men’s Journal, Men’s Health, First for Women, and Better Homes and Gardens, and websites such as SheKnows and The Frisky.

ERIN BRADLEY is a writer and journalist living and working in New York City. She’s written for and appeared in publications including The Daily Beast, Nerve, Playboy, The Morning News, and College Humor. Her book, Every Rose Has Its Thorn: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Guide to Guys is available on Amazon.com.

LISA CRYSTAL CARVER wrote a few books (Rollerderby, etc.) and a couple thousand articles, toured several countries (Suckdog), had a couple kids and husbands and houses, tried out a dozen different drugs and philosophies and pretty much each branch of the sex industry, bought and scratched or sold again many thousands of pieces of music . . . all this would have been so-o-o different had she accepted that full scholarship to be a history major twenty years ago.

GLORIA FELDT is a women’s activist, speaker, and bestselling author of four books. Her latest, No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power, has been called “indispensable” by Gloria Steinem. The former president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, she teaches “Women, Power, and Leadership” at Arizona State University. Find out more at www.GloriaFeldt.comand follow her @GloriaFeldt and on Facebook. She’s married to Alex Barbanell; they share a combined family of six children and fourteen grandchildren.

MARY K. FONS is a full-time freelance writer, a nationally ranked slam poet, and has been a proud Neo-Futurist since 2005. She holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts from the University of Iowa. She is an original ensemble member of Chicago’s Gift Theatre Company, Marc Smith’s Speakeasy, and the Islesford Theater Project. A Green Mill slam champion, Mary teaches poetry workshops to high schoolers throughout Illinois and writes, directs, and performs approximately twenty-five weeks a year in Chicago’s longest-running late-night performance art extravaganza, Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind. A Driehaus grant recipient, and a LaMaMa E.T.C. Playwright Retreat participant (2010), Mary has performed her original work from D.C. to NYC, to Seattle and plenty of venues in between. She also cohosts the nationally-aired PBS program Love of Quilting and is creator, co-producer, and host of “Quilty,” an online quilting show for rookie quilters at QNNtv.com. For the blog and more on Mary, visit www.maryfons.com. She wears her “Boy Toy” belt unironically.

STACEY MAY FOWLES is a writer and magazine professional living in Toronto. Her first novel, Be Good, was published by Tightrope Books in 2007. This Magazine called it “probably the most finely realized small press novel to come out of Canada in the last year.” In fall 2008 she released an illustrated novel, Fear of Fighting, and staged a theatrical adaptation of it with Nightwood Theatre. The novel was later selected as a National Post Canada Also Reads pick for 2010. Her writing has appeared in various magazines and journals, and has been anthologized in Nobody Passes: Rejecting The Rules of Gender and Conformity; First Person Queer; Yes Means Yes; and PEN Canada’s Finding The Words. Most recently, she coedited the anthology She’s Shameless: Women Write About Growing Up, Rocking Out and Fighting Back. She is the former publisher of Shameless magazine, and currently works at The Walrus.

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.