Jessa Crispin

Summary

Jessa Crispin (born c. 1978 in Lincoln, Kansas) is a critic, author, feminist, and the editor-in-chief of Bookslut, a litblog and webzine founded in 2002.[1] She has published four books, most recently My Three Dads (2022).[2]

Jessa Crispin
Born1978 (age 45–46)
Lincoln, Kansas, U.S.
OccupationBlogger, editor, writer
Website
jessacrispin.com

 Literature portal

Early life edit

Crispin is from Lincoln, Kansas; she has described both her hometown and upbringing in her family as very conservative.[3] She attended Baker University in Kansas for two years before leaving without a degree.[4][5]

Literary career edit

Crispin began her literary career as publishing outsider who started her blog Bookslut on the side while working at Planned Parenthood in Austin, Texas. She eventually came to support herself by writing and editing the site full-time.[6] Bookslut ran for 14 years, with the last issue announced in May 2016.[7] Bookslut received mentions in many national and international newspapers, including The New York Times Book Review and The Washington Post.

In 2005, Crispin kept a diary about her work on books for The Guardian.[8] Crispin had a regular column in the online cultural journal The Smart Set, published by Drexel University. She was a book critic for NPR and contributor to PBS's Need to Know.[9][10] She has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times and The Globe and Mail, among other publications.[9][11] She wrote the afterword to Melville House Books' reissue of Heinrich Böll's Billiards at Half-Past Nine.[12]

Personal life edit

In 2018, Crispin married Nicolás Rodríguez Melo, partly in order to sponsor his visa, and interviewed him for her Public Intellectual podcast about the performance of masculinity and femininity.[13] She has criticized married women in the past: "Marriage’s history is about treating women as property, and by being married you’re legitimising that history."[14]

Works edit

  • The Dead Ladies Project: Exiles, Expats, and Ex-Countries (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2015, ISBN 9780226278452)[15][16][17]
  • The Creative Tarot: A Modern Guide to an Inspired Life (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2016, ISBN 9781501120237)[18]
  • Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto (New York: Melville House, 2017, ISBN 9781612196015)[2]
  • My Three Dads: Patriarchy on the Great Plains (University of Chicago Press, 2022, ISBN 9780226820101)

References edit

  1. ^ "Jessa Crispin Rewrites the Rules of Reviewing". Publishers Weekly. January 14, 2008. Retrieved October 31, 2010.
  2. ^ a b Crispin, Jessa (January 18, 2022). My Three Dads. Chicago. ISBN 978-0-226-82010-1. OCLC 1293448810.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ Delaney, Brigid (March 3, 2017). "Jessa Crispin: the woman at war with lifestyle feminism". the Guardian. Archived from the original on September 1, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
  4. ^ Elder, Robert K. (January 13, 2005). "For the love of books". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on September 1, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
  5. ^ Bayne, Martha (November 13, 2003). "Bookslut Rising". Chicago Reader. Archived from the original on September 1, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
  6. ^ "Bookslut.com sheds light on non-mainstream literature". Daily Nebraskan. February 18, 2008. Archived from the original on August 9, 2011. Retrieved April 17, 2008.
  7. ^ Burbank, Megan (March 9, 2026), "A Farewell to Bookslut, a Lit Blog After My Own Heart" Archived September 1, 2023, at the Wayback Machine, The Portland Mercury. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  8. ^ Crispin, Jessa (February 5, 2005). "Strange meetings". The Guardian. Archived from the original on February 7, 2007. Retrieved April 18, 2008.
  9. ^ a b "Jessa Crispin". NPR. Archived from the original on February 22, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2016.
  10. ^ "Jessa Crispin Contributor". Archived from the original on August 30, 2017. Retrieved March 4, 2011.
  11. ^ Crispin, Jessa (February 25, 2017). "Opinion | What to Ask a Celebrity Instead of 'Are You a Feminist?'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 23, 2018. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
  12. ^ "Melville House Publishing Billiards at Half-Past Nine". Archived from the original on July 14, 2011. Retrieved March 4, 2011.
  13. ^ ""Performing Masculinity" (w/ Nicolás R Melo) from Public Intellectual with Jessa Crispin". stitcher.com. Archived from the original on September 23, 2018. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
  14. ^ Cooke, Rachel (April 23, 2017). "Jessa Crispin: 'Today's feminists are bland, shallow and lazy' | Rachel Cooke". The Guardian. Archived from the original on February 9, 2019. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
  15. ^ Feigel, Lara (December 11, 2015). "The Dead Ladies Project: Exiles, Expats, and Ex-Countries by Jessa Crispin review – a compelling literary journey". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2016.
  16. ^ Brown, Liz (October 15, 2015). "Jessa Crispin's 'Dead Ladies Project' braids travelogue, literary criticism and emotional honesty". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on February 24, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2016.
  17. ^ Upchurch, Michael (October 1, 2015). "Review: 'The Dead Ladies Project' by Jessa Crispin". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2016.
  18. ^ Evans, Kristen (February 17, 2016). "Jessa Crispin embraces her inner mystical weirdo". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on February 26, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2016.

External links edit

External videos
  Jessa Crispin on New Memoir 'The Dead Ladies Project', Chicago Tonight, November 2, 2015
  • Bookslut Official site (archived)
  • An excerpt from The Dead Ladies Project