Bryn Mawr Authors

Some truths can do more harm than good. This is what Isa comes to believe at the tender age of nine when she first has a dream about kissing a girl--an act that would never be acceptable to her family. By her late twenties, Isa has left her hometown in South Texas, so her conservative family won't discover that she's gay, and immersed herself in the workaholic routine of law school. One fateful night, she experiments with a man, and subsequently ended up with an unwanted pregnancy. Meanwhile, Isa's only sister, Cristina, loses the infant she spent years trying to conceive. Moving forward with her own pregnancy and giving the baby to Cristina seems like the perfect solution--until Isa bonds with the newborn. Still, the sisters move forward with the family adoption. Now everyone in the family has a secret.

Twelve years later, after much deceit and loss has passed between the sisters, Isa decides to reveal both her sexuality and her niece's true parentage to their family, against Cristina's wishes--but before all can be exposed, tragedy strikes.

Timely and gripping, Profound and Perfect Things is a story of two first-generation Mexican-American sisters striving to build a meaningful existence outside their traditional parent's approval and ways of life--and an exploration of the boundaries of our responsibilities to those we love.

"Compelling and brave, Kate's story is a must read for all young women learning how to navigate adulthood and identity."
--Lili Reinhart, New York Times bestselling author

Strip Tees is a fever dream of a memoir--Hunter S. Thompson meets Gloria Steinem--about a recent college graduate and what happens when her feminist ideals meet the real world.

At the turn of the new millennium, LA is the place to be. "Hipster" is a new word on the scene. Lauren Conrad is living her Cinderella story in the "Hills" on millions of television sets across the country. Paris Hilton tells us "That's hot" from behind the biggest sunglasses imaginable, while beautiful teenagers fight and fall in love on The O.C.

Into this most glittering of supposed utopias, Kate Flannery arrives with a Seven Sisters diploma in hand and a new job at an upstart clothing company called American Apparel. Kate throws herself into the work, determined to climb the corporate fashion ladder. Having a job at American Apparel also means being a part of the advertising campaigns themselves, stripping down in the name of feminism.
She slowly begins to lose herself in a landscape of rowdy sex-positivity, racy photo shoots, and a cultlike devotion to the unorthodox CEO and founder of the brand. The line between sexual liberation and exploitation quickly grows hazy, leading Kate to question the company's ethics and wrestle with her own.

Strip Tees captures a moment in our recent past that's already sepia toned in nostalgia, and also paints a timeless portrait of a young woman who must choose between what business demands and self-respect requires.

Postcolonial Satire: Indian Fiction and the Reimagining of Menippean Satire positions postcolonial South Asian satiric fiction at the intersection of the cutting-edge territory of political resistance writing and the ancient tradition of Menippean satire. Postcolonial Satire disrupts the relationship between postcolonial literature and magic realism, by discussing the work of writers such as G. V. Desani, Aubrey Menen, Salman Rushdie, and Irwin Allan Sealy as one movement into the entirely subversive realm of satire. Indian fiction, as well as the fiction of other colonized cultures, can be re-construed through the lens of satire as openly critical of a broad spectrum of political and cultural issues. Employing the strengths of postcolonial theory and criticism, Postcolonial Satire expands upon the postcolonial works of these authors by analyzing them as satire, rather than magical realism with satirical elements.

One of Serbia's most important living writers, Marija Knezevic writes poems that often read as narratives, replete with characters, humor, pathos, and unexpected twists. Readers will meet a father and daughter frolicking on a Mediterranean beach during the continuing refugee crisis, or an Inca girl whose world will be destroyed by "milk-colored people," or a beloved worldly heiress who wears men's pajamas. Knezevic also writes more classical lyrics about love, relationships, writing (or the blocks to writing), and an ample range of other topics. Her work fearlessly and frequently addresses current events and social issues, both in urban Belgrade where she lives, and more global concerns.