Heroines

A manifesto reclaiming the wives and mistresses of literary modernism that inspired a generation of writers and scholars, reissued with a new introduction after more than a decade.

It's kind of a book of utterances . . . its beautiful and I love it

The book is startlingly insightful

If you thought you knew a lot about the "wives" of modernism and the various forms of silencing they suffered, Kate Zambreno's Heroines will teach you more; if you didn't know much, your mouth will fall open in enraged amazement

A lush, lyrical feminist memoir

Zambreno doesn't write with the measured voice of someone who can count on being listened to, but with the wail of someone confined to a shed

Heroines is rigorous and confident, fiercely intelligent in its demand for a fairer way of reading, writing and writing about women - past, present and future

Kate Zambreno is the author of nine books, most recently The Light Room , a meditation on art and care. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review , Granta , BOMB , Astra , VQR , and elsewhere. She teaches in the graduate nonfiction program at Columbia University. She is the 2021 Guggenheim Fellow in Nonfiction.