Mad Woman is a newsletter about the public and personal stories that shape our bodies, our selves, our work—and the stories we circulate among us in service of something better. It’s feminist analysis of pop culture, literature, art, and politics. Essays and conversations explore consent, labor, care, feminism, psychology, parenthood, and intersections between rape culture, girlhood, motherhood, and misogyny.
This newsletter began as Mad Moms, a wide-ranging newsletter I wrote from late 2020-late 2022. In its newest form, you can expect essays that are more personal, as well as more special features for subscribers, along with the writing and conversations that brought you here, like essays on believing women, maintenance labor, ambition, mothers on vacation, and angry women. Expect timely analysis of books, politics, and popular culture through a feminist lens, conversations with writers, thinkers, artists, and activists, and plenty of critiques of modern psychology, politics, power, and representation.
About Me
Hi. I’m a writer, critic, mother, and educator. My next book, TOUCHED OUT: MOTHERHOOD, MISOGYNY, CONSENT, AND CONTROL is forthcoming from Beacon Press in September of 2023. I also wrote a memoir called TWO MEMOIRS (which I talk about here and here) and some other books. You can read more about my writing at my website. I’m also a writing teacher and an editor. My essays and criticism have been featured at Slate, Vox, Huffington Post, Believer Mag, Rumpus, Mutha, HTMLGIANT, Ms, and other places.
I have a PhD in literature and an MFA in writing. I study and write about representations of labor, domesticity, feminism, trauma, consent, and motherhood in literature, film, TV, visual and performance art, political discourse, psychology, and everyday culture.
I live in California, where I grew up, with my husband and two kids. If you want to hang out and write with me, I teach online at Catapult, Corporeal Writing, Hugo House, and other literary organizations. You can also find me on Instagram @amontei and, more tentatively, on Twitter @AmandaMontei
What a paid subscription gets you:
I rely on the invaluable, skilled labor of the many patient caregivers who play with and teach my two kids most days, who I can pay because of the subscribers who value the labor I do here in the form of paid subscriptions. Writing takes time, it is work, and many hours go into the work you see here. I am so grateful to everyone who supports this newsletter.
To keep everything as accessible as possible, most essays are free. But if you read this newsletter and value the writing and community you find here—and if you want to support feminist analysis in an era of control—please consider a paid subscription. It’s the best way to help me continue this work.
For $5/month, here’s what you’ll get:
extra essays and other features
outtakes from interviews and essays I write for other publications, like this reflection on talking hope with Angela Garbes and this excerpt from my interview with Melissa Febos
a monthly digest of what I’m reading and teaching
You’ll also get full access to the newsletter archive and to all community features.
If you’d like a paid subscription but aren’t able to pay, email me at amandaemontei@gmail.com and I will comp you one, no questions asked.
If you’d like to donate a subscription to support someone unable to pay, you can do that too:
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