Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative

"Melissa Febos’ latest essay collection is a craft book of sorts that explores the power of writing our own stories. More a meditation than a strictly practical guide, the essays in Body Work are both personal narratives in themselves and also an argument for how such narratives inevitably create space for community as well as a freer self. Rather than buying into the sexist idea that stories of trauma are dull or overdone or whiney or gauche, Febos encourages her readers to tell their stories, to write them, for themselves or others."