“Barreca is a sharp analyst of women’s humor…observant, witty, acerbic, and knowledgeable.”
Los Angeles Times

“An impassioned, wily, and often hilarious argument for women to unleash their sense of humor on the world.”
The Chicago Tribune

“Barreca’s humor shines through.”
Library Journal

“Wise, liberating and merry!”
Booklist

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About Gina

Gina Barreca

Photo credit for this image and the one above to Elena Seibert

Gina Barreca has appeared, often as a repeat guest, on 20/20The Today ShowCNN, the BBCNPR and, yes, on Oprah to discuss gender, power, politics, and humor. Her earlier books include the bestselling They Used to Call Me Snow White But I Drifted: Women’s Strategic Use of HumorIt’s Not That I’m Bitter, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World, and Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Coeducation in the Ivy League. Her latest books are part of a series she’s editing on FAST WOMEN for Woodhall Press; these including FAST FUNNY WOMEN: 75 Essays of Flash Nonfiction (2021), FAST FIERCE WOMEN (2022), and FAST FALLEN WOMEN (forthcoming in 2023). Of the other seven books she’s written or co-written, several have been translated into to other languages–including Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese and German.  Called “smart and funny” by People magazine and “Very, very funny. For a woman,” by Dave Barry, Gina was deemed a “feminist humor maven” by Ms. Magazine. Novelist Wally Lamb said “Barreca’s prose, in equal measures, is hilarious and humane.”

Gina’s work has appeared in most major publications, including The New York TimesThe Independent of LondonThe Chronicle of Higher EducationCosmopolitan, and The Harvard Business Review; her blog for Psychology Today has well over 7.5 million views. Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, Gina’s also the winner of UConn’s highest award for excellence in teaching. Read more about Gina…

Fast Funny Women: 75 Essays of Flash Nonfiction

Fast Funny Women: 75 Essays of Flash Nonfiction

Fast Funny Women is a broad collection: 75 women writers, ages 20 to 89, were invited by editor Gina Barreca to make a party out of their life’s most unnerving, challenging, illuminating, desperate, and hilarious moments. Political campaigners, devoted teachers, lousy daughters, good mothers, would-be nuns, admired sportswriters, grad-school-wanna-bes, revenge-driven sisters, frustrated roommates, body-fluid-sorting professionals, lace-loving fashion mavens, intrepid daters, hungry lovers, justice-seeking nasty-women, ACE wedding celebrants, trapped wives, and women with all kinds of ammunition tell their stories—and their stories are all under 750 words. You know many of these brilliant women, but you’ve never heard them like this: with new works commissioned for the book from NYT Bestseller and member of the American Academy of Poets Marge Piercy, Pulitzer-Prize winner Jane Smiley, NYT bestseller graphic artist Mimi Pond, New Yorker staff cartoonist Liza Donnelly, Commander of the British Empire Fay Weldon, bestselling author of Love, Loss, and What I Wore Ilene Beckerman, Sylvia creator Nicole Hollander, and stand-up comics Lisa Landry and Leighann Lord. Read more…

“Barreca is sharp analyst of women’s humor…observant, witty, acerbic, and knowledgeable.”

—Los Angeles Times

Gina's Recent Articles

Gina's Other Books

Book Cover If You Lean In
They Used to Call Me Snow White... But I Drifted
Babes in Boyland
It's Not That I'm Bitter
I'm with Stupid
Make Mine A Double
Penguin Book of Women's Humor
Sweet Revenge
The Signet Book of American Humor
Don't Tell Mama
Perfect Husbands (& Other Fairy Tales)
Untamed and Unabashed
An ABC of Vice
Women and Comedy
Sex and Death in Victorian Literature
The Erotics of Instruction
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